Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects on my continued discussions with Kam (in Chinese, Dong 侗) friends and teachers regarding complexities around continuities in Kam song traditions, particularly as we collaboratively evaluate a newly released recording of Kam village singing.

Paper long abstract:

While singing in Kam (in Chinese, Dong 侗) villages of southwestern China has undergone dramatic changes since the first staging of Kam choral singing in the 1950s, the singing traditions older singers remember from the past and the ways that Kam songs are performed today still display deep connections. For the UNESCO-recognised “Kam big song” genre, some of the many transformations include mixed male and female singing groups, singing in more than two simultaneous vocal lines, a huge increase in singing group membership (from three or more singers, to up to ten thousand) and the use of higher pitches and faster speeds. Yet there are also remarkable ways in which many aspects of big song singing have retained continuity with past practices, and the complexities around continuities in Kam song traditions is an issue that my Kam friends, teachers and I have discussed at length over the past 15-odd years. This paper reflects on those continued discussions through Chinese social media in the current COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as we collaboratively evaluate a newly released recording of Kam village singing. It explores the “multiple meanings of tradition” (Phillips and Schochet 2004: xi) that exist in contemporary Kam music-making through drawing on frameworks that place aside the continuity-or-change dichotomy, and through considering the unique sociocultural dynamics Kam villagers have encountered in recent processes of cultural essentialization.

Phillips, MS, and G Schochet. 2004. “Preface.” In Questions of Tradition, ed. M. Phillips and G. Schochet, ix-xv. Toronto, Buffalo & London: University of Toronto Press.