Liu Rihong in the Li River. Photo provided by the interviewee
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily trainee reporter Wu Xinyu reporter Xie Yang
"You are old when you sing folk songs, and now your old eyes are dim. Leave the inheritance of folk songs to me. Take off your royal hat and give it to me."
April On the 10th, at the 2024 China Liuzhou "Yufeng Song Fair" National Folk Song Invitational Competition and the "Song Fairy Liu Sanjie" Guangxi Folk Song King Competition, the person who challenged Lu Xiuru, the "king of kings" of Guangxi folk songs, was a young girl. Facing the experienced Senior, she has no stage fright and always sings impromptu duets with a smile on her face.
This smiling post-90s girl is named Liu Rihong. Because she is sunny and cheerful, she gave herself the nickname "Little Sun". From a college student majoring in tourism to the representative inheritor of Liuzhou City's representative intangible cultural heritage project "Liuzhou Yufeng Song Fair", this post-90s girl spent 6 years fulfilling her folk song dream and bringing Liuzhou folk song culture to the world. "distance".
Getting to know folk songs
Liu Rihong was born in Liuzhou, Guangxi. The colorful drama and movie "Liu Sanjie" accompanied her growing up. In that era before the Internet was popularized, learning to sing the folk song excerpts in "Liu Sanjie" became an important entertainment activity in her childhood, and the seed of a "folk song dream" also sprouted at that time.
When she graduated from university in 2018, Liu Rihong, a tourism major, aimed at the direction of cultural tourism. She wanted to combine the culture of her hometown’s “Yufeng Song Fair” with her tourism major, so she decided to take the “Liuzhou City’s Yufeng Song Fair” tourism project Write a graduation thesis titled "Cultural Connotation and Development Suggestions".
In order to find more outstanding mountain singers to interview and collect materials, she searched for three days in Yufeng Park, but she could not find a suitable candidate. So, this Liuzhou girl who refused to admit defeat went directly to the door of the Yufeng District Culture and Tourism Bureau, hoping to get to know some outstanding singers through official channels.
It was this "impulse" that made her meet her current master, Lu Lianfang, the king of Guangxi singers and the representative inheritor of the autonomous region-level intangible cultural heritage project "Liuzhou Yufeng Song Fair".
When they first met, Lu Lianfang was attracted by the energetic little girl in front of him. Seeing that this college student was so interested in folk song culture, Lu Lianfang extended an invitation to Liu Rihong: "Do you want to learn folk songs from me?" Liu Rihong, who has longed to become a mountain singer since childhood Liu Rihong immediately studied under her teacher and started her career as a mountain singer.
Taste the beauty of folk songs through training
In the stereotype of some local people, folk songs are often associated with pornographic accents and bad taste. Many people think that folk songs are "vulgar" and cannot be refined. When they learned that their daughter would learn to sing folk songs after graduating from college, Liu Rihong's parents did not support her at first.
While following her master Lu Lianfang to participate in the "six advancements" of folk song culture (i.e., entering government agencies, entering villages, entering communities, entering schools, entering enterprises, and entering unit activities), Liu Rihong created many high-quality and positive folk song works, which aroused It attracted extensive attention from all walks of life and the media, which changed her parents' views. It turned out that the folk songs their daughter sang had already changed their appearance. "Now when I hear that I am going to sing, my dad is very happy and will take the initiative to send me there." Liu Rihong said.
From a tourism student to a mountain singer, Liu Rihong’s learning to sing folk songs was not always smooth sailing. She still remembers that when she was pushed into the ring for the first time in 2019, she was so nervous that she was shaking and couldn't hold back the lyrics until the end of the song.
For folk songs, the most essential part lies in the writing of lyrics. At the beginning, Liu Rihong always felt that the songs she composed had no foundation and were like saliva songs. In order to polish her works well, she diligently practiced the "Thirteen Rhymes" of Guangxi folk songs under the guidance of Lu Lianfang to consolidate her basic skills. She also ate and lived with Master, ran activities together, and exchanged songs with fellow singers from other places through the Internet. "This is how Master brought me out step by step."
After being on the singing stage and competing in competitions again and again, she was trained , Liu Rihong not only became more comfortable, but also slowly learned to use metaphors skillfully in writing lyrics, making her lyrics both down-to-earth and vivid.Six years later, many seniors and fellow singers marveled at her changes. "Everyone thinks that I have become more ruthless about singing, and I am no longer the submissive little girl I used to be." Liu Rihong said with a smile.
“New media + folk songs” combined with culture and tourism revitalizes folk songs
Having sang folk songs for many years, Liu Rihong has gradually integrated folk songs into her life. When you travel and see the beautiful scenery and sing, see foreign students singing as guests, and see the trees and bamboos on the roadside, you will also want to sing a few lines. "Singing folk songs is very happy, and it can make you devote yourself wholeheartedly and forget your worries."
In order to let the tradition Folk songs have gained new vitality. Liu Rihong began to operate his own new media account in 2022, performing folk songs through live broadcasts, short videos, etc., so that more friends from other places can learn about Liuzhou folk song culture through the Internet. In a few years, Liu Rihong’s new media account has attracted more than 20,000 fans. Seeing such a young girl singing folk songs so loudly, many young people came here to exchange and learn and join the camp of inheriting folk song culture.
In May 2023, Liu Rihong officially became the representative inheritor of Liuzhou City's representative intangible cultural heritage project "Liuzhou Yufeng Song Fair". With the help of new media platforms, Liu Rihong also began to innovate in folk song performances. She would adapt popular songs into folk songs for singing. In the "Six Advances" activity of folk song culture, she and her master Lu Lianfang went to school to teach young people to sing folk songs face-to-face. They also incorporated the twenty-four solar terms, the Protection of Minors Law, anti-drug education and other contents into the folk songs. The catchy lyrics were harvested Many good reviews.
In the promotional video of the "Yufeng Song Fair" folk song competition recently shot by Liuzhou Cultural Tourism, Liu Rihong also transformed into a heroic "female knight" and used martial arts to describe the folk song competition. The moment the sword was unsheathed, it turned into The folk songs "choking each other" and the creative short play are eye-catching, attracting the attention and comments of many young people.
This year is already the sixth year that "Little Sun" Liu Rihong has participated in the singing competition. In this year's Singing King Competition, she relied on her confident style, professional ability, tenacity to refuse to admit defeat, and her love for folk songs to compete until the end, and finally won the second place in the singer group. In the future, she also wants to combine her tourism major with the inheritance of folk songs, use folk songs to introduce the beautiful scenery of Guangxi, and combine the shooting methods in popular short videos to spread the intangible cultural heritage of "Liuzhou Yufeng Song Fair" to more young people. around.
Source: China Youth Daily
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