Beijing craftsman keeps pigeon-whistle making alive for decades

For He Yongjiang, one of the most memorable sounds of childhood came from above.

Growing up in Beijing's alleyways, or hutong, more than six decades ago, He remembers pigeons circling over courtyard homes, many carrying small whistles on their tail feathers. Pigeon keeping was so common, he recalled, that eight or nine households along a street might raise the birds. "That sound — I can still remember it now," said He, now 77.

He began learning to make pigeon whistles at around 10, after coming across an elderly craftsman in a hutong. He gradually learned to prepare the materials, make the whistles, and tune their sounds, and decades later, became a representative inheritor of Beijing pigeon-whistle making, one of the city's intangible cultural heritage items.

A pigeon whistle is designed to make sound as air passes through it in flight. Traditionally, different whistles could be fitted to each bird in a flock, producing different pitches that worked together.

"In Beijing, we traditionally talk about a flock of 12 pigeons," He said. "You might put six different whistles on six of them, and together they form a chord. You'd see their wings flashing in the sunlight, and at the same time hear this chord, this light music."

He said pigeons also seem to respond to the whistles. Once fitted with them, the birds sometimes become more animated, turning and circling in what keepers call "shuaipan", or showing off the flock in flight. "They know they're wearing whistles," He said. "They're happy, too."

His wife, Shang Liping, grew up around Taoranting and also remembers the sound. During school PE classes, she said, a pigeon whistle overhead could bring everyone to a halt. "Even the teacher would tell us to stop, and we'd just listen."

Around 2010, Shang began documenting the whistles, their history, and the knowledge behind He's craft.

"They know how to make them, but they don't know how to explain them," she said of traditional craftsmen.

Today, the couple live in Yanjiao, Hebei province, where He still raises pigeons and makes whistles.

The sound is heard less often in Beijing today, as the low-rise neighborhoods and rooftop pigeon lofts where it once flourished have become less common. For He and Shang, it is a sound they first heard as children, and one they are still working, in different ways, to keep alive.