Sanyuesan Festival blends heritage with modernity in Guangxi

NANNING — Just days ahead of Sanyuesan, a traditional ethnic festival in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a unique musical endeavor unfolded at a kindergarten in the heart of the regional capital Nanning.

Inside the brightly lit auditorium, Huang Shaozheng, a retired English professor in his 60s and a Zhuang culture advocate, along with Jake Philip Tucker, a 28-year-old English teacher and trained musician from the United Kingdom, were on a quest to blend the timeless folk songs of Liu Sanjie, the legendary "Song Fairy" and a cultural icon of the local Zhuang culture, with contemporary flair, bridging heritage and modernity.

Sanyuesan Festival is the perfect platform for this cultural fusion. Held annually on the third day of the third month of the Chinese calendar, this beloved event, which fell on March 31 this year, transformed the region into a kaleidoscope of music, dance and tradition, drawing together China's rich array of ethnic groups.

The pupils, in the distinctly colored costumes of the Zhuang, Han, Yao and Hui ethnic groups, turned the campus into a lively parade of Guangxi's rich cultural tapestry.

"Throwing red embroidered balls is a Sanyuesan tradition," explained Sherry Zeng, the principal of the kindergarten. "Historically thrown as tokens of affection, here they remind the children of the culture of the place where they live."

In the midst of this festive ambience, Huang and Tucker collaborated to breathe new life into Liu Sanjie's songs.

"Try this: 'Follow me all the way. On both banks of the river, we are singing along'," suggested Huang with a patient tone.

With a ukulele slung casually over his shoulder, Tucker adjusted the rhythm and responded.

"How about this? I put a little Western spin onto it," Tucker added.

Their partnership was a seamless blend of tradition and innovation as Huang's profound knowledge of Zhuang culture and Liu Sanjie's legacy guided Tucker's contemporary musical flair.

The session crescendoed as the kindergarten students joined in. Clad in colorful attire, the children joined Huang and Tucker in a joyful chorus: "By the mountains, under the stars, we sing as one," they sang, accompanied by Tucker's ukulele and the melodies they have known since infancy.

Their voices resonated with a cultural essence at the heart of Sanyuesan Festival.

"It's about giving them a sense of pride," said Huang as he gazed with friendly happiness at the engaged faces of the children. "They're the future of this culture."

Zeng said these young voices, each a small part of Guangxi's ethnic mosaic, gain the dual experience of a celebration and a lesson in heritage.

Liu Sanjie is more than just a figure of the distant past. Her legend, tracing back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), tells of a young woman who taps into the wellspring of music to face down oppression, earning her a place as an immortal symbol of freedom among the Zhuang ethnic group.

During Sanyuesan, her songs, steeped in romance and reverence for Guangxi's breathtaking landscapes, echo across the festival, threading tradition through the pulsating festivities.

Huang's ambitious project to translate these melodies into English is no small feat.

"It's particularly demanding to preserve the thematic and poetic integrity of the originals while making them easily accessible to those who don't even speak a word of Mandarin," he said.

Yet, his efforts are paying off, as Liu Sanjie's voice begins to echo far beyond her native mountains with the publication of Liu Sanjie and Her Free Mountain Songs in 2021, which renders the scripts of Liu Sanjie opera and other popular Liu Sanjie ballads into modern English with singable lyrics and musical notation.

Australian writer Mark Tredinnick, in the preface to a book of Liu's folk tunes that Huang translated, wrote of allowing one to "hear the heartbeat of the earth — how the earth loves us and how it would be loved in return".

The kindergarten event was a microcosm of Sanyuesan and Huang's broader vision: to bridge Guangxi's ethnic heritage with international appreciation.

As the session ended, the children's cheers mingled with the fading notes of the ukulele.

"It brings people together," Huang said. "Through these songs, we're not just preserving our past, we're inviting others to join us. That's what culture is all about."

Tucker said: "This kind of cross-language exchange is super fun and important. It helps introduce the authentic Zhuang culture to new audiences like me and other expats, and hints at its potential to go global."

Xinhua