Posted 2018/11/5
Chaohu City, screened with the Yangtze River and surrounded by the Chaohu Lake, is located in the middle of Anhui Province. The Hexian Hominid Site, dating back to 300 to 400 thousand years ago, provides evidence in support of the conclusion that it is one of the birthplaces of Chinese culture. With the ancient history of Chaohu, the Chaohu Folk Song is still popular today, evolving from simplicity to complication and singleness to diversity.
Chaohu people love singing and composing folk songs. Able to compose songs spontaneously and appropriately, bright singers can sing on everything and everywhere. There are three categories of Chaohu Folk Song, namely, work song, mountain song and ditty, with complete varieties and rich contents.
Since the foundation of the PRC in 1949, the Chaohu Folk Song has undergone a significant development. After collecting and collating more than 1000 original folk songs, literary and art workers incorporated over 500 songs into a variety of songbooks, among which 111 were in the Collections of Chinese Folk Songs (Anhui), 20 were in the 100 Anhui Folk Songs, over 30 were in textbooks of middle school, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music and more than 20 were made into a record which was issued at home and abroad by the Shanghai Record Agency and presented to the UNESCO as a gift. In March 1955, the folk song A Girl and Her Sister-in-law Q & A on Flowers was performed in Huairen Hall by peasant singers, Hu Jiying and Liu Hongying, who were received by Mao Zedong and other leaders of the first generation of the CPC and the new country.
The Chaohu Folk Song is a popular artistic form. Carrying on and promoting the folk songs of Chaohu are of important realistic value to enrich people’s cultural life. The themes and types of it boast high academic value for study on the histories of Anhui folk songs and Chinese folk music.
