Folk musicians tell vivid stories in their own words

Folk tunes and lyrics in his regional dialect are what make singer-songwriter Zhang Gasong's music stand out. Yet for Zhang himself, they also serve as a constant reminder of where he comes from.

He was talking about his experience and understanding of his musical style, gained from more than a decade's practice, on Monday, shortly before attending a lawn concert at Beijing's Yuanmingyuan Park, or the Old Summer Palace, which featured songs sung in various regionaldialects.

Born in the countryside of Jingyuan county, Baiyin city, Northwest China's Gansu province, Zhang, 34, rose to fame for his songs that are deeply rooted in his homeland.

Some short videos of him singing, dressed in customary local garb, while playing traditional musical instruments like the sanxian (a three-stringed plucked instrument), and particularly against the backdrop of his village, have gone viral on various social media platforms over the past few years.

One such video is about, and dedicated to, his aunt, one of the numerous doctors from across the country who headed for Wuhan in Central China's Hubei province, to combat the initial outbreak of COVID-19 during the Spring Festival holiday of 2020. The simple melody and earnest lyrics touched people's hearts.

For the past 15 years, Zhang has spent several months every year traveling around various villages across Northwest China, living and talking with the locals, visiting folk musicians and getting inspiration from some 30 traditional musical styles like hua'er and the Qinqiang Opera, among many others.

"Folk music is the most inclusive genre and always keeps up with the times. … The music can not only be heard, but can also be smelled and touched," Zhang says.

It makes people experience his hometown, from the weather, the natural environment and the smell of a bowl of noodles, to the sound of a mother calling her children home for dinner or the texture of a grandmother's calloused hands that can be felt when she holds the hand of a young relative as they chat, he adds.

Zhang has recorded and learned music from folk musicians he met while traveling, and borrows it for his own music, marking out their names and stories in his audiovisual creations, as a means to preserve endangered folk music styles.

Performers at the lawn concert on Monday also included the four winners of a singing competition, The Voice of My Hometown, held by short-video platform Kuaishou that highlighted singing in regional dialects. They all came from different parts of China.

Beatboxer Zheng Xiangdong, from Chengdu, Sichuan province, has created works that include rapping in his local dialect.

The lyrics and music video for his piece Yanhuo Xiaojiahe (Hustle and bustle of the Xiaojiahe neighborhood) depict the traditional teahouses, mahjong parlors and streets of his community in parallel with the skyscrapers and high-tech zones there, showcasing juxtaposition of the unchanged and the modern.

He hopes the audience will feel the hospitality and kindness of the residents via his song.

Zheng says, as early as 2013, when he participated in reality TV shows, he could feel that dialect-based songs make people happy and alleviate the stresses of daily life. The rise in popularity of short videos in recent years has made this style of music even more popular.

For him, using his local dialect in his music, especially the modal particles, makes it easier to express his feelings and emotions in a more direct and natural way.

Another winner, Wang Zijian, says he wants to show the optimistic and easygoing side of locals in Hefei, East China's Anhui province. With fun music and short videos, he plans to combine elements of Huangmei Opera, a signature of the province, into his works.

Zhang says that their folk music is far more than just applying a traditional melody, or singing in dialect instead of Mandarin. It's about wandering around one's hometown, learning about and feeling the local lifestyle, before making something really different and full of imagery.