Shiyan Hakka Folk Songs

Shiyan Hakka Folk Songs

Nominating Unit: City of Shenzhen

Shiyan Hakka Folk Songs are popular in the seven Hakka communities on Shiyan Street in Bao’an District, Shenzhen. The Hakka Songs of the Mountain boast a history of around three hundred years and has formed its own characteristics during the course.

There are theree different ways to sing Shiyan Hakka Folk Songs: a falsetto voice, a chest voice and a fine voice. The first one, a combination of both a falsetto and a chest voice, is employed to sing high-pitched Folk Songs. The second type, also the most common type with complicated air-control requirements, is suitable for improvisational duo-singing. The last one is mostly sung by individual women with a long prelude, and is low in volume but pleasant to the ear. In the former two types of singing, endings like “Yo-hey” are added. Each character has a distinct sound while the stressed syllable conveys the content of the lyrics, particularly in duo-singing of love songs. The male will start singing with “little sister” in the introduction and end with his “little sister” as ornamental words. Sometimes at both the beginning and the end throughout the song, the male smartly expresses his ardent pursuit of true love.(https://www.daowen.com)

Shiyan Hakka Folk Songs are mainly about work, life and love. It is also about jocosity, flaunting, guessing and elegy, etc. This wide range of topics proves useful for studying the Hakka way of living after Hakka people’s migration to the south and their integration with the new social environment. More than that, the application of various singing methods and ornamental words proves valuable for studying the Hakka Folk Songs’ melody and lyrical characteristics.

Years after the implementation of the policy of reform and opening-up, great changes have taken place in people’s ways of living and mind-sets. Nurtured by diversified cultures, many youngsters know little about Folk Songs and show little interest in acquiring that heritage. Only a small number of seniors will sometimes sing the songs for self-entertainment. Therefore, Shiyan Hakka Folk Songs face the danger of extinction.