Meizhou Hakka Folk Songs

Hakka folk songs are the typical representative of Hakka culture,carrying the Hakka history,religion and beliefs,economic life,behaviors,etc.,revealed a strong identity.I have collected more than 20 books of Hakka folk songs and a large number of research pieces,with a total of more than 5,000 folk songs,basically presenting the overall appearance of Meizhou Hakka folk songs over the past hundred years.This essay focuses on folk songs such as "Songs of the East of Guangdong","Songs of Lingdong",and "Hakka Love Songs",etc.,while other folk song books are used as a supplement to explore the identities in the Hakka folk songs through the analysis of folk songs and data analysis.In addition to researching textual materials,the author had a field work in Meizhou,visited many successors of Hakka folk song,and collected first-hand materials of Hakka folk songs.This paper is divided into four chapters.Chapter one:Introduction,started from the research background and reasons,research objects,research methods to propose the topic,that is,the identity of Hakka folk songs in Meizhou.Chapter two:The Identity of Individuals and Ethnic Group Revealed in Hakka Folk Songs.From the perspectives of Hakka men and women,the history of Hakka,the first-person character of“(?)",in Hakka language and the statistics of homophones in the folk song books and the religion&beliefs of Hakka people,to study the past and present situation of Hakka identity in Meizhou.Chapter three is study on the historical evolution of the identities in Hakka folk songs.It is divided into four parts,including "Patriarchal identity and revolutionary identity in folk songs before 1949,"People's identity in folk songs from 1949 to 1978","From 1978 to 2005,the multi-faceted identity of folk songs","Since 2006,personal identity and folk-custom identity in folk songs".Through the analysis of folk songs in different periods and the historical&cultural background and the characteristics of the times,this paper studies the influence of social,political and economic factors on the Hakka folk songs.At last,it has a conclusion that with joint efforts of the government and people,Hakka people in Meizhou are reconstructing an identity through Hakka culture represented by Hakka folk songs.