THE IDENTITY OF GANNAN HAKKA FOLK SONGS IN THE SOUTHERN GAN RIVER BASIN IN JIANGXI PROVINCE

Abstract

The study employs a literature review, standard research methods, and field study techniques to conduct visits and surveys in various Xingguo County and Ganzhou City townships. The goal is to understand Hakka folk songs in Gannan's lyrics, melodies, emotional and artistic expressions, cultural implications, and societal influences. This analysis focuses on the cognitive, heritage, and cohesive functions of Hakka folk songs. The research revealed that Gannan Hakka people enhanced their identity through the musical connotations, cultural context, and the identity transmission functions embedded in Hakka folk songs. Over a millennia of development, they continuously consolidate and strengthen their identity as Hakka people through the inheritance and recognition of mountain song culture, emotional expression and resonance, social exchange, and influence, forming a closely knit and cohesive group consciousness. Facing challenges from popular music and diverse cultures, Gannan Hakka folk songs urgently need innovation while maintaining traditions. This study envisions future methods for the inheritance and innovation of Hakka folk songs, focusing on keeping pace with changing aesthetic concepts, diversifying content themes, modernizing melodic structures, and innovating singing methods. It explores novel ways for the Gannan Hakka people to find their identity through mountain songs. It looks at things like passing on traditions through new media, inheritance under intangible cultural heritage policies, the growth and coexistence of cultural identity, and the awakening of identity and individual expression. These efforts aim to guide the characteristic preservation and innovative development of Gannan Hakka folk songs in the new era while also providing reference and inspiration for the development of other traditional folk music.

-