In the mid 1980s, a song named Xintianyou spread rapidly around China. To many, it was simply a song with a strong northwest China flavor. Actually, xintianyou is from a special genre of folk song boasting its own origin and style. In today's China Melody, let's hear some of this unique genre of folk song.

There are more than 20 types of folk songs in northern Shaanxi Province. The most famous of these songs, xintianyou, best displays the region's local flavor and characteristics. For centuries, the folk songs have been echoing above the vast Loess Plateau, a scenery which inspires both magnificence and sadness.
Li Yuehong, a professor from China Music Conservatory, says xingtianyou represents the spirit of folk songs from northwest China. Its creation is closely connected with the local environment and lifestyle.

"Crisscross gullies are found everywhere on the Loess Plateau, which caused great difficulty in transportation. Thus emerged a group of people who transported goods with mules and donkeys. These porters, always walking in the deep mountains and ravines, would sing impromptu songs to themselves during their journeys."
Professor Li explains that one of the main features of xintianyou is the high tune in the first line of the song, which drops slowly in the second line. Tune of Porters is a good example. She even sings it for us herself.

Another important component of xintianyou is the love song. Usually it is sung by the girl missing her boyfriend who goes out as a porter. Blue Flower is the most famous such love song, in which Blue Flower is a girl's name.

With the progress of time, the local environment has changed a great deal. Transportation has improved a lot, meaning men won't experience the hardship of being porters and women need not suffer the heartache of missing their beloved. However, according to Professor Li, some new songs have emerged along with the new social backdrop, injecting new vigor into this old genre of folk songs.
"In the 1930s and 1940s, during the anti-Japanese war and the Chinese civil war, a number of songs singing about the new conditions appeared, all of which contain new lyrics but are based on the old melodies. Such a trend continued when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949."

Today, many Chinese musicians and singers are still growing up on the essence of folk songs, including xintianyou. So to end this week's China Melody, I'll leave with you a song called Drive the Mule, sung by Zhang Ye. 

Edited by Li Guixiang, online chief editor.