Recently, Zhejiang Daily Newspaper Group and Yunnan Daily Newspaper Group formed an interview team and went to Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Lijiang City, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province and Panzhihua City in Sichuan Province. Focusing on Yangtze River landmarks, humanities and arts, archaeological history, intangible cultural heritage, ancient towns and villages, they interviewed and studied the protection of Yangtze River cultural relics and cultural heritage, the education and use of Yangtze River culture, the improvement of public cultural service levels, the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism, the integration of Yangtze River culture into urban and rural construction and development, and foreign exchange and communication, and presented the role of Yangtze River culture in the long history of Chinese civilization.

Yuanmou Story, Song of Time

Photo provided

In the Yuanmou Man Museum in Yuanmou County, there is a large sculpture: a Yuanmou Man holding a baby, sitting on the earth, with a group of reliefs of human evolution on the base, showing the evolution from ape to man. There is an exhibition wall in the museum, with more than 600 photographs of ancient ape tooth fossils neatly displayed.

The Yuanmou Man Museum, formerly known as the Yuanmou Man Exhibition Hall, was first established in 1985 and opened to the public in 2010. In July this year, the museum was closed for renovation. After the renovation, the museum's facilities and equipment will be completely renewed, the exhibition content will be optimised and updated, and digital and multimedia forms of expression will be expanded to tell the story in a more vivid and interesting way.

Cultural relics unearthed in the Yuanmou submerged area of the Wudongde Hydropower Station. Photo by Qin Mingyu

In 2021, the National Cultural Heritage Administration launched a survey of cultural relics resources in the Yangtze River Basin, which was jointly promoted by the cultural relics administration departments of 13 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in the Yangtze River Basin. From March 2018 to June 2019, the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, together with the relevant cultural relics departments of prefectures and counties, conducted rescue excavations of cultural relics at the Jiangbian, Bingnong Binghong, and Ladian sites in the submerged area of the Yuanmou section of the hydropower plant construction, covering a total area of 30,000 square metres, and unearthed more than 3,000 complete and relatively complete artifacts, including pottery, bronze, stone, bone, etc.

In 2022, the staff of the Yuanmou Man Museum began to participate in the sorting and restoring of these cultural relics. The songs of time sealed in these cultural relics tell people the story of Yuanmou through their colours, patterns, shapes, thickness and other characteristics.

Yijia Ancient Village, Youth Dance

In Yishala Village, Pingdi Town, Renhe District, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, we were greeted with a joyful dance.

In the village square, a group of Yi elders danced to the lively music, wearing pink embroidered hats, exquisitely embroidered blue and black clothes, trousers, and embroidered shoes.

Local villagers told reporters that during festivals such as Sister's Day, Torch Festival, and Spring Festival, everyone gathers spontaneously to dance. Wang Wu’an, director of the Pingdi Town Publicity and Culture Centre, told reporters that Yishala Village combines the protection and inheritance of the province's intangible cultural heritage, such as "Tan Jing Gu Yue" and "Sheepskin Drum Dance", with performances that are popular with the masses, including Lipo embroidery, and holds performances from time to time. The lively and joyful dancing, bright and colourful costumes, and powerful drumming and dancing popular with tourists are a microcosm of Panzhihua's promotion of the integrated development of Yi village culture and tourism.

In the village of Yishala, modern dance has developed alongside the traditional dance of intangible cultural heritage.

Liang Jiacheng, who graduated from Yunnan Art Institute with a degree in dance choreography, has been the first secretary of Yishala Village since March 2023. He choreographed the "Yiya Yishala" situational performance for the village. Liang Jiacheng introduced that there are four family names in Yishala Village, and each family has different responsibilities. The Na family farms, the Zhang family brews wine, the Qi family transports and the Mao family educates. The situational performance combines themes such as "corn", "wine brewing", "wheels" and "pens", and is accompanied by songs and dances, vividly interpreting the cultural essence of the ancient village of "farming and reading for generations".

Young people bring new ideas, perspectives and forms, bringing a breath of fresh air to the cultural and tourist development of the ancient village.

Yu Long Jia Yin, Bai Sha Xi Yue

Yulong Snow Mountain is located north of Lijiang City. There is a Baishaxi Music Study Centre in Changshui Village, Huangshan Town, Yulong Naxi Autonomous County, Lijiang City. In July this year, He Linyi, a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor, and his family renovated their own courtyard, set up a stage in the traditional Naxi courtyard of "three courtyards and a screen wall," and began to perform Bai Sha Xi Yue for tourists. He Linyi said: "We want tourists to experience the intangible cultural heritage in the architectural culture."

A master taught his apprentice Bai Sha Xi Yue. Photo by Zhang Sunchao from Zhejiang Daily

Bai Sha Xi Yue was first mentioned in 1253 and was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage site in 2005. He Linyi is 57 this year, and his son, in his early 20s, is already a county-level intangible cultural heritage heir. Bai Sha Xi Yue has no fixed music sheet and must be passed on through long-term teaching from master to pupil.

From his father to himself and then to his son He Fucheng, Bai Sha Xi Yue has been passed down through three generations of He Linyi's family. The inheritance of Bai Sha Xi Yue was difficult, and it once faced the dilemma that no one was willing to learn it and no one could learn it well. "In the 1960s, there was only one heir to Bai Sha Xi Yue in the whole of Lijiang. My father always said that Bai Sha Xi Yue must not be lost." His father's advice was a great motivation for He Linyi to persevere for nearly half a century.

Today, there are nearly 200 heirs to Bai Sha Xi Yue. He Linyi and the villagers of Changshui Village formed a band and were invited to tour Hungary, Germany, Slovakia, Belarus, Russia, and other countries, performing and communicating in music halls such as the National Grand Theatre and the Central Conservatory of Music.

In a corner of the courtyard, He Linyi and his son showed us the process of "teaching from master to apprentice" in ancient music. He Linyi held a recorder and blew a note, while his son He Fucheng held the traditional stringed instrument "sugudu" and pressed the strings with his left hand and plucked the strings with his right thumb to produce similar notes. Father and son communicated through "music" and reached a tacit understanding between turning the axis and plucking the strings. 

Journalist's Notes

This time, following the "Cultural China Tour - Song of the Yangtze River" interview team to interview in Yunnan, Sichuan, and other places is an exploration through time and space. At the Yuanmou Man Museum, the interview team went back in time to explore the relics left by ancient man; along the Jinsha River in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the interview team went from Yuanmou to Panzhihua, to Lijiang, and finally to Tongle Village in the hinterland of the Three Parallel Rivers area, feeling the great changes in the mountain villages in the transformation of space.

During the interview, the reporter gained a deep understanding of village protection and cultural heritage, and at the same time, new feelings emerged in his heart. The reporter found that many young people have joined the process of inheriting and disseminating intangible cultural heritage. Young people have injected new ways of thinking and knowledge innovation into the inheritance of traditional culture and unearthed new forms of expression that are more appropriate to current social aesthetics and development. The integration of some innovative policies and concepts at present has also brought new vitality and atmosphere to the transformation of traditional culture.

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(Editors: Reena, Ines)