*Chaozhou Folk Song Volume

64.*Chaozhou Folk Song Volume

Nominating Unit: City of Chaozhou

Popular in East Guangdong Province including City of Shantou, City of Chaozhou, City of Jieyang and City of Shanwei where Chaozhou Dialect is used, Chaozhou Folk Song Volume is sung in local language. Formed in the Reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing, it has, at the onset, a way of singing narrative stories with each line written in seven words, called Seven-character Song. On this basis, Chaozhou Folk Song Volume encompasses various stories from lyrics, Ci, dramas and operas and is performed in Chaozhou dialect with its unique phonetics. Prevalent in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and islands in Southeast Asia where Chaozhou dialect is spoken and in South Fujian Province where South Fujian dialect is popular, the songs are sung mainly by women. The songs can be heard in places like the fields, drying yards, home and ancestral temples.

The Volume has two types of genre. One is from legends or stories in which complete tales are narrated, for example, Romances of the Sui and the Tang Dynasties, Trips to Southern China by Emperor Qianlong, Meng Lijun, and Su Liuniang, etc.; the other is form songs which is shorter without complete stories. Instead, things that have knowledge attributes, interests and education purposes, such as Song on Detoxification, Names of A Hundred Kinds of Flowers, Songs of A Hundred Birds, Festival Lanterns and Songs of Twelve Months, etc. are integrated into the songs.

The Volume does not have a strict form in terms of libretto. Generally speaking, there are forms of three, three and four words per line, three, three and seven words per line as well as five words, six words and seven words per line. The song books vary in volume. Books of considerable length such as Romances of the Sui and the Tang Dynasties that has seventy-four books in twelve volumes with a total number of forty-five thousand lines, Twin Parrots has fifty books in ten volumes with round eighty thousand lines, Decorated Pavilions on Chicken-Feet-Shaped Mountain has fifty three books in nine volumes, Five Brave Men Conquer Western Liao has twenty-seven books in seven volumes and Double Jade Fish has ten collections, all of which claim a scale of more than two hundred to three hundred words. The short forms usually are made up by hundreds of lines while even shorter ones have round hundred lines in handout form.(https://www.daowen.com)

Chaozhou Folk Song Volume’s lyrics come partly from local folk songs, dramas and operas, and most of the works are in the form of adaptation, vernacular novels, drum ballads, and various local songs and plays, with some created on basis of local history and legends. A few hundred books have been so popular that they exert profound influence. However, for a long time, it lacks records with no specific history and annals as well as writers. It is until the Democratic Revolution Period that it is valued and taken as a powerful weapon for publicity. Since then, lyrics representing political nature crop up such as Origin of Chinese Revolution, Song on Procrastinated Marriage and Song on Chinese History. After that during the Great Revolution Era, Song on Brave Advancement is created; during Anti-Japanese Invasion War Period, Protecting Chaoshan Area, Lunan Battle and Recovering of Nan’ao are brought onto stage; and during Liberation War, printed versions and handwriting copies of Dog Songs circulate among the folks.

Chaozhou Folk Song Volume plays a significant role in Chaozhou culture and history in terms of disseminating knowledge, providing education to women at the lower rank in society, and paving the way for the creation and development of Chaozhou Opera. Moreover, it provides precious clues in studying Buddhist culture’s popularity and evolvement in Lingnan Area.

With the development of society and change of diversified entertainment forms, Chaozhou Folk Song Volume is losing its past glamour among the youngsters. The unique art is on the verge of extinction and is in urgent need of protection.

In 2008, the Volume was added into the list of the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage.