Singing & Working

The subject of this research project is Zhuma work song, which is the most exemplary genre in China's folk music. Through historical interpretation, pedigree analysis, and explanation of the music genre; systematic summarization and research of the subject; comparative studies of work songs of different regions, this research project will analyze the influence of region, culture, relations of production, means of work, and the like, on the development of various genres of work songs. It will also carry out review and analysis on the relations between production and singing from the perspective of production behaviors and exercise physiology. Based on the results of the above-mentioned studies, this research also intends to explore traditional folk music behaviors and traditional production relations. The researcher also proposes that the singing and working, as a method and theory of knowledge that depict the behaviors of production and music, can effectively explain the two-in-one subjectivity of laborers as singers, and the interdependent relations between traditional folk music and productive work. The research will also explore and reflect on the developing modes and spaces of work song genre, which has met with difficulties in its modernization efforts. Due to the fact that fundamental changes occurred in the relations and foundation of production, which the work song genre has been relying on, labors no longer have the subjective premise of being singers. As a result, the subjective relations between singing and working, the traditional production and music behaviors that originated from thousands of years of human production and life, ended up falling apart.