Ashima

Introduction

A long narrative poem the Sani people sing in their own Yi language, in five-syllable lines

Ashima is a long narrative poem of the Sani branch of the Yi people in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan, first composed in the Sani language and sung in lines of five syllables. It tells of Ashima, a poor family's daughter whom the son of the local chieftain wants for his wife, and of her brother Ahei, who sets out to rescue her; the story ends in sorrow, and in most versions Ashima becomes an echo. Singers use many tunes, among them the joyful tune, the elders' tune, the sorrowful tune, the weeping tune and the scolding tune, and the poem may be sung or told at weddings, sacrifices, funerals, at work and in daily life. Its performance falls into a southern style centred on Guishan and a northern style centred on the town of Shilin. In 1953 a work team of the Yunnan People's Cultural Troupe collected the poem, and a Chinese version compiled by Huang Tie, Yang Zhiyong, Liu Qi and Gong Liu appeared in the Yunnan Daily in 1954, later followed by translations into several foreign languages. In 2006 Ashima entered the first national intangible heritage list as item I-28.