Chinese minorities like to sing heroic epics, folklores, and folktales in the form of folk songs, this kind of song is usually in strophic form generally sung by a professional singer or semi-professional artisan with accompaniment or instrument, for example, songs about legendary love stories such as "Brother Mawu and Sister Gadou" of Hui ethnic group, "Erip and Senam" of Uygur ethnic group, "Saliha and Saman" of Kazak ethnic group; long heroic epics such as "Gesar" of Tibetan ethnic group, "Manas" of Kirgiz ethnic group; songs about the history and origin of a minority such as "the marriage between Fuxi and his sister" of Yao ethnic group in Guangxi; "gu'ge" (ancient song) of Miao ethnic group, Bouyei ethnic group, and Shut ethnic group in Guizhou; "gao huang (ancient kings) song", "panhu (winding calabash gourd) song", "Genesis song", and "Pan Gu (creator of the universe in Chinese mythology) Genesis" of She ethnic group in Fujian and Zhejiang.
In addition to the above, there are other forms with national characters such as passion and vigorous "rewap tanchang" (dance and instruments) of Uygur ethnic group, excited "dombira tangchang" of Kazak ethnic group, witty and humorous "kumuzi tanchang" of Kirgiz ethnic group, lyrical "kayago tanchang" of Korean ethnic group, melodious "niutui qin'ge" of Dong ethnic group, and "zhamunie tanchang" of Tibetan ethnic group.
(ChinaCulture.org August 2, 2005)
