CD by SUBLIME FREQUENCIES USA 2012
Ethnic Minority Music of Southern China
by Laurent Jeanneau
The fifth Sublime Frequencies volume in Laurent Jeanneau's amazing documentation of vanishing indigenous music of the rural Asian frontiers, this release focuses on ethnic minority groups of Southern China. Presented here are 17 tracks of supremely infectious vocals and folkloric instrumentals played on a wide variety of local traditional instruments. The centerpiece of this collection is the 13-minute "Do Djui Atsei" (track 5), an absolutely epic male and female group choral vocal piece which is improvised as a song of intimate personal emotions that brings tears to the performers as they are singing together. Jeanneau has spent many years traversing the hills and valleys of Southeast Asia and China, and he has captured a dizzying array of folk music, much of which has never been documented before. He is perhaps the most committed and accomplished procurer of rare and threatened music from the region and seems more focused than ever, as he states in his liner notes for this release: "In China, by the end of the 1950s, 400 ethnic groups registered to be counted in the census. There might be 300 remaining groups nowadays. I was facing an incredible amount of potential musicians. Now after six years spent in Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces, I have recorded 55 CDs of raw stuff. This Sublime Frequencies product is a compilation from those CDs, displaying the diversity I was able to find between 2006 and 2012, and I'm not finished."

CD ETHNIC MINORITY MUSIC OF SOUTHERN CHINA

I had been in China in 1992 and 2001/2002,  but it s only in 2006 that
i came back to do recordings of minorities, without knowing where that
would lead me . Anyone familiar with China has heard the official
ethnic composition of China : the 56 minzu or ethnic groups, 55 ethnic
minorities  plus the Hans, the main ethnic group being something like
93 % of the chinese population, the 7 % remaining totalize more than
125 million people. the politically motivated concept of 56 minzu is a
communist anthropological farce, by the end of the 50s, 400 ethnic
groups registered to be counted in the census, there  might be  300
remaining groups nowadays. I was facing an incredible amount of
potential musicians, now after 6 years spent in Yunnan, Sichuan and
Guizhou provinces, I have recorded 55 cds of raw stuff, this sublime
frequencies product is a compilation   of these cds, displaying the
diversity  I was able to find between 2006 and 2012, and I m not
finnished....
In chinese rural areas where i ve wandered alone, with my wife or some
other people, I was trying my luck , not always successfull in my
quest for the unheard sound and I shall conclude that the first phasis
of acculturation has been achieved in most parts, I consider
acculturation developping in 3 phasis, the first one being the lost of
musical instruments to go along the lost of ritualistic events, the
second phasis is the disappearing of ancient songs, as much in the
traditional form as in the traditional content of those songs, and the
third phasis is simply the disappearing of the language ( which seems
to be very common nowadays all over the world ). So when  I have to
deal with the second phasis in the process of acculturation , I am not
going to find any instruments and the singers are likely to be over 60
years old. You have been warned this is definitely not music that
entertain a crowd of young chinese punks on amphetamines, only pure
and straight emotional music,  regardless of their total unfashionable
being, this kind of music is the reason to stay in china, a country
with a controversial policy of bastardization of true ethnic cultures
into a commodity  for the growing ethno tourism. please remember that
i am NOT an ethnomusicologist, passion has brought me there, in search
of healing sounds, by healing  I mean trying to erase  from  your
memory all the formatted commercial music that has brainwashed us,
avoiding us to reach the simple and beautiful !

1 SUMI YEINYO
HANI CRYING SONG
we are not listening to the original scene but to a theatrical  remake
of the scene that happens in  families of those rural areas ( the
mountains ), a daughter is marrying a man faraway from her village and
cries out the day she s moving out, the parents cry and everybody
around. Involving 5 women and 2 men. Recorded in Azhahe, Honghe,
Yunnan, China in february 2011 with Zhang Xinrong and Pierre Bois.
The HANI are  linguistically derived from the YI branch of the
Tibeto-burmese, are a million and half in the southern part of Yunnan
above Laos and Vietnam where smaller Hani communities also live. The
singers are from Pushun village, Luomo, Azhahe south of Honghe. They
belong to the PAINA subgroup.

2 PAMBIE (Nuosu language ) or SIXIAN (Chinese language )
NUOSU ( YI ) 4 stringed plucked instrument  performed by DAJIU XIBO a
65 years old man.  Recorded in Xichang, Da Liangshan, Sichuan, China
in september 2010.
Da liangshan in mountainous southern part of Sichuan is home of the
main sub group of the YI , who call themselves NUOSU with more than 2
millions people. The particularity of this Yi subgroup is the use of a
unique traditional written system, the ancient NUOSU books are used by
local shaman called BIMO.  Belonging to the tibeto burmese language
family, the various Yi subgroups are 8 millions people, established
mostly in Yunnan and southern Sichuan and divided at least in 6
subgroups.

3 SONG ON THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD (kai tian pi di)  Canon singing
performed by 2 women DENG FU MEI  and ZHANG WU MEI in their 40s who are chanting reading from ancient books. Recorded in Yao zhai, Azhahe, Honghe, Yunnan, China in march 2009 .
The YAO who call themselves MIEN  for the red Yaos and MOON for the
blue Yaos, are more than 2 millions people spread over the southern
chinese province of Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan, but have also
migrated to Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the 19 th century, belonging
to the MIAO/YAO or HMONG/MIEN ethno linguistic family. here are 2 MOONwomen ( blue YAO  ) who still know ancient songs, some being well
known and some being recited by reading ancient books written in
ancient chinese characters. The Yaos have been associated with chinese
Taoism for centuries and those books are a mixture of taoist teachings
and YAO  mythologies.

4 NOITIEY mother s advice to her daughters, song of a mother  ( PU XIU
WEN ) with her 2 daughters answering. Recorded in Xue Gua Chong,
Sheping, Yunnan, China in february 2011  with Zhang Xinrong and Pierre
Bois.. The HUA YAO YI who call themselves NISU are a sub group of the
so called Yi previously called Lolo by the Hans, are more than one
million people in the southern part of Yunnan, belonging to tibeto
burmese family. The area of Sheping, north of Honghe is home of the
northern group of Nisu, called flower belt YI in chinese.

5 DO DJUI  ATSEI intimate improvisation between men and women of the
same generation.
 Recorded in Azhahe, Honghe, Yunnan, China in february 2011 with Zhang
Xinrong and Pierre Bois.
The HANI are  linguistically derived from the YI branch of the
Tibeto-burmese, are a million and half in the southern part of Yunnan
above Laos and Vietnam where smaller Hani communities also live. The
musicians and singers  are from Pushun village, Luomo, Azhahe south of
Honghe, including 7 women singers who also use babi (single tree leaf
) and mepa ( rolled up tree leaf in a shape of a horn ) : JA JINU 35
years old, BEN YASEN 40, MA SI SO 50, LI YI NIE 38, TSEI YOSO 31, LI
CHUYO 40, SENG SI SO 54. The men: CHENG KESA 54, NO MISE 54 and CAI SHI NYANG 47 are using a chiwo ( a 3 stringed bowed instrument ), a labi ( a 6 holes bamboo flute ), a latche ( a  3 stringed small lute )
and a meba ( a vertical reed instrument )
As with many other ethnic groups of the area, an original traditional singing pattern is used , each singer is adapting the words to the context.
Many of these songs express intimate strong emotions that bring tears
to the performers, while  they are singing. The choir that gather all
singers at the same time is a very unique style of vocal polyphony or
heterophony ?

6  WU  BULANG THERAVADA BUDDHIST DRUM ENSEMBLE
large percussions ensemble for the theravada buddhist new year mid of
april, 8 women are dancing in a circle holding and hitting each a SA
TOUA HUM , in the center a man hit s a SA TOUA A, a 1m20 high drum,
outside of the dancing circle a man or a monk hits the huge temple
drum also called SA TOUA A, or SA TOUA NOI SO A, 2 gongs of different
size ( BA UOM ) and 2 pairs of cymbals  ( BA CHIANG ) are also being
used in the ceremony. Recorded in Da Bang Xie, Shuangjiang,Lincang,
Yunnan, China in october 2011 with Huang Peishan and Olivier
Schneider.
The BULANG ( 100 000 people ), first called PUMAN by the Chinese
belong to the Mon Khmer  ( austro asiatic ) linguistic family ( spread
from Cambodia to eastern India ) and divided into sub groups with
distinctive languages, they are 32 000 Bulang in Lincang. The WU are
one of them. Few Bulang villages haven t converted to Theravada
Buddhism, while most did under the influence of Dai who ruled the area
for centuries before the chinese moved in. Religious music as much as
non religious one still carry the Dai cultural influence.

7 GU TONG YUE WU new rice song performed by  DONG KE 60 years old
woman. That song was performed while beating the rice with a long pole
into a wooden container.  Recorded in Banyang , Dehong, Yunnan, China
in december 2011 with Shi Tanding
Out of 500 000 JINGPAWs , 140 000 live in China  ( mostly in Dehong
county, Yunnan province )at the boarder with Myanmar and  the majority
live in Myanmar where they  are called KACHIN. In both countries the
majority has become christian a 100 years ago. In Dehong,  so called
DAI JINGPAW autonomous region, the Dais occupy the plains and the
Jingpaws live higher up. Divided in subgroups with different
languages, most of the people  are ZAIWA ( 100 00 people ).

8 PUMI SONG performed by a woman in  Tuo qi, Da Liangshan, Sichuan,
China. Recorded in october 2006 with Shi Tanding. The PUMI a small
tibeto burmese group,  of 30 000 people living around lake Lugu in
Yunnan and Sichuan, has maintained certain animist practise beside
adopting tibetan buddhism 350 years ago.

9 RESPONDED LOVE SONG  performed by 2 men GUO WEN BIAO  and GUO ZHONG
and 2 women  MEI HUA  and PENG HUA . Recorded in Wuqi, Dali, Yunnan, China in february 2010 with Shi Tanding.
The LALUO  are another  subgroup of the so called YI ( which just
meant savage basically ! ), they are 600 000 spread over the counties
of Dali, Lincang, Baoshan, having  their own language and more or less
under cultural influence of the LISU .

10 LOVE SONG performed by SHI SHENYAN 33 years old woman singing and SHI SHUNLING 57 years old man playing NIU TUI QIN  a 2 stringed bowed viole. Recorded in Zhaoxin, Liping, Guizhou, China in april 2012 with Shi Tanding.
The DONG who call themselves KAM or GAEM are 3 millions people spread from western Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi and northern Vietnam. They belong to the Tai Kadai  ethno linguistic family. We came to Judong village to find   a 33 years old woman singer, who performed with the 2
essential Dong instruments, the 4 stringed plucked lute called DONG
PIPA and the 2 stringed bowed viole called NIUTUIQIN. Those love songs
 come from a huge repertoire of sung love poetry , which is less and
less used by young people.

11 DONGLIANG copper reed mounted on  a bamboo tube  performed by GUN XIANGDIU 40 years old man and  GUN NADAO 42 years old man singing a love song. Recorded in Biasha, Congjiang, Guizhou, China in march 2012 with Shi Tanding.
The term MIAO is a very ancient chinese misleading pseudo ethnic
categorisation,  of what we call HMONG in western languages,  Miao is
a negative generic term which does not reveal the diversity of 38
subgroups, totalizing 9 millions people, mostly in Guizhou province.
recorded in Biasha village, which has recently turned into what i call
an ethnic zoo, tourists pay a ticket to take millions of photos of
those costumed girls and the peculiar haircut of men, simplified music
and dance are being shown to crowds of Han and western tourists.
Luckily we also found some musical expression which is not part of
this touristic fashion, a more intimate  set up composed of 2 reeds (
DONGLIANG is a bamboo flute with a copper reed inserted in the mouth
and requires circular breathing technique ) and male and female
singers, intended as love songs, here is a duo of dongliang and male
voice.

12 AMUKADELA song of the love of a daughter to her mother, performed
by WANG LILIANG 63 years old plays isong (2 double  stringed plucked
instrument with a large round body ), WU BIEN REN 69 plays saxian (3
stringed plucked instrument with a small body). The singing women are
TZA POSI 46 years old, PU SANSEI 49 years old and LI APA 49 years old
who also use muga ( copper jew s harp ) and munga ( bamboo jew s harp)
. The Nisu, a sub group of the so called Yi previously called Lolo by
the Hans are more than one million people in the southern part of
Yunnan, belonging to tibeto burman family. The area of Azhahe south of
Honghe is home of the southern group of Nisu and  other ethnic groups
like the Hani or Yao.Their traditional Nisu orchestra, gather 11
people between 35 and 69 years old.
Recorded in Dishi, Azhahe, Honghe, Yunnan, China in february 2011 with
Zhang Xinrong and Pierre bois.

13 ISONG  ( Nisu language ) or SIXIAN (Chinese language )
NISU ( YI ) 2 double  stringed plucked instrument with a large round
body )  recorded in Xiao Chong xiang, Sheping, Yunnan, China in
february 2011 with Zhang Xinrong .
The Nisu, a sub group of the so called Yi previously called Lolo by
the Hans are more than one million people in the southern part of
Yunnan, belonging to tibeto burman family. The area of Sheping,  is
home of the northern group of Nisu, called flower belt YI in chinese.

14 CHUEI calling back the soul performed by PU ZAO  a 47 years old
BIMO (a kind of shaman who can recite/sing from ancient books written
with specific YI characters) . HUA YAO YI (NISU) people seem to carry
on the tradition, this rather young Bimo continues several generations
of Bimo and learnt from his father how to read these specific
characters. A lot of the reciting is appropriate for funerals  and
death related situations but also as psychological treatment. Recorded
in Xiao Chong xiang, Sheping, Yunnan, China in february 2011 with
Zhang Xinrong and Pierre Bois .

15 WEDDING SONG performed by YANG XIAO SI  61 years old woman.
Recorded in Ongding, Cang Yuan, Lincang, Yunnan, China in april 2010
with Shi Tanding and Julien Claus .
The WA are one of the few ethnic groups in China who speak a Mon-Khmer language, an austro-asiatic language, they are 400 000 people living in southern Lincang prefecture in southern Yunnan at the boarder with Myanmar. Everytime we met Wa people during our trip, they mention with a smile the ancient fear of Wa warriors being head hunters  in the
past .
ONDING village has kept his old flavor, under the guidance of a
governmental tourism project that intended to keep the village and the
culture of WA people intact, 100 families live in this 300 years old
village.

16 NIU TUI QIN a 3 stringed small lute plucked with the hard
extremity of a chicken s feather, was used  as an intimate way to ask
permission to a girl to let the player comes in. Performed by 2 LAWA
old men SEU and  his neighbour, both 80 years old, recorded  in
Ananjie, Shuangjiang, Lincang, Yunnan, China in october 2011 with
Huang Peishan and Olivier Schneider . The BULANG ( 100 000 people ),
first called PUMAN by the Chinese belong to the Mon Khmer  ( austro
asiatic )linguistic family ( spread from Cambodia to eastern India )
and divided into sub groups with distinctive languages, they are 32
000 Bulang in Lincang. The  LAWA are one of them.  Here we found a
surviving small intimate string instrument which soft delicate sound
to be played to the girl  you like.

17  CHANG FO JI  or buddhist song loop machine, is a small plastic box
with  a speaker, containing buddhist prayers. The inherant
repetitiveness of buddhist mantras was made to fit loop machines
technology, the chinese did it ! here is a tibetan prayer. activate
the loop function  and repeat as much as needed !