Buyei Bayin Sitting-Song

The Buyei Bayin sitting-song is said to trace back to the Tang and Song dynasties, long circulating among Buyei communities along the lower South Pan river around Xingyi, Anlong and Zhenfeng. By the Ming-Qing era Buyei villages along the Pan rivers commonly ran "Bayin halls" to teach the art, and at its peak more than three hundred Bayin troupes were active. Declared by Xingyi, it entered the first national ICH list in 2006 under Quyi.

In performance the singers sit in a circle, accompanying themselves on an ensemble of eight instruments—vertical and transverse flutes, yueqin, huqin, suona, small gongs and the like—singing age-old melodies whose texts draw on Buyei myth, legend and working life, handed down orally across generations.

Hailed as a "living fossil of sound" and the earthly music of the Pan river, Bayin sitting-song is the fullest expression of Buyei musical culture, of great value for the study of southwest minority Quyi, instrument ensembles and oral tradition, and a core emblem of Buyei identity in Xingyi.

Live Bayin sitting-song can often be heard in Buyei villages beneath Wanfenglin, at the Fenglin Buyei scenic area and at Xingyi's cultural events.