Huaer (Qili Temple Huaer Club)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Huaer (Qili Temple Huaer Club)

Application area or unit: Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province

Item No.: 51

Project No.: Ⅱ - 20

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region:

Type: new item

Application area or unit: Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province

Protection unit: Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County Cultural Center

Brief introduction of Huaer (Qili Temple Huaer Club)

Application area or unit: Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province

Huaer is a kind of folk song which is widely spread in Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang. It is a kind of folk song which can only be sung outside the village. It is generally called "Yequ" (as opposed to "Jiaqu" (banquet song) and also called "juvenile". Its singing is divided into two main occasions: daily production, life and "Huaer meeting". "Huaer Festival" is a large Folk Song Festival, also known as "singing mountain".

Qilisixia is located at the foot of xiaojishi mountain in Gushan town to the south of Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County. The flower fair held here has a history of at least 100 years. Every year on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth lunar month, people from all over the world come together with umbrellas, and 60000 or 70000 people gather in the gorge to sing Hua'er all night.

Qili temple flower festival is a folk cultural event organized by the masses, and the singers are all folk singers. Singing forms include solo, duel, chorus, etc., without any musical instrument accompaniment; singing content is mostly love songs. Singers usually cover their ears with one hand, and sing with different "orders" according to the content. There are more than 40 kinds of songs, including "gushanling", "Maying" and "Er meihualing". Due to its strong local characteristics and the attraction of medicinal spring in the gorge, Qili Temple Huaer Festival is quite famous in Northwest China.

There are many singers at the Qili temple flower festival. In addition to the famous "flower" singers, the singers from the surrounding areas often come to the festival to help. Many old singers sing songs that are hard to hear at ordinary times or other "flower festivals".