Shaanxi province is one of the originally melting pots of Chinese civilization. It is home to the famous Loess Plateau, the largest plateau in the world made from loess, a windblown accumulation of loosely deposited clay and silt, but a solid base for the folk songs of Shaanxi. One of the people who have come from other regions to contribute to this cultural base is Li Yarong.

Hello everyone. Welcome to another edition of China roots. I'm your host Paul Kendall. Today we'll continue our musical journey into northwest China to hear some beautiful folk songs from Northern Shaanxi province.

The song you just heard is called Blue Flower, or Lan Huahua, one of the most famous Shaanxi folk songs. It tells the story of a girl by the name of Blue flower, who was forced by her family to marry the 7-year-old son of a rich local man. The girl didn't wish to yield to her fate, and in the last part of the song expresses her resolution to revolt against the powerful family and run away with her lover. The vivid story told within this song has moved many over the decades and has even been adapted for stage drama.

Shaanxi province is one of the originally melting pots of Chinese civilization. It is home to the famous Loess Plateau, the largest plateau in the world made from loess, a windblown accumulation of loosely deposited clay and silt, but a solid base for the folk songs of Shaanxi. One of the people who have come from other regions to contribute to this cultural base is Li Yarong. This female singer works as a journalist for a Beijing-based newspaper, and formerly studied sculpture in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, with one of her works once displayed at a national arts exhibition. Li has loved folk songs from an early age, but her life would not have any firm connections with Northern Shaanxi folk music were it not for a work assignment in the province. As she carried out her journalistic work, she happened upon He Yutang, a local folk singer. He Yutang's singing was so impressive that the journalist decided to produce a music video featuring this peasant singer. This music video cost Li Yarong 80,000 Yuan, but won her second prize in the national Music Video Award of that year. So let's have a listen to Yokel, the famous MTV collaboration between He Yutang and Li Yarong.

Li Yarong said that she is crazy for the folk songs of Loess Plateau. She calls the local songs ‘wild folk songs' for obvious reasons. Li's singing is untamed and unrestricted, with no formal techniques to speak of. For this singer, 'wild singing' should evoke the same emotions as singing out the name of your lover from a far-away place, a way of helping you to relieve your stress and your thirsts.

The song you just heard is Sanshi Lipu, the name of a village. The song was first heard in the 1940s and tells of the love affair between Fourth Sister and her lover. To find the story behind the song, Li went to different places in the province looking for the real life Fourth Sister. The results were both disappointing and upsetting. Fourth Sister is an old, married country woman now, but has always been despised by her fellow locals who consider her arbitrary love affair to have been indecent.

Another track which gives us a good impression of Li Yarong's talented and free rendition of Shaanxi folk music is 'White Head-Towel with Three Blue Strips'. It is not uncommon to hear such a song in the countryside of Shaanxi, with the lyrics 'The white head-towel has three blue strips. It's easy to see you, but hard to talk to you. One is on the hill-top. The other is in the ravine. We can never talk but we can just wave hands. I saw your village but I can't see my love. My tears fall in the Artemisia weeds. '

With all this talk of Northern Shaanxi folk songs, we can't miss out the famous grass-roots singer Wang Xiangrong. Born and nurtured in a small county of the province, the barren land and sever surroundings brought poverty, but also imparted him with the rich culture of song. Already in his fifties, Wang Xiangrong has previously worked as a shepherd, a coalminer and a bricklayer. Without any formal training, Wang Xiangrong sings pretty freely, despite the aforementioned austerity of his homeland. Wang Xiangrong is known nowadays as the greatest singer of Northern Shaanxi Folk Songs, and last month, as a representative for grass-roots folk singers, Wang performed in Beijing together with singers from other parts of China. The planner of the concert was none other than Li yarong, the journalist we mentioned at the beginning of the show.
Now let's listen to two songs from Wang Xiangrong. The first one is Finishing Three Days' Journey in Two Days, and the second one Can't Meet Up with My Good Woman.

Though mostly focusing on love, Northern Shaanxi folk songs also cover other more social themes. In fact many existing folk songs were created during from a period between the late 19th century and the 1940s. Some songs tell the miserable life of the impoverished and some tell of the revolution, with the next two songs falling into the latter category, and going by the names of My Red Army Man Returns and Morningstar Lily Blooms.