Fans, officials fight to save a grand tradition

Jia Fuying, a Dong ethnic man from Xiaohuang village in Congjiang county, Guizhou province, has committed himself to promoting the development of the Grand Song of Dong ethnic group for the past six decades.

The Dong ethnic group's use of songs to preserve its cultural traditions was recognized as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage in 2009. The songs, which feature multi-part singing performed without instrumental accompaniment or a leader, act as a channel for passing on Dong culture generation by generation.

Jia, who is more than 80 years old, started to perform Grand Song in his 20s and has created more than 800 songs. He visited many Dong ethnic villages in China, including the Sanjiang Dong autonomous county in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

"I was invited to perform in many Dong villages when I was young," Jia said. "I had to stay in a village for one or two months because all the villagers loved my songs."

Jia stopped visiting Dong villages in recent years because of his age, but he did not stop teaching and promoting Grand Song among young people in his hometown.

Jia said he is still keen to create new songs when his health allows. He said creating modern Grand Song expands the cultural base of Dong people.

Jia is not the only Dong person who has dedicated himself to promoting Grand Song. Pan Sayinhua, 74, has offered free classes at his home for decades to try to increase awareness of Grand Song. More than 1,200 people have participated in Pan's training classes.

Pan was recognized by the Ministry of Culture as a national-level intangible cultural heritage representative inheritor in 2009.

"I have to work hard to be a qualified ethnic cultural inheritor," Pan said. "I will keep promoting and singing Grand Song until the end of my life."

Awareness of Grand Song has grown strongly on the world stage in recent years.

Nine Dong girls were invited to perform in Japan, during former premier Wen Jiabao's visit in 2007.

Nineteen young Dong people performed aspects of their traditional culture at the Vienna Golden Hall in Austria in June 2010.

The Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture plans to continue spreading awareness of Grand Song as part of its promotion of cultural and ecological tourism.

Saving and promoting Grand Song

Increasing numbers of young people are leaving their hometowns to seek better lives outside Guizhou and that means fewer people are engaging in the creation and performance of Grand Song. Some young people do not even have a basic knowledge of the Grand Song tradition.

Figures provided by the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture government show that there are only about 200 prefecture-level or higher Grand Song intangible cultural heritage representative inheritors in the region who are promoting the development of Grand Song. This is far fewer than expected. Most of these people are over 56 years old.

"Grand Song in Guizhou is a great achievement of previous generations," said Wu Jinyan, a resident of Zaigong village, Yandong town, Liping county. "If we cannot add new elements and content, it will perish like a dried-up river."

The prefecture government has taken many measures to protect local culture in recent years. It provides more subsidies to cultural inheritors and has expanded channels to recruit more cultural inheritors. It has also introduced various policies to protect the benefits and rights of cultural inheritors. Detailed policies were brought in to recognize groups of cultural inheritors and provide more economic support to all cultural inheritors.

The Guizhou provincial government initiated a five-year support plan in 2014 in Liping, Congjiang and Rongjiang counties to strengthen the development of Grand Song. The total investment will be 10 million yuan ($1.52 million) from 2014 to 2018.

The local government hopes its efforts will attract more young people to return home and help to protect their great traditions.

Li Jiaxu contributed to this story.

Contact the writers through tangzhihao@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 07/20/2016 page24)