A clan in which most of its people can sing folk songs and tell folk stories was recently discovered in the southern part of Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province.
The clan people share a common family name -- Fan. According to a gravestone erected during the reign of Emperor Xianfeng (1851-1861), Qing Dynasty at the clan's ancestral grave, the Fan people moved from Dengzhou city, Henan Province to its current place -- Tianfan Village -- in the reign of Emperor Daoguang (1821-1850), more than 180 years ago. Gradually, members developed into a big family of 105.
The Social Science Department of Hubei Automotive Industries Institute, after six months of research, concluded that 36 people of the Fan family can sing folk songs -- among them four elders who can sing more than 1,000 songs -- and 51 people can tell stories. Altogether a total of more than 60 people of the clan are either singers or storytellers.
Tianfan Village is one of China's few remaining villages without electricity because it is a mountainous area with poor roads. For the same reason, folksong and stories have become the major form of amusement and learning of the clan.
Researchers at the Social Science Department of Hubei Automotive Industries Institute have sorted out 23 books of folksongs, containing a total of more than 1,000 pieces; and some ten narrative poems and hundreds of folk stories. The researchers also worked out the family tree of the Fan clan, their current location map and singers' personal files.
Professor Qu Chongli, dean of the Social Science Department of Hubei Automotive Industries Institute, said that the Fan clan's folksong culture features a combination of social and family inheritance after relocation in the mountainous area for nearly 200 years.
"It's very rare to see a big family in this size still keep their character of verbal literature," Professor Qu Chongli said.
Tianfan villagers built their houses half way up the mountains, about 800 meters (about one-half mile) above the sea level, surrounded by green fields. They live chiefly on selling such local products as Chinese chestnuts, ginger and mushrooms. Each house has a fire pit in the front hall. When night falls, family members gather about the fire pit, eating, singing and drinking. Between performances, elders in the family make corrections to the singers and interpret the morals included in the songs.
Professor Qu also observed that the Fan Family folksong culture presents mixed characteristics of the Yangtze River culture and the Yellow River culture as it resides between the two rivers.
(每日电讯 [Daily Telegraph], translated by Liu Wenlong for china org.cn, April 23, 2002)
