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Hua'er

Snatches of hua'er drift on and on

Introduction

Mountain songs sung in local Chinese dialects by many peoples of the northwest, and their song festivals

Hua'er, also called shaonian, are the mountain songs sung in local Chinese dialects by the Hui, Han, Tu, Dongxiang, Bao'an, Salar, Tibetan, Yugur and other peoples of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang; they may only be sung outside the village and are known as 'wild songs'. The tunes are called ling and are named after places, refrain words or peoples, such as the great Hezhou ling, the white peony ling and the Tu ling, while the words are largely improvised and rich in metaphor. The two main schools, Hehuang and Taomin, centre on song festivals at Lianhua Mountain, Songmingyan, Erlang Mountain, Laoye Mountain, Qili Temple and Qutan Temple (II-20). The Wanli-period poet Gao Hong already wrote of 'snatches of hua'er drifting on and on' in his Gushan xingyin, and in 2009 hua'er was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Timeline

Wanli period of the Ming (c. 1600) to present
1600 · OriginThe Wanli-period poet Gao Hong wrote in Gushan xingyin of riding off down a fragrant path 'hearing snatches of hua'er drifting on and on', the earliest known record of hua'er; Gushan is today's Gushan town in Minhe County, Qinghai, home of the Qili Temple hua'er festival.2004 · ImpactFrom 2004 the five northwestern provinces and regions have jointly held a hua'er concert on Phoenix Mountain in Xining every year on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month; by 2010 nearly a million people took part, and the 18th was held in 2021.2006 · ImpactIn 2006 hua'er entered the first national ICH list with eight entries: the Lianhua Mountain, Songmingyan, Erlang Mountain, Laoye Mountain, Danma Tu, Qili Temple and Qutan Temple festivals and the mountain hua'er of the Ningxia Hui; Xinjiang hua'er was added in 2008 and Zhangjiachuan hua'er in 2014.2009 · ImpactIn 2009 the fourth session of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee (4.COM 13.16) inscribed hua'er on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
  1. 1600OriginThe Wanli-period poet Gao Hong wrote in Gushan xingyin of riding off down a fragrant path 'hearing snatches of hua'er drifting on and on', the earliest known record of hua'er; Gushan is today's Gushan town in Minhe County, Qinghai, home of the Qili Temple hua'er festival.
  2. 2004ImpactFrom 2004 the five northwestern provinces and regions have jointly held a hua'er concert on Phoenix Mountain in Xining every year on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month; by 2010 nearly a million people took part, and the 18th was held in 2021.
  3. 2006ImpactIn 2006 hua'er entered the first national ICH list with eight entries: the Lianhua Mountain, Songmingyan, Erlang Mountain, Laoye Mountain, Danma Tu, Qili Temple and Qutan Temple festivals and the mountain hua'er of the Ningxia Hui; Xinjiang hua'er was added in 2008 and Zhangjiachuan hua'er in 2014.
  4. 2009ImpactIn 2009 the fourth session of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee (4.COM 13.16) inscribed hua'er on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Heritage Listings

  1. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · II-20 Hua'er (Lianhua Mountain · Songmingyan · Erlang Mountain · Laoye Mountain · Danma Tu · Qili Temple and Qutan Temple festivals · Ningxia Hui mountain hua'er) · no. 51 · nominated by Kangle · Hezheng and Min counties · Gansu · Datong · Huzhu · Minhe and Ledu · Qinghai · Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
  2. 2008National list extension2nd batch · II-20 Hua'er (Xinjiang hua'er) · Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture and Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture · Xinjiang
  3. 2009UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity4.COM 13.16 · Hua'er
  4. 2014National list extension4th batch · II-20 Hua'er (Zhangjiachuan hua'er) · Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County · Gansu