User:Liang Yutong

My name is Liang Yutong, and I am from hunan province, a city named loudi. I'm a kind girl. I like vegetables and playing badminton. I always watch TV and see films. I have many good friends, and if we all have time, we will go to market and have a picnic.

Xinhua folk songs

Introduction

 Xinhua folk songs are a type of folk song originating from xinhua county and the surrounding Meishan region in Hunan Province. Xinhua is the core area of Meishan culture. The profound and long-standing Meishan culture has shaped its people's cultural values of valuing both scholarship and martial arts, while nurturing a distinctive folk song art. These songs relatively completely preserve the essence of Meishan culture and are significant for understanding the culture of central Hunan, where Meishan culture is central. Recognized for their cultural significance, xinhua folk songs were inscribed on the first provincial list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hunan in 2006 and on the second national list in 2008.

 Xinhua folk songs originated from the production and daily life of the working people. Although there are various opinions on the specific origin time, the most widely accepted is that it originated during the Qin Shi Huang period. Throughout its long historical evolution, xinhua folk songs have always been closely connected with the daily life, emotional expression, and folk beliefs of the local people.

 Like traditional folk songs, xinhua folk songs are part of the intangible cultural heritage, created orally and transmitted from mind to mind. However, their uniqueness lies in being deeply rooted in the specific regional cultural soil of Meishan culture, integrating multi-ethnic elements such as Miao, Yao, and Han, forming an artistic style described as “fierce”, “wild”, and “spicy”. Unlike many systematized and classicized folk songs, xinhua folk songs have improvisation and vitality. Their lyrics stem directly from life, use colloquial language, and express emotions in a bold and straightforward manner.

 Xinhua County, under the jurisdiction of Loudi City in Hunan Province, is the core area of Meishan culture and is known as the “Hometown of China Folk Song Art” and the “Hometown of Meishan Culture and Art”. To date, Loudi City boasts four national-level intangible cultural heritage items, including xinhua folk songs, Meishan Nuo opera, and Meishan martial arts, along with several provincial-level intangible cultural heritages. Among them, the inheritance of xinhua folk songs is the most widespread. It is not exclusive to a few artists but is a collective cultural treasure widely present in the daily lives of the people in the xinhua region.

 Data shows that xinhua folk songs are numerous. According to the "Songbook Song," there was a saying of “eighty-seven thousand songs”. Modern surveys have also collected thousands of folk songs and dozens of musical notation examples. Their sentence structures are flexible, ranging from four to eight characters per line and the singing forms are diverse. Based on vocal style, they can be mainly categorized into two types: high-pitched tunes “Gaoqiang” and level-pitched tunes “Pingqiang”. High-pitched folk songs are sonorous and bright with free rhythms, mostly popular in high-altitude mountainous areas like Fengjia and Tianmen. Level-pitched folk songs are melodious and mellow, popular in hilly and plain areas like Baixi and Yangxi. Building upon these, various distinctive singing styles have developed, such as coloratura, rolling-board tunes, Boluo folk songs, and Liuliu songs.

The content of xinhua folk songs is all-encompassing. According to theme and social function, they can be mainly classified into the following categories. The Labor Songs, including field songs, fishing songs and tea-picking songs and so on, composed and sung around labor and production, often interspersed with rich practical knowledge. Folk belief songs are mostly sung in solemn occasions such as sacrifice and rituals, characterized by heavy, drawn-out melodies, preserving ancient charm relatively well. Love Songs (or Taoqing Songs) are primarily about love between men and women, using playful local dialects, expressing emotions directly and boldly, full of life's delights. Narrative Songs are long verses whose content covers historical stories, daily life, ethical teachings and so on, told in a gentle and persuasive manner, possessing certain educational value. Current affairs songs reflect the people's views on current events and politics, often with a tone of satire or praise, and embody the public's attitudes of love and hate.