> The art of seduction Love songs and temple festivals in northwest China

In the mountains of northwest China, crowds of people gather at remote temples every summer. The normally grim and deserted landscape becomes a backdrop for elaborate feasting, chanting and sacrificing. While the mood is festive, the meetings take place in a region which has seen centuries of violent conflict between Muslims and Buddhists, Han-Chinese and Tibetans. Inter-ethnic relationships remain uneasy, but during the temple festivals people from different backgrounds accept the challenge of competing with one another on a very different kind of battlefield: that of love.

Frank Kouwenhoven people. Moreover, no matter how spirit- tions are temporarily lifted under the many aspects of the tradition are mis- meet in the hua’er arena. Their tunes ed the songs may sound, the backdrop protective care of the gods. Married men interpreted or overlooked. What does it and lyrics are partly similar, suggesting he rough and high-pitched seduc- to this tradition is dark, connected to often do not want their wives to partici- actually mean for people to sing love inter-cultural contact over a long period Ttive chants of northwest China, more than teasing, flirting or having pate in the temple festivals and may songs together if they belong to ethni- of time. But hua’er are not a monolithic known as hua’er (flower songs) or children. attempt to stop them from going. But for cally different (and still hostile) groups? genre; many different (differently root- shaonian (youth songs) are famous all many Chinese women, festivals are the Where do hua’er originally come from? ed) local festival and courtship traditions over China. One needs to hear them The areas of rural Gansu and Qinghai only outlets they have, rare occasions to How do hua’er work in the context of must have merged in the course of his- only once to remember them: the pierc- where hua’er thrive are mostly barren meet kindred spirits and let off steam Islam, with its suppression of women? tory. Remnants of local traditions ing falsetto sounds and whirling orna- and dry. People have lived here for hun- after long periods of domestic seclusion. How does the process of musical court- remain in many places, and need to be ments immediately strike the ear. Many dreds of years to a disheartening rhythm As a festival proceeds, the atmosphere ing in hua’er actually unfold? Is there an studied on their own terms. Chinese know the name of a mountain of floods and droughts, famines and can become quite wild. Within the tem- ‘erotic’ component in the music? Can of near-mythical fame, Lianhuashan, warfare, with death an over-familiar vis- ple walls, women are sometimes seen to one ‘hear’ and ‘see’ courtship in action? Courtship in action where some 40,000 pilgrims meet to itor. In this context hua’er not only func- dance, to fall into trance or to behave in These are the questions we address in One fine summer day in 2003, we sing, pray and flirt every summer. The tion as major distractions or platforms theatrical fashion, as we witnessed in our fieldwork. descend a spacious valley as impressive outdoor gatherings in southern Gansu for furtive sexual encounters, but as some festivals. The singing of hua’er as the Grand Canyon. From time to and eastern Qinghai are usually carni- powerful tools in the struggle for godly outside the temples is a natural contin- Ethnic groups at time, there are mine explosions on valesque, with people indulging freely favours. Hua’er tunes are sometimes uation of this process of self-release and Lianhuashan opposite mountain flanks: they are seen in outdoor life, drinking, singing, and sung in temples to pray for offspring, to the lifting of normal social restraints. With its steep rock cliffs (some reaching first, in the shape of silent puffs of white flirting. beg for the curing of illnesses or pend- up to 3,800 m) and forested flanks clouds, and then heard, since sounds are ing death. In such cases, the applied for- Han Chinese in cities like Lanzhou or which host numerous temples, Lian- delayed for several seconds. A long and In China, extramarital courtship and mulae and metaphors may still derive Xining are mostly unaware of the exis- huashan, or ‘Lotus Mountain’, attracts colourful procession of tiny figures youthful love affairs are normally viewed from love songs, but the poems change tence of these festivals and react in dis- tens of thousands of visitors every year. walks down the trail leading to the tem- as licentious, but the rural temple festi- direction when sung in temples: pas- belief or even indignation when con- Throngs climb to the (multiple) tops of ple. Many people have travelled for days vals take place under the approving eye sionate imploring or ‘flirting’ is now to get here. Old women walk with diffi- of the gods. Lianhuashan and other out- directed towards the gods, begging for culty, on bound feet, or ride on donkeys. door areas (at a safe distance from the life, for rain, for protection of the crop, for a few days, people are allowed to fall in love Young girls are dressed colourfully, in civilized world of the villages) are tem- for fertility of the women. Temples have with strangers pink, red or light blue jackets. Near the porarily turned into sacred arenas: for a been erected in honour of Hua’er niang- temple, the human stream splits: the few days, people are allowed to fall in niang, the goddess of Hua’er and fertili- elderly enter the temple, the rest move love with strangers and to give vent to ty; some are adorned with visions of fronted with the rural practices. Official Lianhuashan every summer to burn to an open space where the hua’er their feelings in public. In the nearby young children sprawling on mountain government attitudes towards ethnicity incense at sacred sites. Many are singing takes place. Girls take the lead temples, elderly people sacrifice food, flanks. and rural religion show similar uneasi- tourists. The more traditional visitors to and sing the first songs. The men at first money and other gifts to divine ances- ness. Most Chinese academic research the festival include singers, beggars, seem reluctant to join in. They prefer to tors. A straw effigy of a spirit is drowned While the musical flirting does not on hua’er underplays or ignores the roles monks, soothsayers, mendicant Daoist shout pop songs in defiance of the hua’er in one of the local rivers to fend off evil result in sexual contact for most singers, of sex and religion. Temple festivals are priests, jugglers, blind musicians, ped- game, and bum around at the foot of the spirits. it can still be viewed as a form of sexual often referred to as ‘hua’er festivals’ and dlers, dancing madmen, instant come- mountain with their hands in their education. Umbrellas are carried around the singing is described as entertain- dians, gamblers and the occasional pockets. Yet after a while they shyly These acts are aimed at preventing ret- to provide shelter against the afternoon ment. Ethnic diversity among the transvestite. begin to sing some replies. One young ribution from gods and ghosts. Religion heat, but also, if necessary, to hide one’s singers is acknowledged, but is inter- male singer – with cheeks as red as a in China, no less than in Christian cul- embarrassment if song lyrics become preted mainly as a sign of China’s grow- The mountain and the surrounding lobster – shields his face from female ture, blooms and flourishes in the face too bold. ing unification: don’t these minorities region were originally Tibetan (pas- glances with a big parasol. But singers of sin. But there is an intriguing practi- mix happily with Han, isn’t their singing toralists’ and farmers’) territory. The rarely look at each other. All communi- cal side to the musical courting: furtive Wild atmosphere of hua’er in Chinese evidence of their influx of Han-Chinese from the 14th cation takes place via sound. After a love affairs during festivals sometimes Numerous taboos rest on the singing of acceptance of Han Chinese superiority? century onwards reached new heights while, the hills and cliffs resound with result in the birth of extramarital chil- hua’er, but during festivals most restric- With such a bland approach to hua’er, in the 16th century, and the Tibetans song, in a splendid chaos of voices. The dren, a welcome gift to women whose were gradually pushed out of the area. lyrics are rife with erotic hints and marriages have not been consummated. At this time the impact of Han-Chinese strange metaphors: Buddhism altered the face of Lian- Fertility huashan. In addition to a small number I put the horsewhip / Surely, the teasing songs of northwest of Daoist temples which Chinese wor- on the bookcase in the temple China are great entertainment, but they shippers had already built in pre-Ming I pull my sweetheart towards me have other functions as well. From our times, hundreds of new temples And feed her mouth with my tongue fieldwork begun in 1997, we infer that appeared on the mountain. Not far from intimate relationships which arise from Lianhuashan, a wall was built to sepa- The power of hua’er as a protective hua’er are mostly extra-marital – are rate Tibetan from Han-Chinese com- shield against natural disasters and indeed expected to take place between munities. Eventually Chinese restric- death, and their usage as a public vehi- people who already have marital part- tions on the mobility of Tibetans were cle for illicit passions and wild outings ners. Women who get pregnant at a tem- lifted, and the wall fell to ruins. secures the public’s fascination with this ple fair can incorporate the baby into culture. Ultimately, the songs are musi- their existing marriage without ques- Tibetans have maintained a strong pres- cal laughter in the face of adversity – a tions about the father’s identity. Obvi- ence at Lianhuashan. The entire area is bold laughter that celebrates love, defies ously no such ‘cover-up’ is available in a baffling hodge-podge of different cul- death, and challenges the gods to the case of unmarried women, who are tures, not only Tibetans. Many groups respond. < formally expected to refrain from are ‘sinified’, meaning that they can singing at (or going to) festivals. speak Chinese, or have even adopted it Frank Kouwenhoven and his partner as their first language. The Dongxiang, Antoinet Schimmelpenninck have been In reality, hua’er are sung by people of a Muslim people of Mongolian descent, collecting folk songs in China since 1986. In all ages, and the stakes are high for live in one of the driest and poorest 1990 they initiated CHIME, the European everyone who joins. Aged people may mountain landscapes of Gansu, just Foundation for Chinese Music Research not sing for sex – although their flashy south of Lanzhou. Hui, Bao’an, Salar, (http://home.wxs.nl/~chime). Kouwenhoven repartee often hints at sublimated pas- and various Mongguor groups occupy is the editor of a forthcoming book on music sion – but their performances still take Singing under a parasol, in a typical hua’er posture, with one’s hand raised near one’s ear. other territories, which they usually and seduction in different cultures. place under the eye of large crowds of CHIME archive share with local Han. All these groups [email protected]

IIAS Newsletter | #40 | Spring 2006 7