Dragon Boat Diao
Boyangba in Lichuan, Hubei Province sings the pastoral beauty of the Tujia people in a song "Dragon Boat Diao" and tells the simple Tujia customs.
"Dragon Boat Diao" was rated as one of the top 25 folk songs in the world and an outstanding folk song in the "40 Chinese Folk Songs" in the 1980s. In the 1990s, it merged into the music ocean of 56 ethnic groups across the country with distinctive characteristics. On the evening of May 30, 1994, a 30-minute program of CCTV Local Station featured a special report on the hometown of "Dragon Boat Diao" sung by veteran folk artists Chen Wenju (female), Nie Cheng, Li Zhizhi, Liu Ning'an, An Youfa and others - Lichuan and Baiyangba, the birthplace of "Dragon Boat Diao", have attracted worldwide attention at the same time.
"Dragon Boat Diao" was originally called "Zhonggua Diao". In the 40th year of the Republic of China, a retired soldier of the First Army named Wang Zhuqing (nicknamed Wang Scarzi, who loved folk arts) returned to Baiyangba and hummed a few lines of songs. Later, Tan Daiwei, Zhou Lipin, Xiao Jiuchou and others recomposed the music and lyrics, and Wang Qijin plays the leading role, Zhou Lipin plays the niche role, Wu Qingye plays the clown, and Qu Tingsheng, Wang Zhuqing and other backup singers present this bright pearl to the world. It is the main melody of Bai Yang Lantern.
During the Spring Festival in 1935, Lichuan held an amateur entertainment performance. Xie Yiqun (female), Qu Tingsheng, Wu Qingye, He Bangqing, Ding Hongru and other members of the Boyang Amateur Troupe sang "Zhonggua Tiao", which was well received and achieved excellent results. . County cultural cadres sorted it out and named it "Dragon Boat Diao" based on its original expression.
In March 1957, Lichuan folk singers Wang Guosheng and Zhang Huatang participated in the Second National Folk Music and Dance Performance and presented the earthy fragrance "Dragon Boat Diao" to the capital audience for the first time. Since then, the song has been widely circulated across the country and even introduced to Southeast Asian countries.
On New Year's Day in 1958, in the nationwide "Tongmei Cup" song contest, there was a touching scene when both the Beijing and Hubei groups selected the song "Dragon Boat Tune".
"Dragon Boat Diao" is the main body of folk dragon boat singing in Lichuan. The reason why "Dragon Boat Diao" has a strong artistic appeal is mainly because its lyrics and music are very distinctive. The lyrics are popular and refined, successfully creating an artistic image with simple and simple words. The song depicts a vivid and vivid picture of a lively and pretty young woman passing by a ferry when returning to her parents' home and asking a boatman to ferry her across the river. Its musical characteristics are that the melody is more ups and downs, the single field is wider, the rhythm is freer, the accent is high-pitched and graceful, it has strong lyricism and strong appeal.
The long and gentle dragon boat tune embodies the strong national soul. In September 1998, the Fourth Democracy Movement of Hubei Province was held in Lichuan. At the grand opening ceremony, 5,000 people performed a large-scale song and dance called "The Hometown of Dragon Boat Diao". It was grand in scale, novel in form, distinct in layers, and majestic. Awesome, tens of thousands of viewers were full of praise. In 1999, Hubei TV Station made a special trip to Lichuan to film the MTV for "Dragon Boat Tune", which made this folk song with Tujia characteristics more widely spread.
——Excerpted from "Lichuan News"
"Dragon Boat Diao" is popular in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei Province. It was originally called "Zhonggua Diao" and sang "Twelve "Growing melons in the moon": "It is the New Year in the first month (Yi ye), and melon seeds go into the garden (Luo ye)..." Because the custom of dragon boat rowing was not practiced in Lichuan, Hubei (including Enshi) where it was popular. , so someone asked, "How come there is 'Dragon Boat Diao' in Enshi Lichuan?" Some researchers also said that "Dragon Boat Diao" cannot be an Enshi folk song (Tujia folk song).
How did "Zhonggua Diao" become "Dragon Boat Diao"? It’s a long story.
In the second half of 1937 AD, the then Hubei Provincial Government moved westward to Enshi, and some folk literature and art forms from the Jianghan Plain also spread in western Hubei. "Lotus picking boats" also gradually became popular in the mountains. There was no lotus to harvest, so the "lotus harvesting boat" became a myth among the people, and it became the "colorful dragon boat" (the presence of "dragon" is auspicious), and it remains so to this day. In 1956, the Hubei Provincial Song and Dance Troupe and the Wuhan Song and Dance Theater went to western Hubei to collect music and wrote down the melody of "Zhonggua Tune". Because they heard it sung by local people rowing "colorful dragon boats", they dubbed it "Dragon Boat Tune". Since then, it has been put on the stage of professional theater troupes. "Dragon Boat Tune" has been popular since then and has spread throughout the province, the country and even abroad. It was once rated as one of the most popular songs in the world.
For decades, solos, duets, choruses, lead choruses, songs and dances, dances and other forms have been widely performed on the stages of national and many provincial and municipal art groups. Enshi Prefecture is even more proud of being the hometown of "Dragon Boat Diao" , both amateur and professional theater groups have been enthusiastically adapting and recreating it in various literary and artistic forms.
Some scholars have studied that the melody of "Dragon Boat Diao" is beautiful and pleasant, and its melody is similar to the "Ba people" in "Song Yu's Questions to the King of Chu" in the Western Han Dynasty, which "introduced businessmen and carved feathers, mixed with Liu Zheng" "It is related to (Tujia ancestors) songs, which is one of the most typical characteristics of traditional songs in western Hubei.