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The Code of Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritance in Xiqu District, Panzhihua City: Cultural Heritage Practices and Ethnic Roots Protection at Geliping Town Primary School
2025/05/26 16:58
Origin:cced.cn
At Geliping Town Primary School in Xiqu District, Panzhihua City, when the broadcast for break exercises is replaced by the melody of the hulusi (gourd flute), a mission to safeguard and inherit the roots of ethnic culture is quietly unfolding. From folk songs on the verge of extinction to campus intangible cultural heritage (ICH) courses accessible to the public,
In the "Ani Geli" activity center of Geliping Town Primary School, the after-school club time every Thursday afternoon is always particularly lively. A group of primary school students wearing traditional Lisu costumes form a circle, following the melodious tune of the hulusi, stepping to light dance steps, and chanting ancient Lisu folk songs. Their teachers are Hai Guoying, the representative inheritor of the provincial-level ICH project "Damadi Lisu Folk Songs," and her apprentice Hai Caiming.
"At first, the children couldn't even understand Lisu language. To help them learn Lisu songs quickly, I translated Lisu pronunciations into Chinese for better comprehension. Now they can sing the Lisu Welcome Song completely," said Hai Caiming while demonstrating dance moves. Since Xiqu District launched the "ICH into Campus" project in 2018, this primary school located in the urban-rural fringe has become a "vanguard" of Lisu cultural inheritance. The school established a Lisu culture club, integrating ethnic languages, songs, dances, and handicrafts into daily teaching.
In 2023, the school's "Damadi Lisu Folk Songs" project was selected as an ICH Experience Base at the 8th China Chengdu International Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival, becoming a cultural brand namecard of Xiqu District.
Hai Caiming recalled that initially, many parents worried that their children participating in club activities would affect their studies, but the children's changes have since shifted parental attitudes. "My child used to be introverted, but now they aren’t afraid to perform on stage," a parent said in an interview. For children, the perception of culture is purer. Lisu student Li Wen said, "I didn't know what ICH was before, but now I think it's really cool to sing the Lisu folk songs passed down by my ancestors! Teacher Hai said the folk songs we sing contain stories of the Lisu people crossing mountains, and I feel it's meaningful to carry forward our own ethnic culture."
Lisu high-pitched singing and hulusi dance were once the daily life of Lisu villages along the Jinsha River, but with modernization, these skills faced the crisis of generational discontinuity. The person in charge of Xiqu District Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, and Tourism frankly stated, "Ten years ago, there were fewer than ten representative inheritors who could sing complete Lisu ancient songs."
The turning point came in 2017. Xiqu District leveraged the advantages of Lisu song and dance culture as an ICH, combining the creation of Lisu culture campus demonstration sites with school education. It established a Lisu song and dance culture development team at Geliping Town Primary School, hired representative ICH inheritors to teach on campus, purchased 30 sets of traditional costumes, and formed a performance team to step onto the stage of "Sutie Theater." In 2023, the school and Hai Caiming systematically sorted out Lisu culture, compiling school-based textbooks such as Unity of All Ethnic Groups and Lisu Joyful Songs, introducing ethnic characteristics and ICH into classrooms and education. They also strengthened connections between parents of Lisu students, Lisu culture enthusiasts, and ICH workers through WeChat groups, opening up new inheritance and display channels to form a "school-family-community" interconnected inheritance network.
"ICH shouldn't just lie in museums," emphasized Hai Caiming in the interview. To this end, the school innovatively integrated Lisu group dancing into break exercises, creating a unique "ethnic break time" with local characteristics. During traditional festivals like the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, activities such as "Lisu Culture Blooms Anew" and "Traditional Drama Enters Campus" are held, allowing students to feel the vitality of culture through practice.
In April 2024, an ICH cultural performance titled "Strengthening the Nation and Rejuvenation Starts with Me: ICH Enters Campus" was held at the activity center of Geliping Town Primary School. Sichuan opera face-changing and Lisu songs and dances took turns on stage. Children sang Lisu Folk Songs with their young voices, and the audience erupted in thunderous applause. This event was not only a performance but also a concentrated display of the ICH inheritance achievements in Xiqu District.
Ma Rong, a 10-year-old Lisu student, is the "leading role" of the performance team. She proudly showed the Lisu embroidery backpack she sewed: "Teacher Hai taught us that every stitch must align with the ancestors' patterns." Children like Ma Rong are becoming the new forces of "living inheritance" for ICH.
It is reported that Xiqu District has actively explored ICH inheritance through a three-pronged approach: implanting cultural genes into the growth memories of teenagers via curriculum systems, club activities, and school-based textbooks; organizing students to participate in lacquer painting exhibitions and folk festivals through "ICH enters community" activities to promote cultural feedback to society; and upgrading Lisu culture from "local knowledge" to a "regional brand" through platforms like cultural performances, thus constructing a three-dimensional protection system.
The person in charge of Xiqu District Education and Sports Bureau said that the next step will be to continue promoting the deep integration of ICH inheritance with the "Double Reduction" policy, actively exploring industrial paths such as "ICH + research study" and "ICH + cultural creativity," so that ICH can be inherited and form a sustainable ecological closed loop.
"The Lisu people living in the deep mountains passed down Lisu songs and dances in a hardworking and simple environment. I think: I want to make contributions to the children of all ethnic groups, so that our Lisu cultural knowledge can be passed further, better, and more wonderfully. I especially hope it can be passed on to the children of all ethnic groups to carry it forward," said Hai Caiming.
In the "Hai Caiming" studio of Geliping Town Primary School, rows of stone paintings created by students are neatly arranged, with a Lisu Migration Map standing out— in the painting, clan members in colorful clothes trek along the Jinsha River, with modern high-rises and the school in the background. This image of interwoven time and space epitomizes the ICH inheritance in Xiqu District: both revering tradition and embracing the future.
As Hai Caiming said, "Culture is like a tree; only when the roots are deep can the leaves reach for the sky."
Xiqu District takes education as the soil and innovation as the rain, allowing the ancient cultural tree of Lisu songs and dances to bloom new buds in the new era. This, perhaps, is the most touching answer to ICH protection.(Text/Photos by Wei Shiyu, Xu Chen)
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