24 Qiandongnan special Wednesday, July 20, 2016 CHINA DAILY TOURISTS FLOCK TO ENJOY A thousand people perform Grand Song of the Dong ethnic group together at a local event. COLORFUL Fans, o cials ETHNIC fi ght to save a CULTURES grand tradition By TANG ZHIHAO and YANG JUN Jia Fuying, a Dong ethnic man from Xiaohuang village in Congjiang county, Guizhou province, has committed himself to promoting the development of the Grand Song of Dong ethnic group for the past six decades. The Dong ethnic group’s use of songs to preserve its Clockwise from top: Three young women of the Miao ethnic group greet visitors at a festival in Leishan county in Guizhou’s Qiandongnan. CHEN PEILIANG / FOR CHINA DAILY The Xijiang cultural traditions was recognized as part of the world’s 1,000-Household Miao village. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY The ancient county of Zhenyuan, another popular tourist destination in Qiandongnan. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY A beautiful intangible cultural heritage in 2009. The songs, which landscape of terraces growing wheat at Congjiang county in Qiandongnan. NING JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY feature multi-part singing performed without instru- mental accompaniment or a leader, act as a channel for passing on Dong culture generation by generation. By DONG JIDONG and YANG JUN Hou used a loan of 200,000 yuan to Jia, who is more than 80 years old, started to perform turn his home into a rural home inn Grand Song in his 20s and has created more than 800 n ethnic prefecture in South- and rented it for 55,000 yuan a year. songs. He visited many Dong ethnic villages in China, west China’s Guizhou prov- After he started to run the inn himself including the Sanjiang Dong autonomous county in the ince has built a robust tourism in 2015, his monthly income surpassed Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. A industry based on ethnic cul- 10,000 yuan. “I was invited to perform in many Dong villages when ture that has greatly improved people’s “I could hardly imagine that I would I was young,” Jia said. “I had to stay in a village for one livelihoods over the past three decades. become a boss one day and drive my or two months because all the villagers loved my songs.” The Qiandongnan Miao and Dong own car,” Hou said. Jia stopped visiting Dong villages in recent years because autonomous prefecture in southeast- There are 331 home inns in Xijiang, of his age, but he did not stop teaching and promoting ern Guizhou launched ethnic village compared to 40-plus in 2007. More Grand Song among young people in his hometown. tourism in the mid-1980s and grad- and more villagers are choosing to Jia said he is still keen to create new songs when his ually promoted the unique tourism stay in their hometowns and shake health allows. He said creating modern Grand Song product to all 16 counties and cities oJ poverty by doing tourism-related expands the cultural base of Dong people. under its jurisdiction. businesses, including making silver Jia is not the only Dong person who has dedicated A total of 276 well-preserved ethnic jewelry and clothes, photography and himself to promoting Grand Song. Pan Sayinhua, 74, villages in the prefecture are included producing handicrafts. has oJ ered free classes at his home for decades to try on a national list of traditional vil- More than 3 million tourists visited to increase awareness of Grand Song. More than 1,200 lages, more than in any other city-level Xijiang in 2015, compared to 2 mil- people have participated in Pan’s training classes. administrative region in China. lion in 2011, 1.75 million in 2010 and Pan was recognized by the Ministry of Culture as a In the fi rst quarter this year, Qian- 777,000 in 2008. national-level intangible cultural heritage representative dongnan received 13.47 million tour- Middle school students in Rongjiang county learn to sing and play the pipa, a plucked inheritor in 2009. ists, a year-on-year increase of 40 per- string instrument. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Li Jiaxu contributed to this story. “I have to work hard to be a qualifi ed ethnic cultural cent, according to official statistics. inheritor,” Pan said. “I will keep promoting and singing Tourism revenue rose 44.7 percent to Contact the writers through dongji- Grand Song until the end of my life.” 11 billion yuan ($1.65 billion). [email protected]. Awareness of Grand Song has grown strongly on the In 2015, some 51.5 million tourists world stage in recent years. visited the prefecture, generating rev- Nine Dong girls were invited to perform in Japan, dur- enue of more than 38.4 billion yuan, ing former premier Wen Jiabao’s visit in 2007. increases of 21 percent and 23 percent Nineteen young Dong people performed aspects of respectively year-on-year. Guizhou Hunan their traditional culture at the Vienna Golden Hall in During the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011- Guiyang Austria in June 2010. 15), the prefectural government estab- The Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefec- lished a reform and development work Qiandongnan ture plans to continue spreading awareness of Grand Song group headed by the prefecture’s Party as part of its promotion of cultural and ecological tourism. chief to promote the growth of tourism, which was seen as a strategic pillar Saving and promoting Grand Song industry. an Guangxi Increasing numbers of young people are leaving their Fan Zhongsheng, director of the hometowns to seek better lives outside Guizhou and prefecture’s commission of tourism that means fewer people are engaging in the creation development, said: “We have made and performance of Grand Song. Some young people breakthroughs in improving our tour- 200 km do not even have a basic knowledge of the Grand Song ism brands, innovating tourism-related tradition. mechanisms and building support- Figures provided by the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong ing facilities, including a sophisticated If you go autonomous prefecture government show that there are transportation network during the Young women participate in an embroidery competition in Rongjiang county. only about 200 prefecture-level or higher Grand Song period.” intangible cultural heritage representative inheritors Situated in the Miaoling Mountain By air in the region who are promoting the development of area, Qiandongnan was established a national nature reserve. ond highest — tourist attraction by There are two airports in the Grand Song. This is far fewer than expected. Most of on July 23, 1956. The prefecture covers The abundant forest resources have the National Tourism Administration prefecture, Liping Airport and Kaili these people are over 56 years old. 30,300 square kilometers and is home made the prefecture a natural oxy- in 2011. Visitors can see original Miao Huangping Airport. Liping Airport “Grand Song in Guizhou is a great achievement of to more than 30 ethnic groups. gen bar that is rich in negative oxygen dances, customs, rites, costumes and has one fl ight a day between Liping previous generations,” said Wu Jinyan, a resident of With a population of 4.6 million, it ions, the level of which is 22 times the silver ornaments in the village. and Changsha and three a week Zaigong village, Yandong town, Liping county. “If we is the most populous of all 30 ethnic national average. There is good air By the end of last year, the Xijiang between Liping and Shanghai. cannot add new elements and content, it will perish like prefectures in China. Non-Han ethnic quality in the prefecture for 99 percent Miao village had been visited by more Kaili Huangping Airport has two a dried-up river.” peoples account for more than 80 per- of the year. than 3.4 million tourists, which gener- fl ights a week between Huangping The prefecture government has taken many measures cent of the prefecture’s population. The Xijiang ethnic Miao village in ated revenue of more than 2.66 billion and Guangzhou, Guangdong to protect local culture in recent years. It provides more “Qiandongnan is an amazing place Leishan county is the biggest Miao yuan. province, three a week between subsidies to cultural inheritors and has expanded chan- that features pristine nature, tradi- village in the world. The local villagers Hou Tianbao, a villager in Xijiang, Huangping and Guiyang, Guizhou nels to recruit more cultural inheritors. It has also intro- tional ethnic cultures and the beauty have benefi ted greatly from the prefec- used to collect waste with his wife and province, and three a week between duced various policies to protect the benefi ts and rights of social harmony,” said Feng Shiwen, ture’s strategy of developing tourism. could barely make ends meet. Most of Huangping and Hangzhou, Zhejiang of cultural inheritors. Detailed policies were brought in head of the prefecture. The Xijiang 1,000-Household Miao his fellow villagers left to work in big province. to recognize groups of cultural inheritors and provide In 1997, UNESCO listed Qiandong- village consists of more than 10 natu- cities. Kaili Huangping Airport also has more economic support to all cultural inheritors. nan on its “Embrace Nature” list as rally formed villages that have long His and other villagers’ fate changed three fl ights a week between The Guizhou provincial government initiated a fi ve- one of the world’s top 10 tourism des- been inhabited by nearly 1,300 Miao after the third provincial tourism Huangping and Guilin, Guangxi year support plan in 2014 in Liping, Congjiang and tinations. households (hence the name). development conference was held Zhuang autonomous region, and Rongjiang counties to strengthen the development of With more than 65 percent of the The village cluster displays the in Xijiang in 2008.