Cantonese Tunes – the Xing Tune

63.Cantonese Tunes – the Xing Tune

Nominating Unit: City of Foshan

Cantonese Tune is one of the popular folk art in Lingnan Area (South of the Five Ridges covering districts in Guangdong Province, Guangxi, Hunan and Jiangxi, etc.) where Cantonese is spoken as the vernacular. Among the Tunes, Xing Tune, created by Xiao Mingxing during the 1920s and 1930s, is the most popular. Originally called Deng Xiaolian, Little Star later changed her name to Deng Manwei (1911-1942) by Guangdong Province Tunes Composer Wang Xinfan. Little Star began to learn singing at the age of 11 and had her debut at the age of 15. Due to poverty and sickness, she fell to the floor spitting blood while performing in a tea-house and died the next day. Her persistent pursuit of folk arts and inclusive spirits of innovation characterize her unique way of singing during her short lifespan. To show their respect, later generation named her way of singing the Xing Tune.

On the basis of traditional Cantonese Tune, the Xing Tune is a combination of the advantages of various ways of talking and singing accompanied by wooden knockers, dragon-boat rowing and South Tune. It also includes singing methods of Cantonese Folks, Nanwu Tune and Manggong Tune. In addition, it incorporates foreign music into its own tune and rhythms to form a unique way of singing. Moreover, the Xing Tune forsakes the traditional way of fake singing by adopting girls’ natural voice to sing, called Plain Singing by professionals. Thanks to that, Xiao Mingxing became one of the top four singers along with Zhang Yue’er, Xu liuxian and Zhang Huifang in Guangdong Province. She was even nicknamed “Leader of Plain Singing”. The Xing Tune is unique in its way of Qi circulation inside the body, articulation and musicality. While singing, the singer gives full expressions to her feelings, which strikes a heartstring with the audience. The repertoire of Xiao Mingxing includes Infatuate Clouds, Songs at Mid-Night, Bosom Friends, Bright Future, Romantic Dreams, Priceless Beauty, Swallows Back, Human’s Public Enemy, Hometown Dreams Return and Tombs in Autumn, etc.(https://www.daowen.com)

The unique way of singing gains Xing Tune worldwide fame in the arena of plain singing. Its influence is so profound that modern famous Cantonese opera singers such as Xue Juexian and Xin Mashi have both absorbed essentials from it. And thanks to its euphonious sounds and easy nature to learn, Xing Tune has always been popular with lots of learners who bring more vatility to its being. During the course, it has cultivated many a well-known singers such as Li Shaofang, Huang Shaomei, He Ping, Liang Yurong and so on, making signifi cant contributions to the development of Guangdong Province Folk Arts.

As there are masters of Xing Tune to carry on the tradition, a majority of the songs are still heard among the folks. Nonetheless, it still requires systemic collecting, filing and studying on its styles and characteristics. What’s more, some of the songs’ scriptures and opern have got scattered among unknown bookshops. Therefore, the Xing Tune presently risks getting lost unless immediate action is taken.