Xiaohuang Village, Gaozeng Township, Congjiang County, is located in the north of Gaozeng Township, 17 kilometers away from the seat of the township government and 24 kilometers away from the county seat. The whole village has 5 natural villages, 718 households, and 3,340 people, all of whom are Dong ethnic groups. , is a magical and poetic Dong village. A small stream passes through the village, surrounded by green mountains. The stilted wooden buildings are close to the mountains and rivers, and the drum tower and flower bridge echo each other from afar. It is like a fresh and tranquil pastoral scenery painting. Xiaohuang Dong song has a long history and numerous talents. In just over 100 years, nearly 100 famous singers and opera singers have emerged.
Xiaohuang Village is the famous "Dong Song Nest" and is known as the "Hometown of Songs" and "Ocean of Songs". The motto passed down from generation to generation by minions is "Eat nourishes the body, and song nourishes the heart." Here, no matter men, women, old or young, everyone has a stomach full of songs and endless songs to sing. As they say: "The Han family has endless books to read, and the Dong family has endless songs to sing." Xiaohuang Dong Song is called "King Gaxi" ("Xiaohuang Song" in Dong language). In addition to the famous big songs, there are more than 10 categories including love songs, pipa songs, cicada songs, caitang songs, roadblock songs, toasting songs, ancestor worship songs, labor songs, and narrative songs. There are currently 52 singing groups and groups of young, middle-aged and elderly people in the village, with more than 2,000 members. It is a good custom for the elderly to teach songs, the youth to sing, and the teenagers to learn songs. In Xiaohuang Village, everyone can sing, there are songs everywhere, songs are used in everything, and songs are sung every night. Men, women and children, old and young, take pleasure in singing and take pride in singing. Not only do they celebrate festivals with songs, but young men and women use songs as matchmakers when they fall in love. Even when distinguished guests arrive, they also use songs to greet and send off. It is rare for so many people in a village to spontaneously participate in singing activities and persist for a long time.
The "Dong Song" in Xiaohuang Village is a multi-part chorus without instrumental accompaniment and without a conductor. The high, middle and low notes are integrated into one, with its perfect harmony and soft style. The euphemism and elegance of the melody are world-famous. The chorus is led by one person and everyone sings in chorus. The voice is sometimes high-pitched and broad, sometimes low and melodious, bringing the audience into the picturesque and beautiful and harmonious nature. The children's voices of the children's team are pure and loud, innocent and lively; the songs of the girls' Arhat team are as pure as water; the songs of the senior team are rich and deep, sometimes floating like fairy music, sometimes as deep as mountains, slowly injecting into everyone's heart, giving people a magical enjoyment. Many experts and scholars who visited Xiaohuang were amazed by the perfect natural harmony after listening to the Dong people's songs. They believed that this kind of chorus, which has been passed down by the ancestors of the Dong people for thousands of years, is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Dong people. , which cannot be created and performed by any musician or chorus actor at a time.
The ethnic customs of Xiaohuang Village are the simplest, especially "walking and singing at night" and "Valentine's Day". Whenever night falls, couples hug each other in the Drum Tower, Flower Bridge or in front of the fire hall at home, in the pine and bamboo groves beside the village and under the moonlight by the stream. They played and sang, and talked to each other all night long, until the early hours of the morning when they said goodbye. This happened every night. The girls' parents, brothers and sisters-in-law actively avoided the "walking, singing and sitting at night" activity and never interfered. "Valentine's Day" is celebrated every year on the fifth and sixth day of the sixth lunar month (also known as the "Five-Sixth Day"). Married men and women over 40 years old dress up as their old sweethearts, and wrap them with glutinous rice, pickled rice, etc. Fish, in pairs, hold hands with each other on the hillside to play and have trysts, talk about love, reminisce about the past, sing love songs and express their longing for each other, from morning until the moonlit night of the next day. Therefore, Xiaohuang Village has long been praised as "Little Hong Kong" and "A Village That Never Sleeps" by Chinese and foreign experts, VIPs, tourists, and people from villages near and far.
The people in Xiaohuang Village do not sing for the sake of singing. Their love for Dong songs comes from their hearts and is unconscious. The Xiaohuang people’s love for Dong songs comes from their deepest love for life. Love and yearning for a better life, it is this deep love for singing that creates the glory of Xiaohuang Dong Song.
In 1956, 8 Xiao Huang singers including Pan Fenggao, Pan Jingren, Shi Songhua, and Shi Maichan participated in the provincial performance, and "Xiao Huang Men's Dong Song" won the provincial outstanding program award; in 1957, Xiao Huang's Dong Song Yellow singers Wu Da'an, Pan Shicai and others went to Yunnan to participate in the National Art Performance, and "The Beauty of the Pearl" won the National Outstanding Program Award; in August 1964, young yellow singers Wu Da'an and others went to Guiyang to participate in the theatrical performances of "Gagro", "Singing Harvest" won the Outstanding Program Award; in the same year, when Xiao Huang singers performed in Beijing, they were received by Chairman Mao, Chairman Liu, Premier Zhou and other national leaders and took photos; in 1985, Xiao Huang singers Wu Weidong, Wu Xiufang and others went to Beijing to participate in "Singing Harvest" "Guizhou Dong Architectural Customs Exhibition" performed to welcome guests and returned home with a high reputation.
In the autumn of 1988, Xiao Huang began to introduce ethnic culture into the classroom based on local ethnic characteristics and local conditions, and added courses such as Dong songs, Dong opera, and embroidery, which brought new vitality to Xiao Huang. Xiao Huang has organized Xiao Huang's children's Dong singing group to perform in provincial capitals and capitals five times, and has been highly praised by people from all walks of life. In September 1994, five girls aged 9-12 including Pan Meihao from Xiaohuang Primary School participated in the "94 Beijing International Children's Art Festival" on behalf of the Dong people and returned home with great honors; in 1995 on the "June 1" International Children's Day, another It was these five Dong girls who were invited to Beijing to participate in the live broadcast of CCTV's "June 1" party and sang a multi-part a cappella Dong song, which caused a sensation across the country; in 1996, it was composed of four Dong girls including Wu Peijian from Xiaohuang Primary School The Dong Nationality Chorus went to France to perform with the Chinese Folk Art Troupe and performed 13 times in Paris. The venues were sold out and caused a sensation in Paris, known as the "Art Capital". They were received by the wife of the French Foreign Minister. In 2003, Guilin Zhang Yimou Art School came to Xiao Huang to recruit students and gave Xiao Huang 22 girls aged 9 to 12 years old to go to school for free. Now they are going through the procedures to go abroad and will perform in Japan. In 2003, at the "Dong Song Festival" in Xiaohuang, a "Thousand-person Chorale of Dong Songs" was successfully held. In August 2004, five singers including Xiao Huang Jia Meilan participated in the National Folk Song Competition and won the "King of Singers" gold medal. In the "Huangguoshu" Cup Singing Competition held for the first time in our province this year, the Xiaohuang Dong Singing Troupe once again won the "Golden Guizhou Award" for folk singing.
Xiaohuang is known as the "Ocean of Songs and the Hometown of Poems". In 1993, it was named the "Hometown of Dong Songs" by the Provincial Department of Culture; in 1996, it was named one of the first batch of "China's Dong Songs" by the Ministry of Culture Home of Folk Art”. Over the years, many domestic TV stations and thousands of domestic and foreign painters, photographers, musicians, and creators have come to Xiaohuang to collect folk photos and take a large number of folk photos. Xiaohuang is called the most valuable art treasure by artists, and it is also an ideal ecological and folk cultural tourist destination. There is an endless stream of tourists every day, and Xiaohuang's national culture has been widely recognized by society. In 2004, Xiaohuang was listed as one of the first priority tourist areas in Guizhou.
In recent years, with the support of his superiors, Xiao Huang has used his own advantages to develop tourism in ethnic villages. He has built two drum towers and a flower bridge, greened the roads and surrounding villages, and mobilized the whole people. The village's environmental sanitation has been improved, the brick houses that have been built have been wrapped with wood, a livestock trading market has been built, a new flower bridge is currently being built, and tourist facilities such as an ecological museum and a tourist reception station are under preparation.