Collection of Folk Songs from Southwest China

Description

A collection of 700+ folk songs from southwest China compiled by a National Southwest Associated University student as a member of the Hunan-Guizhou-Yunnan Marching Brigade (or "Bu Xing Tuan") during a 68-day trek from Changsha to Kunming in 1938.

After the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, three leading universities in north China-Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University-were forced to move southward to Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, and formed the National Changsha Provisional University (the predecessor of National Southwest Associated University, or Xi'nan Lianda). Then the university was forced to move again westward in February 1938 amidst the war.

More than 200 students and 11 professors were selected to form the "National Changsha Provisional University Hunan-Guizhou-Yunnan Marching Brigade" (commonly known as "Bu Xing Tuan"), walking over 1,600 kilometers across 26 counties in three provinces to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in remote southwest China. During this 68-day trek, these students and professors conducted economic, cultural, and social investigations, and completed the unique "long cultural march" in the history of Chinese education. This book is a product of this journey.

Despite intolerable hardships, the author collected more than 2,000 original folk songs from local villagers in Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces. In this book, he carefully selected over 700 folk songs in six categories, including love songs, children's songs, War of Resistance songs, tea-picking songs, grievance songs, and miscellaneous.

These folk songs vividly reflected the social customs and sentiments of ordinary people living in remote villages of southwest China at that time. Today, these folk songs still provide invaluable insights on multiethnic culture. Additionally, this book includes three new chapters to help readers understand the context of the times.