Contemporary The The Buyi Social Weanl The Heritage Study

Weanl are songs sung all in Bouyei,popularly called mountain-songs.Ethnomusicologists also call them folksongs.Nowadays, weanl are popular in some counties where the Bouyei mother tongue is still spoken,such as counties in Qiannan Bouyei and Miao prefecture, Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao prefecture and Anshun district in Guizhou Province.It is an orally-transmitted cultural heritage.Taking Lekang village,Wangmo county as a research field,this thesis aims to analyze weanl's transmission and adaptation amidst social change.It is hoped that this thesis will make a good contribution toward further research in protecting Bouyei cultural heritage.Lekang is a Bouyei village located on the border between Guizhou and Guangxi.It began the process of assimilating Han culture more than one hundred years ago.However,since it is a remarkable agricultural society,many aspects of Bouyei culture still thrive there and continue to be passed on.Weanl is one of them.In the 1960s,as the values of society changed,young people went out for study and work,the social structure of the village disintegrated,and the singing of weanl therefore declined. From the mid 1980s to the end of the 1990s,the singing of weanl was at its lowest point,even on the brink of extinction.In the beginning of the 21st century,with the popularity of VCDs and DVDs,weanl is again making a comeback in the family home arena.Is it a kind of revival or only a hallucination?Since 2005,under the influence of the trend in protecting cultural heritage,the cultural department of Wangmo government took on this work of protecting cultural heritage.Weanl has been given much importance by related departments,and has been chosen first place in many kinds of entertainment activities.Many outstanding weanl-singevs are seen at such government events every now and then.In the county seats and outlying areas,"listening to weanl"has become popular;some of the singers even share weanl with each other.However,though highly propagated,the consciousness of the local people in protecting cultural heritage has still not awakened.Taking Lekang as an example,it is still not sure whether weanl will be passed on or not.While whether to pass on cultural heritage is really decided by the native local people,the government's policy may influence this decision in some way.The local people not only possess the capability of passing on cultural heritage,but they also hold the right of final decision. From a long-term standpoint,weanl will only keep its vitality if it keeps its own merits and includes the merits of other cultures.The outline of the thesis is as follows:First,the author analyses the history and social structure of the village to find the traditional way of transmitting weanl and the special characteristics of weanl.Second,the author makes an ethnography from a thorough description of what the native singer has related to find the reasons why weanl is declining.To analyze the revival of weanl,the author again looks at the local native society.Through broad analysis,the author makes a comparison of weanl's transmission among the whole county of Wangmo,and points out the role of the government in protecting cultural heritage,leading to the conclusion that it is the native local people who play the main role in culture transmission.