SINGERS' STORY
Representative inheritor of Dong nationality song at the autonomous region level: TANHUA WU
Wu Tanhua, female, Dong nationality, is from Zhongzhaitun, Xinmin Village, Meilin Township, Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County. She is the second batch of representative inheritors of Dong nationality song at the autonomous region level in the list of representative projects of national intangible cultural heritage. With her outstanding singing skills and unremitting efforts in inheritance, she has made great contributions to the promotion of Dong nationality folk music.
A group photo of the Sanjiang delegation participating in the National Ethnic Music Concert in 1984 (Wu Tanhua is in the middle of the front row)
Wu Tanhua has been learning Dong nationality song from her father since she was a child. She was born with a good voice, was diligent and studious, and gradually mastered this unique singing skill. In 1976, she and her companions went to Nesada and Sagaoliang to study further, further improving her singing level. In 1983, Wu Tanhua, who was only 18 years old, began to teach her first batch of apprentices, including Lu Xianhua, Wu Dousi and other 6 people, sowing the seeds of hope for the inheritance of Dong ethnic group's big song.
In recent years, Wu Tanhua has organized the Dong ethnic group's big song team to perform all over the country and has won many awards. Her singing and performance not only won the love of the audience, but also attracted the attention and interviews of many media and newspapers such as South Korea, Australia, CCTV, and Guangxi TV. Through these special reports and interviews, "Dong ethnic group big song" has become famous overseas, allowing more people to understand and appreciate this unique music culture.
Wu Tanhua's contribution is not only reflected in singing and inheritance. In 2006, she was named "Top Ten Folk Artists" in Liuzhou by the Propaganda Department of Liuzhou Municipal Party Committee. This honor is a recognition of her efforts over the years to inherit and develop Dong folk music. In addition, the "Dong Nationality Song Textbook" published by the county in 2015 includes more than 30 traditional Dong nationality songs sung by Wu Tanhua, providing valuable teaching materials for the study and inheritance of Dong nationality songs.
In 2019, Wu Tanhua received good news one after another. Not only did she win the first prize with "Mountain Song" in the 4th Dong Nationality Song Competition, she also participated in the recording of the National Art Fund project "Chinese Folk Song Music Library", and recorded 21 traditional Dong nationality songs for the project. Today, these songs have been launched on NetEase Cloud Music, allowing more people to appreciate the charm of Dong nationality songs anytime and anywhere.
With her singing and hard work, Wu Tanhua has allowed the unique music culture of "Dong Nationality Song" to be inherited and developed. She is a treasure of Dong nationality folk music and a role model for all of us to learn from.
Representative inheritor of Dong nationality grand song at the autonomous region level: PINXIAN WU
Wu Pinxian, female, Dong nationality, born in 1946, from Liping, Guizhou. Representative inheritor of the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, Dong nationality grand song. She started to learn to sing Dong songs from her parents at the age of 4, and began to participate in various large-scale performances in 1968. She once sang for Chairman Mao Zedong in Zhongnanhai and became a well-known singer in the Dong nationality area. Teacher, mastered more than 200 traditional Dong nationality grand songs, and can improvise Dong songs. Her representative works include more than 30 songs such as "Gagao".
Wu Xianpin
According to Wu Pinxian, her grandmother was also a famous local singer. After dinner, many Dong girls followed her to learn songs. Wu Pinxian said: "When I was about 8 or 9 years old, after dinner, the girls in my hometown crowded into my house, and my grandmother taught them to sing. As they sang, many older girls had not yet learned, but I could sing. At that time, my grandmother often praised me for my memory."
Since she was young, Wu Pinxian loved to listen to her grandmother's influence, and she has developed a natural voice. In 1959, Wu Pinxian was selected to the Liping County Dong Chorus to engage in more professional Dong song singing, and later she was selected to the Central National Song and Dance Troupe as a Dong singer.
In December 1964, Wu Pinxian's grandmother was transferred from the Central National Song and Dance Troupe to work in Liping County, Guizhou Province, where she was originally from. In 1966, affected by the "Cultural Revolution", Wu Pinxian left the Qiandongnan Prefecture Song and Dance Troupe and returned to her hometown Sanlong. This return home brought great changes to Wu Pinxian's life and made her think more and innovate on the Dong nationality's big song.
"I am like a fish, and Dong songs are like water. Fish cannot live without water, and I cannot live without Dong songs. Singing Dong nationality's big songs without Dong songs will have no taste." Wu Pinxian said.
Now, no matter whether it is busy or slack in farming, every night, Wu Pinxian and more than 40 Dong women in her singing class gather together to sing Dong nationality's big songs. Over the years, she has trained more than 2,000 students. According to statistics, at present, the Dong nationality singing classes in Sanlong Dong Nationality Township alone have sent more than 100 talents, and no less than 60 people have participated in national performances, and more than 40 people have participated in provincial performances. Sanlong Dong Township has one national inheritor of the Dong nationality song and two provincial inheritors.
“Now there are nine singing groups in Sanlong Village, ranging from five or six years old to seventy or eighty years old, and each group has more than ten to twenty people. How can we not sing well when we are accompanied by songs every day?” Wu Pinxian said with satisfaction.
After being successfully selected into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, the 74-year-old Wu Pinxian has been at the forefront of inheriting the Dong nationality song, and has successively led the team to bring the Dong nationality song to art festivals in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Liaoning and Taiwan.
Every time he performed in a place, there was thunderous applause from the audience, which had a huge impact throughout China and even the world. These applause made Wu Pinxian full of confidence in the inheritance and development of the Dong nationality song.
Wu Pinxian said: "The Dong ethnic group's big song is the crystallization of the Dong people's wisdom for more than 2,500 years. It has been sung to this day without interruption. I also want to pass on more songs to the next generation like a relay."
From this sentence, we can see the future of the Dong ethnic group's big song, and we are also moved by Wu Pinxian's spirit of not forgetting his original intention and only focusing on inheritance.
Dong ethnic group's big song
In the Dong village within a radius of 10 miles, Wu Pinxian taught Dong songs on a voluntary basis, with more than 2,000 students. His outstanding deeds include 10 singers such as Wu Yongqin, Wu Guoying, and Wu Peili, who have performed Dong ethnic group big songs in more than 20 countries and regions in Europe and the United States, such as the Vienna Golden Hall, the Palace of Versailles in Paris, and the Carnegie Hall in the United States.
Thanks to Wu Pinxian’s persistence and efforts, the Dong ethnic group’s great songs will surely be sung forever.
