Dapeng Mountain Songs

Dapeng mountain songs are sung across the Dapeng peninsula in Shenzhen, in the local Dapeng speech that blends Cantonese, Hakka and old garrison dialect, a folk music handed down by the descendants of the soldiers and townsfolk of Dapeng fortress.

The songs are often improvised, touching on fishing and farming labour, courtship and everyday life, with lilting tunes traded back and forth in the fields, by the sea or at festivals.

In 2012 the Dapeng mountain songs entered the fourth batch of Guangdong's provincial intangible heritage, a living record of Dapeng's distinctive garrison dialect and its coastal way of life.

They are heard mainly around Dapeng Fortress and its nearby villages in the Dapeng area.