Zhongshan Saltwater Song

The saltwater song is a folk ballad passed down for generations among the Tanka boat-dwelling people of the coast and river deltas of Zhongshan (the old Xiangshan), also called "vernacular fisher songs," flourishing around the Pearl River estuary from the Ming and Qing. Born of the water, it accompanies the Tanka at the oar, the net, and at weddings, a living record for the study of Lingnan's riverine communities and dialect. In 2006 Zhongshan saltwater song entered the first national ICH list under traditional music (project number II-12).

The saltwater song is sung in the local Tanka vernacular—a blend of Cantonese and Min speech—most often as call-and-response or solo, with a flowing, unadorned melody and lyrics on labour, love, marriage and current affairs, drawing on water imagery of sea, boat and fish, improvised on the spot, the heart of Tanka oral culture.

The saltwater song carries the historical memory, dialect art and emotional life of the Tanka people, witnessing the coexistence of Lingnan's maritime culture and its many communities, and holds real value for the study of China's riverine folk-song tradition.