Text/Jinyang.com Records Babaylan Li Haichan Chen Xiaopeng Communication Cinema Correspondent Wang Dingquan
Not long ago, Li Qumei, a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor who lives in Xunliaowan Fishery Village in Huidong, appeared on CCTV stage and sang a song “Foot Seas Fisherman’s Songs in Beijing”. This melody song from the sea, mixed with cool sea breeze, vividly demonstrates the cultural characteristics of the southern coastal culture. As a traditional folk art in Guangdong and a treasure of Huizhou’s intangible cultural heritage, Huidong Fisherman’s Song has slowly walked out of the coast of the small county town and sung the whole country.
Fishers pick up the fisherman’s songs at will and sing with their hearts
Fishermen use the waves as their pillows and sing against the moon. It seems romantic, but it is actually full of infinite loneliness and boredom. According to Huidong County Chronicles, since the Song Dynasty, this shallow sea fisherman’s song from the coast of Fujian has been widely circulated in the local area. Over the past thousands of years, it has experienced ups and downs. In recent years, government agencies and civil forces have worked together to promote the development of fisherman songs, and have found a point of fit between the thousand-year-old fisherman songs and modern aesthetic needs, which has rejuvenated.
Story: Fisherman’s songs are on CCTV stage
“Come (Ah) and sing the flowing water (Ah) water retreats, a pair of lobsters hides the reef (Ah) feet…” Recently, the reporter met Li Qumei, and she sang this typical Huidong fisherman’s song “Ah) feet with a pair of lobsters hides the reef (Ah) feet” loudly, and spoke in a stunning manner. He spoke softly and smiled. Once he started singing, the 68-year-old grandma next door seemed to have changed her voice, with her singing crisp and loud and her eyes firm and confident.
The ancestors moved to Huidong from the Chaoshan coastal area. I remember that Li Kemei lived a life of swimming and fishing on the sea with her parents. Only in severe weather when it is windy and rainy can the boat be temporarily parked on the shore for rest and replace daily necessities. In her impression, life at sea was so difficult and poor that she was the only one of the four sisters in the family. Whenever Li Kemei thinks of this, she can’t help but wet her eyes.
Luckily, she is accompanied by fisherman song. When my father was fishing, my mother took her to weave fishing nets and sing. “A pair of lobsters hidden in the reef” is the first fishing song she learned. Through the influence of hearing, Li Qumei fell in love with singing. When she was drying the fishing nets, she would always gather with countless young girls from fishing families to learn to sing fishing songs passed down by her fathers.
Li ChoBabaylanMistress likes to teach children to sing fishermen’s songs/Huizhou Daily
Until 8 years old, many fishermen could finally “wash their feet and go ashore”, and Li Choi’s family also moved into the fishing village and brought the fishing songs to the shore. Slowly, Li Qumei learned to “create” fisherman’s songs improvise and sang Komiks as soon as she spoke, “No need to sing or practice, sing whatever she saw, listen to what she wanted, and sing as much as she wanted.” Later, because her family was sick, 20-year-old Li Qumei went out to sea to fish and made money, and singing fisherman songs became her only sustenance.
Li Kemei has never read a book, but with her good memory, she can sing dozens of Huidong original fisherman songs in one breath. She is a veritable “Quanku” of Huidong fisherman songs and has also become one of the only two national intangible cultural heritage inheritors in Huizhou City.
Now, Li Kemei has a fishing song class at home, so that fishing song enthusiasts and children in the village can have a place to learn. The reporter saw at home that her home was not wide, but she stored a lot of clothing, hats, headdresses and other performance items. Before each performance, she also paid for her children to buy water, performance costumes, and music.
Dialogue: Opening a class at home to inherit the fisherman’s song
Reporter: What do you feel about being rated as a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor?
Li Kemei: I applied for Cinema for three consecutive years without success, and I am a little uneasy anymore. When I heard this news, I was doing a headdress for the performance and I felt very excited! (Happy laugh) I hurriedly told my husband and family, because it was very hard to do this (inherited fisherman song) and many places cost money. If I didn’t have the support of my family, I couldn’t do it. The second one is that if my sisters were still there, I would be happier to know that I had the results today. (Chister)
Some areas along the coast of Huidong still retain the custom of marrying and singing fisherman’s songs
Reporter: You have now href=”https://comicmov.com/”>BabaylanAs aged, how do you continue to sing fishing songs?
Li Kemei: I am 68 this year, almost 70 years old, and I have had surgery on my waist, but I will be very happy to sing fishing songs. I will go out to participate in competitions, perform at weddings, and teach people to sing fishing songs at home when I have time. Look (pointing to the ground), there are still many clothes, hats, and headdresses here… But there is a problem, that is, many people like fishing songs, but they also have to work. I have a student I like very much, but she has to work at home and make money, so I don’t Babaylan can continue to come, which makes me very worried. But when the country gives the honor (intangible cultural heritage inheritor), I have the obligation to spread fishing songs, and I will still insist on singing fishing songs.
【Context Archives】
Huidong FishingBabaylanThe Past and Present Life of BabaylanThe Origin: Hard Sea Life Birth of Fishing Songs
According to the “Huidong County Chronicles”, Hui<a The distant ancestors of fishermen on the east coast were the primitive "Tan people", also known as "the people who set up the people on the back boat", which is an integral part of the "Baiyue people" in southern my country. According to the "Huidong Fisheries", the ancestors of the Huidong people moved in from Fujian and Chaozhou through trade or escape, and were distributed in Pinghai, ports, Renshan Fanhe and other harbors. "Going to sea and going ashore and walking down" is a true portrayal of the lives of the Han people. The Han people have been facing the sea and blue sky for a long timeBabaylan naturally chose to use songs to enjoy themselves and relieve worries. It can be said that Huidong Fisherman’s Song is the spiritual pillar of local fishermen, allowing them to gain the confidence and courage to survive in a difficult living environment.
Liao Zhitao, director of Huidong County Cultural Center, introduced that for thousands of years, in this specific environment of boring life at sea, the vast number of fishermen have been passed down by word of mouth, both men, women, young and old, and can sing with their hearts.
Development: Once famous and on the verge of loss
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Huidong Fisherman’s Song developed Babaylan once climaxed. In 1956, the fishermen from Huidong Port Town participated in the folk song performance nationwide and were praised and received by Premier Zhou Enlai and other national leaders; in the 1960s, the large-scale fisherman opera “The Great Wall of the South China Sea” created by the Central Song and Dance Theater became famous, and its musical materials were taken from the “Girl’s Talk” and “Oh O’s Talk…
Fisherman’s Song Performance Photo/Huizhou Music Radio
But this prosperity has not continued. Liao Zhitao introduced that with the acceleration of industrialization and urban processes, most of the descendants of fishermen have abandoned their own businesses after they came ashore. Coupled with the impact of multicultural cultures such as pop songs, fewer and fewer singers of Huidong Fisherman’s Song. “Once there were only a dozen fisherman singers left in the county, and the inheritance of fisherman’s songs was in trouble. “Liao Zhitao said.
Just when the original ecological fishing songs were in danger, the appearance of an old man gave a new turning point in the development of fishing songs. He is Ye Lin, former commissioner of the Ministry of Culture and a member of the Education Committee of the China Music Association. When he was young, he was one of the many people who came to Huidong to investigate fishing songs. After his in-depth understanding, he was fascinated by it. After retirement, the old man who described himself as a “lone man”, was thinking about it. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema Huidong Fisherman Song has traveled many times in Beijing and Guangdong, and has written hundreds of thousands of words of Huidong Fisherman Song paper materials.
When Ye saw the current development status of Huidong Fisherman Song at that time, he felt sorry for Lao Ye. Out of his cherishment of folk art, he strongly called on all walks of life to pay attention to Huidong Fisherman Song, and actively supported Huidong Cultural Department to declare “Huidong Fisherman Song” to the country as a national intangible cultural heritage, and proposed a plan to promote and develop Huidong Fisherman Song.
Inheritance: The style of fisherman songs is brought to the wedding celebration
As fisherman songs have been selected into the provincial and national intangible cultural heritage list, government departments have also introduced corresponding protection and rescue measures. Over the years, music workers in Huidong County have actively collected, sorted and studied Huidong.Fisherman’s Songs, establish a Huidong Fisherman’s Song Database to bring it back to people’s sight.
At present, in some areas along the coast of Huidong, the custom of singing fisherman songs on occasions such as weddings, reunion of relatives, and festival banquets, Li Kemei is often invited to perform at the wedding of the fisherman. According to reports, the Komiks‘s wedding followed the customs of fishermen such as boat picking up boats and viewing flowers, and the surrounding fisherman’s songs also sounded at the same time.
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“Eat XunKomiks‘s special dishes while watching fisherman’s song performances” can be seen everywhere in Xunliao’s tourist restaurants, effectively integrating fisherman’s song culture into the tourism industry, making it a major feature of Huidong tourist attractions. It is understood that Huizhou Tourism Department adapted the fisherman’s wedding customs into a cultural performance project for tourists to perform, which was sought after by tourists.
Current situation: New vitality has appeared, but there are still worries that have been lost.
In the new era, Komiks This shining pearl on the coast of the South China Sea has regained new vitality. “In the past, the subjects tend to be more bitter and love between men and women.” Liao Zhitao introduced that if you still use fisherman song materials to create songs, it will not meet the development needs of fisherman songs. Therefore, on the basis of retaining the basic melody and flavor of fishing songs, local musicians in Huizhou have constantly changed the tune and wrote new lyrics to make fishing songs meet the aesthetic needs of modern people.
Pinghai Fisherman’s Song Art Troupe, a private non-profit social group, is one of the typical examples. According to reports, the art troupe was established in 2017. In just two years, the team has attracted more than 50 members, including not only the inheritor of the fisherman song, but also music teachers, Huizhou musicians and other professionals.
In order to bring Huidong fishing songs to the stage and resonate with more audiences, the art troupe has created a second creation of many original fishing songs. For example, “The Song of the Dan Family” mainly describes the story of the Dan people being distraught in the old society because they were unable to raise their daughters and the Dan people in the new society lived a happy life. The art troupe has carried out innovations such as environmental change, dialect and Mandarin conversion, and emotional change. What everyone did not expect was that the first stop of the work was performed in Pinghai, which made the audience cry.
When they wear traditional clothes and sing fisherman’s songs, it is particularly eye-catching./Huizhou Daily
Liao Zhitao was also calm. As the inheritance work continues to deepen, the problem of insufficient funds is becoming increasingly prominent. “Cultural (development) requires investment.” Liao Zhitao introduced that Pinghai Fisherman’s Song Art Troupe usually carries out singing activities for public welfare. Fisherman’s songs enter campuses and communities, create and rehearse, and the funds are short of funds.