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China copes with Mongolia to protect Mongolian folk songs

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-29 11:45

HOHHOT: A joint team with experts from both China and Mongolia have "rescued" more than 500 long-tune folk songs of Mongolian ethnic group from being vanished in a two-year field survey that concluded recently, cultural department of northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said Sunday.

The activity was based on a field survey agreement made between the two countries in 2007 for protecting the Mongolian long-tune folk songs.

Over the past two years, a team of 10 made survey of 16 counties in Hulunbuir, Tongliao, Ordos cities and the prefecture-level leagues of Xiling and Araxan in Inner Mongolia of China, traveling more than 12,000 kilometers.

The team interviewed 420 local singers of folk songs, recorded video materials in 84 cassettes and "saved" 266 long-tune folk songs that were on the verge of extinguishment.

During the survey in the Republic of Mongolia, the team traveled 6,250 km in nine provinces, made interviews of 118 local singers and "rescued" 246 songs.

Appraised as the "living fossil" of Mongolian music, long-tune folk songs were included in the UNESCO representative list of world intangible cultural heritage in 2005. The inclusion was applied for jointly by China and Mongolia.