Qingpu farm songs
Print Edition
SUNG in the local dialect to quick tempos, these songs have been raising the spirits of farmers tilling the soil for centuries.
“My father taught me how to sing them,” says Zhang Yonglian, 80, who is considered a master in the old art. “We had no music scores. It was all spontaneous and improvised.”
The songs revolved around three tones, which are normally sung by farmers taking a break, working in rice paddies or feeding poultry. The free-ranging lyrics can be about flowers, or the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, or favorite myths or even anecdotes about daily life.
“Whenever work in the fields was tiring, someone would break into song and everyone joined in,” Zhang says. “The songfest invigorated everyone.”
Urbanization has bulldozed over much of Shanghai’s farmland, and agriculture itself has become more mechanized. The old tradition of singing in the fields has largely been forgotten.
“It’s really a hard tradition to carry forward because no one is singing anymore,” says Yang Xiaofeng, 53, who studied under Zhang and has been singing the songs for about 12 years.
Yang says he wants to preserve the old folk songs. He has been writing down lyrics and notes, and filming videos of performances. So far, more than 80 songs have been preserved. With the support of the local government, Zhang and Yang have been teaching the songs to third-graders.
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