It was a folksy occasion with a difference.

Befitting the capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region with its history of traditional music and ethnic minorities, scores of folk singers from all over the world poured into Nanning to show off their vocal skills.

The singers, dressed in various colorful ethnic costumes, sang to their hearts content on the expansive well-manicured lawns in major parks, hills in the suburbs, squares beneath high-rises or in schools.

They sang in groups or in pairs. One young woman, wearing long plaits, sang with a sweet smile, while leaning against a palm tree, holding a young male singer's hand in her own.

The occasion was the annual International Folk Songs Festival held between November 10 and 25.

The often high-pitched voices of the songs, flowing across the whole city into the distance, drew crowds around them and aroused heated debate over how to preserve diversified folk song traditions in China.

Long tradition

To many of the nearly 3 million local residents in Nanning and to tens of millions of local people of 36 ethnic groups in Guangxi, singing has been their traditional way of life for centuries.

Almost every ethnic group - Zhuang, Miao, Yao, Hui, Dong, Mulao and Maonan - holds an annual song festival.

One of the biggest traditional festivals is that of the Zhuang which falls on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar.

Their singing tradition is traceable as far back as the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The legendary diva among Zhuang folk singers is Liu Sanjie, who is still called the "immortal singer."

Folk singing spread to every corner of Guangxi, whether in rugged mountains or in valleys.

Songs are used when meeting friends, entertaining guests, working, talking, greeting newborn children and even burying the dead.

At gexu (the open folk song contests), singers have to improvise lyrics to well-known tunes.

During the contests, each team first introduces itself with songs, then they sing in an antiphonal style. Then the chairman will state a theme for the teams to sing in competition.

In the past, people sang things very close to their daily lives and work. Now singers have added new themes to cover international affairs and social and political issues.

Huang Yaqiao, 38, from Liuzhou, a city to the northwest of Nanning, sang: "The globe is a village and people from across the world are all friends" and "We wish for peace but hate war."

He said: "I learned the tunes from my father who learned from his father."

Huang won a singing contest with two fellow villagers at the festival and he added: "Singing has become a part of our life and the lyrics and melodies flow from our mouths whenever we want to sing."

Folk songs also acted as matchmakers between young people. Many young people traditionally used such spontaneous songs to court potential spouses.

Singers from outside

Folk singers from outside Guangxi are no less competitive as they have inherited a long singing tradition from their forefathers too.

Li Qilin, 25, from Danzhou, South China's Hainan Province, said during a break in a gexu that about 60 to 70 percent of the youths in his village find their loved ones during local singing competitions and also sing in an antiphonal style.

Li and friends were invited to Nanning International Folk Songs Festival to show their local folk tunes, known as "diaosheng." These tunes originated in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and prevailed in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The mid-autumn day is their songs festival every year. When the bright moon rises in the sky, young people sing and dance in the wild fields, Li said.

The young men and women usually stand face to face in two rows and lovers would dance hand in hand, Li said.

Will folk songs last?

The organizers have deemed the festival successful as the folk singers' performances impressed both the general public and the critics.

"I used to like pop songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan. I did not know folk songs sounded so beautiful until the school organized us to watch the performance today," said Xu Liang, 16, a student from Nanning No 13 Middle School, when he watched the show at Chaoyang Park.

Fan Ximu, vice-president of Chinese Ethnic Music Society, was happy with the folk singers' popularity.

"The thousands of people, men and women, young and old, who thronged to watch the folk singers' performances prove folk songs still have their appeal."

But researchers have warned indigenous rural culture such as folk songs may be disintegrating with the development of small townships and small cities and the influx of urban culture and Western influences.

Many young people have already left rural homes for the bright lights and potentially higher wages of big cities.

Even those who stay in the villages and work in the fields listen to pop music, watch music videos and go to discos or karaoke bars for entertainment.

With modern asphalt or cement roads stretching into the mountain villages, a young woman no longer needs to sing at the top of her voice to greet her lover who is working across the narrow valley in the other mountain.

In fact, they no longer spend time learning the songs their parents and grandparents used to sing.

Tang Xiu'ai, 20, from Danzhou, said: "I learned singing from my mother but I cannot sing as well as she can as I only learned some of the tunes she sings. I am not that good at improvisation because it is not necessary for me to break into impromptu songs as she had to previously."

In Napo, a small county nestling in the mountains southwest Guangxi, about 80 kilometers (49.7 miles) from Nanning, young people also prefer pop songs to folk songs.

The county is the home for four ethnic groups - Zhuang, Miao, Yao and Yi - and the centuries-old singing custom has continued among the local people with many imbued with natural talent.

However, they have quickly embraced modern fashion. Though the county is much poorer than modern cities, several karaoke bars scatter the streets and keep bustling until midnight.

To urban visitors, the pop melodies pumped out of loud speakers disturb the tranquility of this mountainous county.

Researchers claim it is impossible for a village to maintain its original flavor after its society has been opened up to the outside world.

But how to preserve the diversified folk singing tradition among the different ethnic minority groups will remain a major challenge for both researchers and local people.

The organizers of the annual folk festival have adopted their own methods to tackle the problem.

"It doesn't work to sing the old songs in the old way any more," explained Chen Xiaoning, director of Nanning Cultural Bureau. "We must breathe new life into the folk songs."

This "new life" is being nurtured by inviting singers from abroad to take part in the festival. Pop stars appeared on stage, giving the old songs a modern twist, a practice that has made these pop-folk songs quite popular on the streets and campuses.

But critics have frowned on the practice. They point out the pop stars' interpretations are not folk songs at all.

"The composers and singers re-arrange the folk songs in the styles of pop, bel canto, or other styles and even create so-called "new folk songs" in order to please audiences nowadays," commented Tan Chengqin, director of Guangxi Folk Songs Society.

He noted those new ingredients that have been mixed with folk melodies spoil the original folk songs. "The young generation will have difficulty telling what real folk songs are," Tang said.

A few other critics point out the danger lies in the fact that a number of well-established folk singers have given up their own distinctive voices for a more refined but rather homogeneous style of singing.

The songs they sing are no longer related to the lives and concerns of the common people.

Jin Tielin, president of China Conservatory of Music, said: "Many composers are divorced from the masses and their works are prosaic, duplicate and fail to reflect people's lives."

Jin worked as one of the judges of the National Vocal Contest for Ethnic Groups and pointed out after the contest: "Folk songs expressing the inner feelings and living situations of today's ordinary people are badly needed."

Times are changing; people are changing. They may want to sing both old songs and new songs, which reflect contemporary social reality.

But how to satisfy them? Many critics said artists writing folk music should throw out old ideas and create something that has both a traditional flavor and meets the tastes of present-day audiences. It is easy to say but difficult to do.

Some critics claim any kind of art form goes through a process of birth, development and decline.

So the question remains whether the beautiful melodies of folk songs will die or become stage programs to attract tourists and investors at an international festival.

(China Daily November 26, 2001)