Dong Minority Celebrates Dawuliang Singing Festival

On the early morning of April 17, Lu Pingzhong, a young man of the Dong minority from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, came to Longmen Mountain, Yatunbao Town, Tongdao Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Hunan Province (at the junction of Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou province) to sing the Dong songs in antiphonal style with Wu Wanqiao, a local girl of the Dong minority.

"We express our mood for the first meeting through the Dong songs," Lu told the reporters. He met Wu Qiaowan in the Longmen Mountain.

Every year, 18 days before the beginning of summer in the Chinese lunar calendar is called "Dawu", because "Wu" ranks the fifth or the middle in the ten Celestial Stems. This day, called Dawuliang Singing Festival, young men and women from the boundaries of the Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou dressing themselves up will get together at the Longmen Mountain (near Wuliang Mountain) to sing in antiphonal style. The festival is also called "Valentine's Day" of Dong people.

At 10:00 am, with a sinfonia played by the Lusheng (a reed-pipe instrument) of the Dong minority, the festival kicked off. The Dong music lingered in the Longmen Mountain.

Other folk activities held this day include birds fighting, fish catching, joint party, Dong brocade exhibition, Lusheng dance and pickles-making match of women. The most wonderful one should be the singing competition where the Dong people sing the songs, play dramas and Chinese lute. The competition shows the primitive and simple life style of Dong people.

The Dawuliang Singing Festival was listed as the intangible cultural heritage of the Hunan Province in 2006.