Recently, Su Xingjuan, the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Waiokada mountain songs, led the students of the Experimental High School Affiliated to Tongji University to get close to and understand the traditional folk music culture and feel its unique artistic charm.
"I was about the same age as them when I learned Tianshan songs, but I didn't expect that it would take decades to sing them, and these songs have grown in my heart." Su Xingjuan, who is nearly 90 years old, introduced that she has been singing mountain songs with her mother Su Axiu in the vast field middle school in Waigang since she was a child, and it has been passed down word by word in the word of mouth of the previous generation. At the beginning of the fifties of the last century, Su Xingjuan also went to the Jiading County Military Auditorium, Shanghai Grand Stage and other occasions to participate in the singing, to the eighties of the last century, when the folk literature and mountain songs were surveyed, she was only 52 years old, and she was still the youngest Tianshan singer at that time.
"Children want to sing small mountain songs, and ferry Taihu Lake in clam shells." Su Xingjuan sang a number of classic Waiokada Mountain songs on the spot, and vividly described the historical origin, artistic characteristics and inheritance status of Waiokada Mountain Songs. Then she took the children to sing Tianshan songs together, and the high-pitched and loud Tianshan songs and the crisp and immature singing voices came and went. "Tian Shan song is different from the songs I usually listen to, it sounds simple, but it still requires skill to sing." Zhong Anning, a student at Tongji High School, said.
It is understood that as a direct inheritance of the Wu-speaking regional folk songs in the Jiangnan region, the Waiokada folk songs reflect the social life and folk customs of the Waiokada and surrounding areas. In the past, almost all men, women, and children in the Waigang area could sing, and there was a saying that "shouting when you go out, and singing when you go down to the field", and the lyrics are generally mostly four sentences and seven characters, also known as four sentences of the head mountain song or eight sentences of the head mountain song, and the specific way is that one person shouts alone, sings alone, leads the chorus and duet, etc.
"The purpose of arranging such an activity is to allow students to learn the singing skills of Waiokada Mountain Song, and at the same time to have a deeper understanding of the connotation and value of traditional Chinese music customs and culture, and to stimulate their love for and inheritance of traditional culture. We hope not only to provide a learning platform for students, but also to inject new vitality and impetus into the inheritance and development of traditional culture. Tang Jingjie, a teacher at Tongji High School, said.
In recent years, in order to protect and inherit the folk cultural heritage, Waigang Town has rescued and adapted, sung and recorded the songs of Tiantou in Jiading, and after nearly two years of collection and excavation and selected editing, compiled into a book of "Tiange Waigang", through tangible dissemination, cultivate everyone's love for national traditional culture, and save the excellent folk culture that is on the verge of being lost. In addition, Waigang Town also organized children, teenagers, and adults to carry out activities such as training in learning and singing Tianshan songs, and created various literary and artistic works with the theme of Tianshan songs to help the development of intangible cultural heritage.
Correspondent: Liang Zijing
Editor: Wu Lirong