【Opening Remarks】
Recently, the Hunan Provincial Government announced the fifth batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage representative project list, as well as the provincial intangible cultural heritage representative project list expanded project list, including Changsha nursery rhymes and a total of 104 items. Among them, there are nearly ten items involving the scope of Changsha.
The reporter learned that the provincial intangible cultural heritage projects announced this time include folk literature, traditional music, traditional dance, traditional drama, traditional skills and other categories. From now on, this newspaper has launched a series of reports on "Our Intangible Cultural Heritage" to take you to experience the charm of Hunan Intangible Cultural Heritage at close range.
Text/Video Sanxiang Metropolis Daily all-media reporter Ding Pengzhi intern Wang Xinyue
The moon is shining, a daddy sits in the belly, the father comes out to buy vegetables, the belly sits a grandmother... Speaking of Changsha nursery rhymes, many people will think of "Moon Dumplings", but in addition, can you think of anything else?
The Changsha nursery rhymes, which have just been promoted to the provincial intangible cultural heritage project, have collected and sorted out more than 200 Changsha nursery rhymes under the efforts of the inheritor Cai Yingqiang for many years. Today, Cai Yingqiang has also paired these Changsha nursery rhymes with easy-to-understand pictures and compiled them into a book for preservation and transmission.
More than 200 Changsha nursery rhymes have been collected for more than ten years
"Nursery rhymes are the imprint of a city, he can make memories, but also can protect the dialect very well." On January 10, at the Chinese folk painting creation base in Kaifu District, Changsha City, when the reporter met Cai Yingqiang, he was creating nursery rhyme paintings.
Cai Yingqiang has loved to draw since she was a child, especially good at Chinese character sketches. "I grew up in Changsha and remember a lot of nursery rhymes when I was a child, with nursery rhyme complexes. But with the change of the times, few traditional nursery rhymes have been handed down. At that time, I wondered, can I draw a Changsha nursery rhyme? In 2004, Cai Yingqiang began to formally contact and collect nursery rhymes.
(On January 10, Cai Yingqiang, the inheritor of the Changsha nursery rhymes in the Changsha Folk Painting Creation Base in Kaifu District, Changsha City, was creating nursery rhyme paintings.) Photo by reporter Ding Pengzhi)
"I really started to collect and found that in addition to some familiar nursery rhymes such as "Moon Dumplings", "Zhang Datie", "Ma Lan Blossom" and so on, many of them have begun to disappear." In order to collect more Changsha nursery rhymes, Cai Yingqiang walked the streets and alleys, visiting the old neighborhoods of Changsha of different eras..." In the process of collecting, some people only remember the first few sentences, and some only remember the back, so I have to integrate them all together first, and then verify to see if it is sung in this way. There is a nursery rhyme called "Firefly", and I have found more than a dozen talents of different ages and different industries to collect it. ”
"Nursery rhymes are very meaningful things, not only interesting, but also record the information of the past and the folk customs of the time, which are the cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors." Cai Yingqiang introduced that after collecting and sorting out more than 200 Changsha nursery rhymes, he classified these nursery rhymes.
Cai Yingqiang told reporters that Changsha nursery rhymes, with games, place names, raps, rich in variety, with strong regional characteristics. "Although it is not Yangchun white snow, it is very grounded and has a sense of familiarity." For example, the game category of "one two three four five six seven, Ma Lan blossom twenty-one ...", the toponymy class of "one step two bridges, three kilometers, Sifangping, Wujialing, Liuduizi, Qili Temple, octagonal pavilion, leek garden, Simen" and so on.
"There are also 'two or three miles in one walk, four or five tea gardens, six or seven buildings, eight or ninety tea tastings', which is a reflection of the prevalence of tea culture in Changsha at that time." Cai Yingqiang said.
He let the Changsha nursery rhyme "live" into the painting
Nursery rhymes have been collected, how to effectively retain and spread them? Cai Yingqiang is ready to combine his own painting expertise, to each nursery rhyme to see the picture to speak with pictures, in the form of nursery rhyme wall paintings, nursery rhyme albums for promotion, so that more people understand Changsha nursery rhymes.
"Although the language of nursery rhymes is simple and simple, it contains folk wit and wisdom, and it is not easy to draw the meaning of it." Cai Yingqiang said that in order to better observe and portray the children's demeanor, Cai Yingqiang even organized children to play games such as throwing handkerchiefs, squeezing oil slag, and leading sheep to buy sheep in nursery rhymes to reproduce the scene. "But now many children can't play this kind of game anymore, they don't play it, and they don't have the charm of that era."
Under Cai Yingqiang's continuous attempts and retreat ideas, works with childlike fun and historical marks were painted. The authentic Changsha dialect is fused with unique characters, and the happy hours of childhood are slowly unfolding in front of your eyes like a picture scroll... Nowadays, these nursery rhymes that "live" in the paintings are compiled into books and are deeply loved by the public.
In December 2016, Changsha nursery rhymes were selected into the Changsha Intangible Cultural Protection Heritage List, and Cai Yingqiang became the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Changsha nursery rhymes. At the end of 2021, Changsha nursery rhymes were included in the list of provincial intangible cultural heritage projects.
Cai Yingqiang said: "In the past, painting was very casual, and after becoming a non-hereditary inheritor, it is not only painting, but also respecting history and restoring history. Let more people remember when they were children, when we played and sang like this. ”
"After being listed as an heir, I feel more of responsibility and responsibility." Talking about the future, Cai Yingqiang said that he will continue to collect and create works related to Changsha nursery rhymes and develop some related cultural and creative products, "In fact, each of us is an inheritor, and the inheritance of Changsha nursery rhymes also requires the joint efforts of all of us." ”