The Headstream And Current Situation Of Hakka Folk Songs In Meizhou

This article comes up with several thoughts on how to protect, inherit, develop and create Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs with the study of Hakka Folk Songs' origin, formation, development and current situation by the research methods such as Hakka course, musicology, literature, anthropology and history. The writer hopes that Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs can get out of the predicament as soon as possible, continue to play an active part in the culture life, economic construction of Meizhou and make contribution to protecting and carrying forward the polyphyly of world civilization.Meizhou lies in the northeastern part of Guangdong Province, with seven counties and one district. Meizhou is the biggest Hakka kibutz of the world, citizens there are all Hakka people, except for those living in the south of Fengshun county. Hakka Folk Songs is extolled as a camellia in bloom in the south of Guangdong, which always has a good name for Folk Song Land. Hakka Folk Songs here is a mine of folk songs, which totally matches with the position of Meizhou as Hakka City.Hakka ancestor was one of the branches of ancient Han nationality, which lived in the central plains of China for generations. Because of foreign aggression, famine, bandits and civil wars, Hakka ancestors had gone through five migrations from the end of Han Dynasty and the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the end of Qin Dynasty and the beginning of Republic of China, and finally settled down in a variety of provinces in south China. With the south migration, they naturally took with the culture, dialect, folk songs of the central plains of China, with the examples of The Book of Songs and Han Verse for Music which were very popular at that time. Hakka Folk Songs inherited the artistic style and figure of those two in words, using lots of description, imagery, analogy and overlapping, and in tone there is no lack of the mark of Central China's folk songs. Hakka Folk Songs are folk songs in Central China in origin.From Tang Dynasty to Song Dynasty, Hakka ancestors had floundered among China for about seven or eight hundred years, which was the incubation period of Hakka Folk Songs. During the period, Hakka Folk Songs inherited the technique of expression of Cutshorts and Pun of Wu Ge in south China, adding some circumbendibus and humour to it and lessening frank expression of North Culture. When Hakka ancestors settled down in the east of Guangdong, Meizhou folk songs mixed words, structure, technique of expression and tone together with local aboriginal songs, which made Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs well developed and in the end moulded its style at the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qin. Hakka Language's headstream is Northern mandarin mostly based on Central China, while during the migration and the change of time and dwelling districts, it graduall became quite different from the Central China Language. After settling down in the east of Guangdong, Hakka ancestors mixed Hakka Language with She, Yao, Li and Guangdong Language, and formed different Meizhou Hakka Language from that in other places, showing unique appeal of Meizhou Hakka Language and the own style of Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs.In the writer's opinion, Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs mainly has gone through three development stages of Agriculture Society, Modern Times and a New Period when it was born. During the times of traditional Agriculture Society, Hakka Folk Songs used to be discriminated, not only it could not be valued by cultural field and feudal officials but be forbidden by literati and government, so that it could only be spreaded secretly among ordinary people. During this period, Hakka Folk Songs was in the state of peripherization and popularity among the civilian population. In the period of social transition in modern times, Hakka Folk Songs had gone through the change from traditionalism to modernity. At the beginning of 20 th century , Hakka Folk Songs was brought into the campaign of Chinese ballad, which was leaded by Chinese intellectuals, and began to step into the temple of literature, taking the step of modernization. Especially with the revolutionary baptism at the ages of twenty and thirty, Hakka Folk Songs was identical with the political intention of Chinese revolution and reformed, ungraded and made use of by the government power, which made the modernization of Hakka Folk Songs sped up. In the New Period, along with the liberation of People's Republic of China and the Reform and Opening-up, Hakka Folk Songs becomes the course supported by government and gets well developed, widening the stage, improving artistic level, and increasing ructions. It is New Period that is golden Age making renascence of Hakka Folk Songs.Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs was pregnant in Tang and Song Dynasty, molded in Ming and Qing, flourishing in Modern Times, nevertheless, the writer thinks that when coming into 21^st century, Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs has been facing existence crisis due to meeting challenges, diversion of taste or interest in art and inheritance of it. Hakka Folk Songs always has a lot of functions like morality, recognition, fighting, social intercouse, ability to appreciate the arts, and entertainment. Specially in the 21^st century, Hakka Folk Songs is becoming the important cultural resources with which to publicize the image of World Hakka City-Meizhou, to attract foreign funds and to promote Meizhou's tourism. In 2006 Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs was chosen into the first batch directory of state-level immaterial cultural heritage published by State Council.Therefore, Meizhou, with the good name of Folk Song Land, ought to protect and inherit Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs, which has special and great significance. On how to protect, inherit, develop and create Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs, the writer comes up with five ideas: (1) to establish the stand of protecting traditional Hakka Folk Songs, (2) to renew the content, form and language, (3) to create Hakka Folk Songs with sense of the times, (4) to reinforce the Government's protection and guidance, (5) to build up confidence in local traditional music and train talented persons for creations and singing.