Chengdu_concert_still

Chengdu concert (mountain song)
成都演唱

author performing "mountain song" in 1998 concert

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This video was recorded in 1998, during a tour of three Chinese cities by the authors and a group of friends from Virginia, accompanied by two Chinese performers, Ni Lei and Ding Ning. The song is "mountain song," a version of the shan'ge sung by Zhu Congde of Xiakou (see that video for transcription). The stage announcer introduces the song by telling about our experience in Xiakou and our friendship with Zhu Congde. At the end of the clip, we begin playing an Appalachian "old time" interpretation of the song. At this concert, a group of villagers from Xiakou were in attendance. The video clip is titled "mirrors: folklorization and the cultural contestant" because of the many layers of reflexivity at play in the tour performances, and because we were actively promoting the cultural value of these old mountain songs. For more on the tour, see the analysis "cultural contestant" above.