Gada Meiren

Introduction

A long Mongolian narrative song of Horqin, transcribed and set to four Chinese verses by An Bo

Gada Meiren is a long Mongolian narrative song that arose in Horqin Left Middle Banner in Inner Mongolia and spread across the surrounding region. It takes as its subject events of the 1930s connected with Gada Meiren, a local figure of that banner. The folk original runs to more than five hundred stanzas, and among the many Mongolian songs of the banner it is counted the most representative, valued for its vivid story, compact language and broad, stirring melody. The composer An Bo transcribed it and set four of its stanzas to Chinese words, the version most often sung today, which appeared in the magazine People's Literature in 1950. The song later inspired a symphonic poem by Xin Huguang as well as pieces for pipa and morin khuur, and it entered the second national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2008.