China News Service, Yichun, September 6th. Title: The forest chant of Xing'anling is ringing again: Witness the green turn of China's forest areas
China News Service reporter Liu Lu
"The mountain is falling, the mountain is falling..."
In early autumn, when walking into the Wuying Red Pine Forest Sea Scenic Area in Fenglin County, Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province, Cui Jianhua, the third generation of Lin, was performing Xing'anling forest chants for tourists. In the vast forest, the loud sound seems to take tourists at home and abroad back to the days when the forest area was in full swing.
Xing'anling forest chants are national intangible cultural heritage and are divided into four categories: logging chants, wood-carrying chants, wood-rolling chants and streaming chants. Its tunes are high-pitched, rough, ups and downs, with distinctive characteristics of Northeastern folk music. Once upon a time, whenever the trumpet was sung, the lumberjacks in the forest area would start lifting logs in a unified rhythm. The inspiring melody gradually became a spiritual symbol of the working people in the forest area.
Cui Jianhua performs Xing'anling forest chants for tourists. Photo by Yu Kun
"The sound of a chant is the voice of struggle in the old forest area, and the fall of the chant is the ecological promise of the new forest area." Cui Jianhua said that in 2014, commercial logging of natural forests was completely stopped in key state-owned forest areas in Heilongjiang Province, and forest chants gradually faded out of public view. Now we sing again, not to cut down trees, but to "tell history, inherit culture, and awaken nostalgia." We hope that more people will feel the development and changes of the green transformation of the forest area, as well as the always high spirit of struggle.
Today, Yichun is a key state-owned forest area in China, with a vast forest sea of 4 million hectares and a forest coverage rate of 83.8%. It preserves the largest and most complete natural virgin forest of Korean pine in Asia, and is known as the "Forest City of China", "Hometown of Korean Pine" and "Natural Oxygen Bar".
"It's incredibly beautiful here." Asma, a Tunisian girl who has been studying and working in China for nearly four years, walked into Yichun for the first time. In her mobile phone lens, she saw little squirrels walking through the forest; the world's rare bird bald crane soaring in the blue sky; birch sap, dried blueberries, wild vegetables and other forest delicacies were placed on the dining tables of tourists at home and abroad...
Tunisian girl Asma checks in for Yichun Forest cultural and creative products. Photo by Liu Lu
Yichun has protected green waters and green mountains, and has also cultivated a matrix of green industries such as forest food, eco-tourism, and forest health care. Some of the forestry workers who put down their axes and saws have now become forest rangers, some have opened B&Bs and farmhouses, and some, like Cui Jianhua, tell forest stories in scenic spots. They rely on mountain and forest resources to eat "ecological rice" and increase their income and become rich at home.
“I really didn’t expect this little squirrel to be made of pine needles.” Mei Mei, an international student from Russia, couldn’t put it down looking at the cultural and creative products made from pine cones, branches and other forest leftovers. Today, the local area uses underforest waste and renewable resources to design, produce, and sell holiday ornaments, home decorations, etc., and its products are sold to nearly 20 countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan.
“It’s so delicious, I can’t stop eating it!” In Asma’s hometown of Tunisia, blueberries are also a popular delicacy. Right now, it is the harvest period of wild blueberries in China. As one of the origins, the blueberries produced in Yichun are round and plump, sweet and sour. Forest flavors such as blueberry juice and blueberry jam are making their way to more people’s dining tables.
Tourists buy Yichun forest products. Photo by Liu Lu
"Forest area culture cannot just remain in memory, but must live in the present and move into the future." Now, Cui Jianhua, as the deputy manager of Wuying Red Pine Forest Sea Scenic Area, has developed an immersive experience project that combines forest chant performances with ecological education. At the same time, he and his team are building an online platform to allow the good things deep in the mountains to come out of the forest and let the stories of the forest spread further and sing louder in the tide of the times.
At that time, "Down the Mountain" shouted out the passionate pride of the people in the forest area in building the country. Today, this voice that travels across the mountains shouts out a sincere original intention to protect green waters and green mountains and hold up mountains of gold and silver. Over the past ten years since the transformation, every echo of the forest chant has witnessed the most profound green turn in China's forest areas. (over)
