China News Service, Shanwei, September 6th, Title: Youth from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao “revitalize” intangible cultural heritage fishing songs and continue Shanwei’s century-old fishing songs
Author Zhang Lu Yu Bingbing
"In the process of excavating and spreading fishermen's songs, we continue to enhance our cultural confidence and deepen our identity of the same origin and symbiosis of culture in the Greater Bay Area. I firmly believe that the power of youth can continue to 'alive' China's excellent traditional culture." Wu Junjie, a member of Jinan University's Fluorescent Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Youth "Billions Project" Commando Team (hereinafter referred to as the "Commando Team") and a Hong Kong young man, said in an interview with China News Service.
Shanwei Fishing Song is a representative item of national intangible cultural heritage. It can be traced back to the Song and Yuan Dynasties. It was sung by Ou boat fishermen along the coast of Shanwei, eastern Guangdong. It is also called "Song". In November 2014, it was included in the fourth batch of representative items of national intangible cultural heritage. For thousands of years, fishing songs have been accompanied by fishermen going out to sea, getting married, and weaving nets, carrying the profound marine cultural heritage of the Hailufeng region.
This summer, as the key team of Jinan University's first batch of Hong Kong and Macao youth "Hundred Thousands Project" commando team, the commando team went to Shanwei, Guangdong to carry out the "Wenrong Bay Area·Fishing Rhythm Passing on" intangible heritage inheritance action to empower Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao youth to intangible cultural heritage in Shanwei, innovatively revitalize the national intangible cultural heritage representative project - Shanwei Fisherman's Song, build a bridge for the cultural integration of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao youth, and was selected into the 500 annual cases of international communication released by Guangdong.
In the early stage of the project, the commando team conducted in-depth intangible cultural heritage visits and surveys, and successively visited national-level representative inheritor Su Shaoqin, provincial-level representative inheritor Li Xianggui, and municipal-level representative inheritor Li Zhenzhen to systematically sort out the inheritance and development status of Shanwei Fishing Song for hundreds of years.
At the research site, representative inheritors performed original fishing songs and carefully dissected the farming stories behind the music forms and lyrics; young people from Hong Kong and Macao followed their teachers to experience the traditional blue and white fishermen’s costumes, distinctive buns, and Dan family silver ornaments, learned and sang fishermen’s songs themselves, and had lively exchanges around marine culture and intangible cultural inheritance.
Young people from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao are filming a documentary about their experiences in intangible cultural heritage fishing songs and hairpin hairpins. Photo by Zhou Yuqi
"The close-range immersive experience allowed me to understand the cultural heritage of the sea, land and sea contained in Shanwei Fishing Song through listening, singing, experiencing and communicating." Song Xiaoxin, a member of the commando team and a young Hong Kong youth, said.
At the Pearl Plaza in the urban area of Shanwei City, the commando team held the "Hong Kong and Macao Youth See the Motherland" - "Yujian Bay Area" Shanwei Fisherman's Song Intangible Cultural Heritage Charity Fair. The market adopts the main line of collecting and checking in with ocean wave seals, and innovatively sets up six immersive experience scenes to make the fishermen's song culture visible, playable, hands-on and retainable.
The picture shows the scene of the Shanwei Fishing Song Intangible Cultural Heritage Charity Fair in "Yujian Bay Area". Photo by Wendi Chen
Chen Wendi, a member of the commando team and a young man from Macao, said that after having close contact with the fishing songs with the children, he deeply realized the unique value of the public welfare market in revitalizing traditional culture.
In addition to offline markets, the commando team simultaneously launched the "Communist Youth League Partner Program" public welfare class and opened fishermen's song study courses for children of new employment groups. It combines diverse contents such as fishermen's song singing, fishermen's paper-cutting, pattern science popularization, and puzzle solving to plant the seeds of intangible inheritance in the hearts of young people.
In addition, the commando team took the Dan family fishing girl as the prototype and integrated marine elements such as waves, fishing nets, and fishing boats to create a young and exclusive fishing song cultural creative IP "Yu Xiaoxian". Focusing on the IP image, the Commandos developed a series of cultural and creative peripheral products such as keychains, postcards, and refrigerator magnets to promote the integration of intangible cultural heritage into daily life.
Lin Jiahui, director of the Youth Liaison and Development Department of the Shanwei Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League, recognized this innovative transformation path and praised the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao youth team for their creativity in opening up the youth communication channel of traditional culture and providing replicable and promoteable youth solutions for the living inheritance of local intangible cultural heritage.
In order to break the limitations of regional communication, the commando team built a diversified new media communication matrix and created online content such as AI animated short film "Danxi", English popular science short videos, intangible cultural heritage documentary shorts, etc., and pushed them across the entire network using a youthful and international narrative voice to continue to broaden the boundaries of Shanwei fishermen's songs.
Yang Junjie, leader of the commando team and a young man from Hong Kong, said that over the past three years, the team has continued to deepen the revitalization of Hong Kong and Macao youths to help rural revitalization, and is committed to polishing practical experience into replicable and sustainable cases of Hong Kong and Macao youths helping rural revitalization.
"I look forward to more young people from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao going to the hot land of southern Guangdong in the future, revitalizing intangible cultural heritage resources with creativity, and continuing the cultural fire with hard work, so that young people can keep up with the pulse of the times of cultural revitalization and integrated development of the Bay Area." Yang Junjie said.
The picture shows the scene of the "Communist Youth League Partner Program" public welfare class for fishermen's songs. Photo by Zhou Yuqi
According to reports, this summer, the Guangdong Provincial Committee has implemented the "Hundreds and Thousands Project" commando team operation for college students. The province has formed more than a thousand commando teams to "tell the story of Southern Guangdong well" and go deep into the front lines of towns and villages to excavate, activate and spread the excellent traditional culture of Lingnan. This commando team of young college students from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao is a vivid representative of this - they have given the centuries-old intangible cultural heritage of fishing songs a "new voice" in the hands of youth, and also allowed the stories of southern Cantonese culture to spread further in the integration of the Bay Area.
