Grand Song, embroidery profit Dong ethnic people
The Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Festival opened on Tuesday with hundreds of Dong ethnic singers harmonizing during the opening performance at the opening ceremony of the 7th Southeast Guizhou tourism industry conference in Congjiang county, Southwest China's Guizhou province.
Villagers perform the Grand Song of the Dong ethnic group during a local festival at Xiaohuang village in Congjiang county, Southwest China's Guizhou province, on Nov 28, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
There were 1,320 singers in 30 groups from 15 of the county's townships competing in the festival. The singers are aged from 4 to 80.
Dong Grand Song was listed on the masterpiece list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2006. This musical form calls for no accompaniment, so the singers perform a cappella, or without instruments.
In Xiaohuang Village, there are more than 1,000 singers and some of them perform at different tour attractions in South China. The village has earned 20 million yuan from singing this year, or 4,260 yuan per capita. In 1986, they sang at an art show in Paris.
Besides a singing contest, the festival featured a cooking competition and an embroidery show to demonstrate traditional Dong ethnic culture in a bid to attract more tourists. A program has supported more than 16,000 embroidery craftswomen this year.
The Dong ethnic group, with a population of 2.87 million, lives mainly in Southwest China.
