From recording dying songs to e-commerce and tourism, daughter inherits father's passion to protect her traditions

Video: Woman seeks to showcase Dong culture

Zhang Guodan, an ethnic Dong woman from Liping County in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, produces short videos showcasing the culture and life of people in her hometown and sells agricultural products via livestreaming to boost local industry and rural vitalization.

Dong choral singing, a polyphonic vocal tradition performed without musical accompaniment, often makes an appearance in the videos. The 32-year-old has been trying to become a recognized inheritor of this world intangible cultural heritage since 2015 and now promotes it through social media.

Perhaps unlike most other livestreamers, Zhang's first inheritance was her father's final wish.

After graduating, she was working in foreign trade in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, earning about 500,000 yuan ($79,000) a year.

In the winter of 2015, she received news of her father's accidental death and returned home. While she was packing up his belongings, she found a lot of videos of Dong chorals, as well as songs recorded and written down by her late father, Zhang Xuecheng.

"The camera he used to shoot his videos was the only gift I managed to send him. My father was a rural doctor who felt deeply about our choral tradition. As the songs don't have lyrics and can only be passed on to the next generation through singing, he volunteered to record the songs from villagers, and transcribed the melodies in notebooks," Zhang said, adding that her father didn't get married until he was 40 because he was so busy with his collection.

Some of his notebooks were burned by her mother as part of funeral traditions, but Zhang insisted on keeping a few.

Her father's love for Dong choral singing and his unfinished work touched the young woman. "Let me sing, or the song will be buried with me," she recounts one old man saying in one of the videos. "By the time I watched it, neither he nor my father were alive. I realized then the importance of recording these songs."

Deciding to quit her high-paid job in Guangzhou, Zhang took over recording the choral songs. Her mother was not happy with her decision, saying that filming videos was not as good as a steady job in a big city and would not be widely accepted by other villagers.

"Even my father didn't ask me to take over from him while he was alive. My parents wanted me to live a better and wealthier life outside our previously impoverished village."

Zhang made a deal with her mother; if she could not make a difference in three months, she would go back to the office.

Both women underestimated the appeal of traditional Dong songs and culture. The videos of choral singing that Zhang posted on social media platforms soon became popular, earning her up to 600 yuan a day.

While she hadn't meant to profit from the recordings, the income came as a relief to her mother and family, and allowed her to continue.

Filming was not easy, because many elderly singers found it challenging to perform in front of a camera. Even those she finally persuaded to perform sometimes suddenly went blank when the camera was turned on. And many refused outright.

"The time to make recordings was also limited. As many young people leave the village to work, the older folk left behind have to take care of their grandchildren and chores."

Zhang can record up to 20 songs a day if work goes well, but sometimes she only manages to record a few.

So far, she has increased her father's collection from 1,000 to 2,800 songs, and she is still working to record more.

"I haven't figured out what to do with the videos, but I know that I have to record all our songs," she said.

Apart from Dong choral singing, Zhang also posts videos of daily life on social media and video platforms such as YouTube. One showing two young Dong women dressed in traditional costumes preparing peppers to make sauce got 80,000 views on Douyin.

In 2019, after a netizen asked how they could buy some of the sauce, Zhang decided to start an e-commerce venture livestreaming on social media. She began selling pepper sauce, rice and other local agricultural products and crafts.

"Some city people said they really liked the taste of mountain products and urged us to produce more," she said, adding that local incomes have improved as a result.

Currently, she is developing a project to allow tourists to experience Dong culture and customs through activities including fishing and fruit-picking.

"Nearly 100 households have participated in the project. I hope it will attract attention and raise the confidence of Dong women," Zhang said.

Yang Jun in Guiyang contributed to this story.

(Source: China Daily)