Songs of Dongguan Boat Dwellers
Songs of Dongguan Boat Dwellers
Nominating Unit: Shatian Town, City of Dongguan
Known as Tan Songs, Boatman Songs and Man Songs, Songs of Dongguan Boat Dwellers are mainly distributed in ten villages round Shatian Town,especially in Xianfeng and Yang Gongzhou villages. Historical records show that Songs of Dongguan Boat Dwellers can be dated back to the Ming and the Qing Dynasties. In New Reports on Guangdong Province written by Qu Dajun at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, three tea-plucking songs quoted as Tan Songs of the Ming Dynasty, are still sung in Dongguan with little change of the lyrics.
Songs of Dongguan Boat Dwellers have no fixed opern but has a consistent basic tone. However, drawl, quaver, exclamatory pitch, hum and partial tone, etc. can be added randomly, producing different fl avors when sung by different people. Depending on the situation, the songs are divided into two types. One type is the “Lobby Songs” performed at wedding parties or on other happy occasions; the other is “Plank Songs” for daily entertainment.(https://www.daowen.com)
Plank songs are mostly on the themes of young girls self-lamenting and love. Of the themes of young girls, the most popular one is used to express love between a man and a woman for joking and chitchatting. The lines usually have four characters and four lines make up a stanza. When sung by a female, an ending like “brother” is added; when sung by a male, “sister” is added instead. The singers in tune to the rhythm will draw on the character in the middle or at the end of the sentence to create the rising-and-falling sound effect.
Despite that Songs of Dongguan Boat Dwellers enjoy a profound mass foundation, they are facing the danger of extinction due to influence of foreign and pop cultures. Except for a few villages such as Xianfeng and Li Shatao where some seniors still practice singing Songs of Dongguan Boat Dwellers, rarely can they be heard in other places. Therefore, immediate protection measures are urgently needed.