Minnan Children's Rhymes

Minnan children's rhymes are nursery songs composed and sung in the Minnan dialect; tradition holds that 'moonlight' rhymes circulated as early as the Tang, spreading with migrants to Taiwan and Southeast Asia through later dynasties. In 2008 Xiamen's submission entered the second national ICH list (children's rhymes, Ⅰ-78).

The rhymes range across lullabies, games, animals, plants, knowledge and custom, performed as chanted, sung, acted or danced verses. Witty and rhyming, they are a key vehicle of mother-tongue learning and oral culture for Minnan children.

In the plainest of local voices, the rhymes record Minnan life and lore, sustaining the dialect and the shared memory of cross-strait and diaspora communities; they are still passed on in Xiamen through schools and neighborhoods.