She Folk Songs
Mountain songs of the She people of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong, sung in She with falsetto, dialogue songs and the long epic of Emperor Gao.
Related
Time and place
The She live in the hills of Ningde, Fu'an and Xiapu in Fujian, Jingning and Lishui in Zhejiang, Chaozhou and Fengshun in Guangdong, and southern Jiangxi. The She language belongs to the Hmong-Mien family and is not Chinese, but long co-residence with Hakka and Minnan neighbours means most She also speak a local Chinese dialect. Songs may be in She or in Chinese depending on the occasion. In eastern Fujian and southern Zhejiang the falsetto is high and piercing; in eastern Guangdong the songs have drawn closer to Hakka mountain song.
What happened
The She mostly farmed rice, tea and fir on mid-slope land, with hunting alongside. Song served many purposes. Dialogue songs were a way of receiving guests and making friends, weddings had their own ritual songs, and the third day of the third month brought song gatherings. The long epic of Emperor Gao tells of origins and migration and was passed from singer to singer. From the 1950s surveyors entered She villages to transcribe words and tunes, giving the repertory its first systematic written and recorded documentation.
Musical features
She songs often use falsetto, opening high and flicking upward at the close, thin and bright enough to cross a gap between hills. Melody rests on a pentatonic frame with free rhythm and phrases of varying length set by the words. In eastern Fujian there is a two-part "double tone" practice in which two singers carry different parts at once, a distinctive branch of the repertory. Eastern Guangdong songs show clearer four-line, seven-character shapes under Hakka influence. There is normally no accompaniment, though hand or foot may mark time.
What to listen for
Begin with the song that names its own genre, and hear how the falsetto lifts from low to high. Then take the song about singing She songs, where the dialogue manner turns each ending upward like a question handed back. Finally set it beside the Hakka mountain song: the She voice is thinner and brighter, the Hakka phrase broader.
Common misunderstandings
A common mistake is to treat the She as a branch of the Hakka. They have a separate language and origin, and She belongs to the Hmong-Mien family, not to Chinese. Nor are the songs all love songs: dialogue, ritual, narrative and work songs each have their own place. And She song is not only in She; singers in mixed villages switch between She and Chinese within one gathering.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 中国民间歌曲集成全国编辑委员会编，中国民间歌曲集成（中国 ISBN 中心）— 曲目与畲语区核对，未引用
- The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "China" — framework and dates checked, not quoted
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.