The photo, taken on August 27, shows Yao people celebrate Taoliaogui Festival at Chongmudang Village in Longhui County. (Photo/Teng Zhizhong)

Huayao girls. 

On August 27, an intangible cultural heritage country music concert was held at Longhui County’s Chongmudang Village to celebrate Huayao people’s traditional “Taoliaogui” festival.

Hunan’s intangible cultural heritage inheritors were invited to put on performances for the first time in Hunan’s rural cultural tourism festival, which brought a unique cultural feast to tourists.

A variety of programmes were staged, including Dongting fishermen's songs, Xinhua folk songs, Tujia Daliuzi (a kind of local musical instrument performance), Sangzhi folk songs, and Huayao folk songs. The performances integrated music, band shows, and elements of intangible cultural heritages, attracting more than a thousand tourists.

The concert was a new attempt to explore an “intangible cultural heritage + tourism” mode in Longhui. It has improved tourists’ cultural experience, and opened up a new path to bring intangible cultural heritage items back to life.

Taoliaogui is the largest traditional festival of Huayao people every year. In 2009, it was included in the Hunan Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage List. The festival is held twice a year, namely, from the second to fourth day of the seventh lunar month in Mao'ao Village, Huxingshan Yao Township, and from the eighth to tenth day of the seventh lunar month in Chongmudang Village. During the festival, local residents, together with those returning home from afar, would have gatherings and visit relatives and friends.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn. 

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hn.chinanews.com; hunan.voc.com.cn