Two young women of the Miao ethnic group, clad in traditional dresses, sing on a boat that passes under an arched bridge over the Qingshui River in Southwest China's Guizhou province, raising the curtain for an international festival in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture.

The 2017 China (Qiandongnan) International Folk Song Choral Festival that ended on Saturday was held in Kaili, the prefecture's capital.

The festival's "world voices conference" drew 69 choirs from more than 20 countries and regions, including the United States, Mexico, Hungary and Russia.

It was perhaps the first time that traditional Miao and Dong songs were heard at an international event, according to Emily Kuo Vong, president of the International Federation for Choral Music, one of the organizers of the festival.

"It is a great chance for cultural exchanges as the festival also brings the most beautiful voices of the world to Qiandongnan," she says.

At the opening ceremony on Aug 10, local choirs, such as the Congjiang County Dong Choir and the Kaili Choir, performed songs with features of the two ethnic groups in Qiandongnan.

"Now I have a better idea about traditional Chinese songs," says Paulo Lourenco, the conductor of the ECCE Ensemble from Portugal.

Regarding differences in folk songs of Portugal and China, he explains: "These Chinese folk songs are based on the pentatonic scale, which is typical in Asian countries, while we use more harmonic and diatonic scales. And the instruments we use are also different from each other. Although folk songs vary among regions, music is a universal language."

Susan Nation, the double-bass player of the Chuck Nation Band from the US says she finds similarities between the ethnic culture of Qiandongnan and her homeland.

"I am from a part of America that is in the mountains and in the middle of the country. There is a very old mountain tradition. We have a similar history like the Miao and Dong (groups)," she says of the shared tradition of teaching songs from generation to generation.

With a history of more than 2,000 years, the "grand song" of the Dong people was derived from the sounds of nature, such as the chirping of birds or the flowing of rivers.

The song that eulogizes nature, labor and love was listed by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2009.

"We Dong girls start to learn the chorus from around 5 years of age. People from different villages gather under the drum tower (a building) and practice singing after working in the fields. The chorus also bonds us," says Qiu Xian, a local choir member.

Fan Ying, 50, a music lover from North China's Shanxi province, who was at the festival, says: "It was amazing to see the spectacular Dong chorus live. And the wonderful performances of foreign singers also broadened my horizon."

Many local choirs debuted at the festival.

Gan Wenhua, a singer from the Majiang County Choir, says his group had been gearing up for a performance by practicing more than five hours a day for the past month.

Sergio Quiroz, a singer from Mexico, says: "I was touched by the local voices. I hope our singing made them feel the same way."

The festival was held at the Kaili Cultural Palace of Nationalities.

Contact the writer at xingwen@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/15/2017 page20)