Preservation and Development of Ethnic and Folk Arts

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Minority folk music and dances are a ma jor cultural component in the culture of Xinjiang. Since the founding of PRC in 1949, art troupes at various levels, art schools and institutes have been established in Xin jiang; they have rescued, collected, compiled andpreserved large numbers of folk music and dance works, and trained one generation after another of art workers to pass on and develop further traditional folk music and dances. In the 1990s, some books or book series related to art, including Collection of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Musical Instruments Compositions(Xinjiang Volume), Collection ofChinese Drama Music(Xinjiang Volume), Collection of Chinese Folk Songs(Xin jiang Volume) and Collection of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dances(Xinjiang Volume), were published, thus effectively guaranteeing the preservation of all categories of fine traditional music and dance of the various ethnic groups in the form of music, music scores and images, as well as text and audiovisual form.Twelve Muqams, known as “Mother of Uyghur Music”, are a group of classical music pieces combining Uyghur singing, dancing and music, considered a treasure of Chinese ethnic music. In 1951,”Twelve Muqams”was listed at the top of arts that called for rescue by the government of the autonomous region, which mobilized efforts for systematic research, collection and compilation. In 1955, music recording along with notation and lyric collation of Twelve Muqams was completed; and the music score of Twelve Muqams was published in 1960, marking the turning point from a purely oral legacy to a textual heritage.

After the 1980s, the government of the autonomous region established a Muqam research institution and a Muqam art troupe, both of which specialize in collecting, sorting out, researching and performing Uyghur classical music, folk songs and dances, especially the muqams, thus further promoting the rescue, preservation and development of the muqam arts. In 2003, Xinjiang Uyghur muqam arts were included in the first group of pilot projects in the”Chinese Ethnic and Folk Cultural Preservation Program”. In 2004, the autonomous region fully launched the “heritage application”work. In 2005, Xin jiang Uyghur Muqam Arts of China was approved by UNESCO as “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”.

The Kazak folk ancient music Sixty-two Kongeri(62 melodious divertimentos) is a collective art with strong ethnic characteristics formed by the Kazak people in long-term production and living practice, developing the nomadic culture and prairie culture and drawing on the central plains culture and Silk Road culture, combining musical instrument performances, folk songs, dances and poem recitals, representing the finest of Kazak folk culture. Sixty-two Kongeri spreads mainly through people’s oral singing. Because of lack of written records, scattered areas and inconvenient transport, now few Kazaks can explain and sing it for the public, very few folk artists can sing Sixty-two Kongeri systematically, and many excellent songs are on the verge of extinction. Since the 1990s, the government has set up special organizations for the collection, compilation and publication of Akku Kongeri(White Swan Divertimento). In 1996, expert teams were established to make full efforts to collect and compile the folk cultural heritage of Sixty-two Kongeri through visiting farmers’ and herdsmen’s families and looking for historical records. The divertimento Akku edited and published now is printed in the Kazak and Han languages. The song fully reflects the Kazak people’s life wishes and love stories.

The autonomous region’s action of making full efforts to rescuing Sixty-two Kongeri received attention from the Republic of Kazakhstan. They hoped to cooperate with Xinjiang, China and jointly rescue the cultural heritage in about 20 years.

On the basis of inheriting and carrying forward various ethnic groups’ cultures and arts, through extensively carrying out traditional cultural events, such as the Uyghur’s “Meshrep”, the Kazak”s “Aytes”, the Kirgiz’s “”Kobuz Ballad Singing Fair”, the Mongolian “Nadam Fair”, and the Xibe’s”West Moving Festival”, the autonomous region made great efforts to develop excellent dramas with ethnic and regional characteristics.

A number of excellent dramas with rich ethnic and regional characteristics have beenstaged, such as the Uyghur musical stage play Ghunchem, the opera Gherip and Senem, the acrobatics show Darwaz, the acrobatic musical Hello, Afanti, the Kuqa dance with musical accompaniment Tears from One Thousand Springs, the Kazak folk art musical Aytes, the Kirgiz epic ballad-singing drama Manas and the Mongolian song and dance drama Janger. More than 20 excellent performances were staged successively, were deeply liked by the masses and won many national prizes, including large-scale ethnic song and dance performances The Good Place Called Xinjiang, Xinjiang with Sunshine, Joyous Songs of Tianshan Mountain, Kashgar and The Silk Road Rainbow, the musical Visitors on the Icy Mountain, the traditional dance with musical accompaniment The Spring of Muqams and the stage plays Old Yard in the Horse Market Lane and Erdaoqiao Grand Bazaar.