Chongqing - Traditional songs of various ethnic minority arts and artists from all over the country sparkle with enthusiasm and wisdom on the stage of the China Native Folk Song Festival held in Chongqing.

This year, China Native Folk Song Festival came to Chongqing, singing the confidence of the mountain city, spreading Chinese folk songs to the world.

Opening ceremony in Pengshui county (Wang Xiaoyan/iChongqing)

Performers from various ethnic minorities, such as Zhuang, Tujia, Miao, Tibetan, Yi, and Dong, gathered in Pengshui to sing about a better new life together. People of all ages, from 60-year-olds down to teenagers, present an audio-visual feast as cultural heritage take the stage. 

Folk songs from various places are sung in the local dialects, and there is a natural connection between the folk songs and dialects. If we compare language to birds, then dialects are like endangered birds. The folk song festival brings together dialects from various regions, including the Min, Tibetan, and Gan dialects, etc. Even though they are mutually unintelligible, their passion and love of life are connected.

Opening ceremony in Pengshui county (Wang Xiaoyan/iChongqing)

Unmissable performance

This native folk song festival combines traditional Chinese instruments, such as the four-string cigar box guitar, erhu, suona, xiao, various traditional instruments to provide a beautiful audio-visual feast of native folk songs. 

In addition, the lyrics are also one of the shining points of folk songs, you may be amused by Toad Song: "A toad with an open mouth, a pair of two round eyes, four feet, ah, jumped into the water. Quack... Quack... Quack... Quack!" or you may be touched by the moving emotions in the love song of Xikou: "The gentle northwest wind is blowing on my chest, but you and I are standing at the entrance of this parting village without a single word."

Folk songs can bring us into the world of harmony between people and nature and dig into our best and most simple emotions. Field songs, mountain songs, trumpets, fishing songs, ditties, all of these traditional songs are originated from the production life of the ethnic groups. They are the art belonging to the working people of China, ranging from celebrating daily labor to the precious feelings between lovers.

Closing Ceremony in Qianjiang county (photos provided to iChongqing)

Folk songs are cherished in Chongqing

Chongqing is a famous cultural city with more than 3,000 years of history. Its gorgeous Bayu culture has nurtured a large number of traditional folk songs and intangible cultural heritage resources of traditional music. In particular, the southeast region of Chongqing has distinctive ethnic characteristics and rich historical and cultural heritage resources and has nurtured five national and 17 municipal-level intangible cultural heritage projects such as Nanxi Horn, Miao Folk Song, Youyang Folk Song, Xiushan Folk Song, and Shizhu Tujia Luo'er Tune.