In Nov, 1999, Mudong County was authorized “the Folk SongCounty“ by the Cultural Bureau of Chongqing Municipality.
 
Folk singers are singing Mudong folk songs together in the field.
 
In pulling out weeds periods, people were singing folk songs whileworking in the field, which showed their high enthusiasmand happiness.
 
The king singer of Mudong Mountain Songs-Mr. Bai Bing-cheng
 
The aged singer-Mr. Tian Maowen was singing folk songs withoutpreparation.
 
Students and teachers of Mudong Middle School were discussing material about Mudong Folk songs.
 
 

    Title: Mudong Folk Songs

    
    Category: Local Music, Art & Culture
    Completion Date: 2006-9-25
    School: Mudong Middle School, Mudong County, Banan District, Chongqing Municipality , P.R.China.
    School Master: Mr. Ding Rong-xin
    Students: Liukang, Hu Shi-rong, Chenlu, Geng Li-jiao; ages 16-18; worked together to complete this CyberFair project.
    Teachers: Mr. Chenbo, Mr. Zhangyan, Miss Li Zhi-hua.
    E-Mail: dongyehanyu@126.com
    Our school website: :www.cqmdzx.com


    ★Category:Local Music, Art & Culture
    ★Description of Our Community:Mudong County, 30km away from Chaotianmen port, is located at estuary of Mingyue Gorge (It is one of the three ancient gorges in Sichuan Provinces. The three gorges are Tongluo Gorge, Mingyue Gorge and Huangcao Gorge. )on the southern bank of Yangtze River.  It is an ancient county in eastern suburb of Chongqing Municipality. It’s said that the Yuwang Temple was built there in Ming Dynasty, in which all the woods were got from a 500m away mountain hole. The mountain hole was named Mudong(“Mu” means wood and “Dong” means hole.). People here like to sing folk songs.
    ★Summary of our project:Mudong folk song is an essential part in local people’s life. According to “Chinese Folk Songs Collection-Chongqing Municipality-Baxian County”: these songs can be divided into: Helai, which means farmer’s songs; Shenge, which means joke songs; Haozi, which means work songs(The Haozi is mainly divided into Shangshui Haozi, which includes Chenghao Haozi, Banrao Haozi, Qifan Haozi, Laxian Haozi, Shouxian Haozi and Xiashui Haozi, including Qichuan Haozi ,Pingshui Haozi ,Jiantan Haozi , Chongtan Haozi, Chongtan Haozi and etc .); folk custom songs (For example, they sing different mountain songs according to different festivals. The most famous representative is about marriage. For engagement, there are Jumei songs, Kaijian songs, Shangshu songs, Zuotang songs and etc; for marriage, there are Hanli songs, Jiegaitou songs, Jiaobeijiu songs, Hexi songs, Xieke songs, Shuoxi songs, Zhujiu songs and etc. Before entering bridal chamber, there are Puchuang songs and Anjiaju songs; while after entering, there are Naofang songs, Lianxiao songs, Songke songs and goodbye songs. In funeral, there are E’hao songs, Ruguan songs, Qiling songs, Diaoyan songs, Songzang songs, Raofo songs, Shilonggan songs and etc. These folk cultures laid basic foundation for the formation of Mudong Mountain Songs.)and etc. These songs have different features in melody and tunes. According to collection data, there are thousands of lyrics and hundreds of tunes. These songs are popular in urban and rural area; on TV; in campus. In May, 1992, Mudong County government led a team of folk singers to participate “Wangcong International Concert”, in which Mudong folk songs got applause from all the audience.
    ★Our Computer/Internet Access:With the help of Town & Talent Technologies and local educational administration, we installed broadband network. The speed is 2M. Through the competition, each team member learned much computer skills and knowledge beyond the textbooks.
    ★Problems We Had to Overcome:Without experience of participating in International competition, we don’t know how to develop our research and assign the tasks in the beginning. The team members come from different grades and classes. We have little commonly free time apart from the time for group activities. Therefore, we make use of the lunch hour three days a week for group discussion with the teachers. This is the first time we participate in the Cyber Fair. The three supervising teachers and the team members lack previous experience in webpage construction. We have to consult others whenever difficulties arise; hence, we have to overcome all kinds of hardships and difficulties during the process. One supervising teacher leaves our team because of study abroad. Our computer room was stolen, which leads to abnormal function of our campus net. However, with our endeavor and help from Town and Talent Technologies, we have succeeded in completing the website. We are proud of ourselves and the experience is unforgettable.

    1.The purpose of our research
    ①make clear the features and functions of Mudong folk songs
    ②research on the present situation of Mudong folk songs
    ③research on the value of reserving folk songs
    ④offer suggestion on reserving folk songs
    ⑤try to share Mudong folk songs on internet
    ⑥enrich teaching issues
    ⑦train students’ researching and cooperation ability
    2.progress report
    ①before 2006-9-20: Team formation
    ②2006-9-20 to 2006-9-25: Defining team members and formally entering the competition
    ③2006-9-25 to 2006-12-31: Using questionnaire in campus and community to survey people’s opinion to Mudong folk songs; interviewing head of local cultural bureau, folk singers and other relevant people; collecting lyrics, videos and other information; making web pages.
    3.Information tools and technologies
    (1)Hardware facilities: computer, digital camera, recorder, flash disk, scanner.
    (2)Computer software: Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for graphic processing; Macromedia Flash 2004 MX; Word2003 for textual information editing; Dream weaver MX 2004 for webpage editing; Outlook Express for receiving and sending mails; Internet Explorer for browsing website.
    (3).Internet: E-mail, message board, broadband system.
    ★Notes:
    1.According to our plan, we carried on our interview. The first person is Mr. Jiang-the head of the Cultural Bureau of Mudong County. After answering our questions, the head of the Cultural Bureau of Mudong County had a chat with us about Mudong Mountain Songs. His warm-heartedness not only represents in answering all kinds of our questions, but also offering us the information list of Mudong Mountain Songs he has collected for years. We were amazing because those are certificates of performing Mudong Mountain Songs. What was more; he gave us a communication list of mountain singers. My god! That was what we really needed! From the communication list given by the head of Cultural Bureau of Mudong County, we saw a name-Bai Bingcheng, who was the king singer of Mudong Mountain Songs. He was very kind when communicating with us, although he was nearly dumb. His certificates and medals for performing mountain songs were piled like a small mount. The third person is the student of the king singer of Mudong Mountain Songs; his artistry is handed down in a direct line from his teacher, he is an old singer who is worried about the future of mountain songs; he is the last person we interview. In nearly two hours’ conversation, the old man was mostly talking cheerfully and humorously.
    2.At 4 o’clock, we came back to school, and then every one was busy with his own tasks. We forgot tiredness, hot summer and simple lunch. What in our mind was how to share Mudong folk songs to outside world. We were ambassadors of popularizing Mudong folk songs.
    3.The topic of our research project was folk art, which made us realize more things about Mudong folk songs. What’s more, we learned active study through practice and shared our knowledge with other people on the net.
    4.We learned to respect intellectual property. On our web pages, every word was written or edited by our team members. In the whole process, we wanted to show our gratitude to our headmaster, supervising teachers, Mr. Jiang who offered us lots of video and relevant books, and all kind people.
    5.Discoveries, lessons and surprises
    We have got a better knowledge of Mudong folk song’s history. We should do more things in popularizing our traditional folk art.The activity has enhanced our teamwork spirit and improved our communicating and interpersonal abilities.



Name
Participants
Tasks
Liu Kang; Zhangyu; Zhang Fu-qi; Liyu; Yangchen; Liu Ting-ting; Li Xue-chuan; Wang Shan-shan; Chenlu; Wu Dai-mei; Pan Lin-ling; Geng Li-ya; Bai Tian-li; Hu Shi-rong; Wangjie
1、Collect historic material
2、Read historic material
3、Confirm and begin outline
4、Interview
5、Record interview
6、Take pictures
7、Write and edit
8、Report progress
9、Make website
65%

Chenbo; Zhangyan; Li Zhi-hua;Chen Ming-bin(left halfway)

1、Hold group meeting
2、Set subject and plan
3、Provide material and give instruction
4、Arrange interview
5、Instruct making website and review
6、Instruct using computer
25%
Folk singers; villagers; parents
1、Provide material and assistance
2、Interviewee
3、Share experience
4、Give advice
10%