The Miao, encompassing various linguistically-related sub-groups, are predominantly situated in Southern China and parts of Southeast Asia. They are acknowledged as one of the 56 official ethnicities by the People’s Republic of China. With a population surpassing 11 million in China, they rank as the fifth largest ethnic group1. Their primary settlements are in the mountainous regions of southern China, spanning provinces such as Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, and Hunan. Notably, the Hmong, a sub-group of the Miao, have ventured beyond China’s borders into Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. The late 1970s witnessed a significant migration of Hmong refugees to Western nations, with predominant resettlements in the United States, France, and Australia.
苗族是居住在中国南部和东南亚的一个古老民族。苗族人口在中国境内超过1100万，他们被认定为56个官方民族之一，是中国的第五大民族。苗族主要居住在中国南部的山区，如贵州省、云南省、四川省、湖北省、湖南省等。中国以外的一些苗族分支，例如苗族蒙人（Hmong），已经移居到缅甸、越南北部、老挝和泰国等东南亚地区。20世纪70年代末，一大批苗族难民重新移居安置到美国、法国和澳大利亚为主的几个西方国家。
1 Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China. 2020. “China Statistical Yearbook”, Beijing: China Statistics Press.
Xiaoshuijing
Xiaoshuijing village (小水井村), Fumin County (富民县), Kunming city (昆明市) Yunnan Province (云南省). Xiaoshuijing has a population of 469, of whom all are Miao, 80% of them being Christians. There are several choirs in the villages. The Miao village has developed a new music tradition Miao hymn, a hybrid of Miao traditional music, language, dance and costumes with elements of Western choral practices. With a rising reputation in singing Miao Christian hymns, these choirs have received national attention and participated in various commercial performances outside the community and also stage Christian singing competitions with performers from other Miao villages each Christmas. The singers work as farmers by day, gathering together to practice choir a few times a week as well as every Sunday.
小水井村位于云南省昆明市富民县。全村共有居民469人，皆为苗族，其中80%的人口信仰基督教。该村拥有数个合唱团。在该村落中，一种融合了苗族传统音乐、语言、舞蹈和服饰与西方合唱实践元素的新音乐传统——苗族圣歌已逐渐形成。凭借其在演唱苗族基督教圣歌方面日益升高的声誉，这些合唱团已受到了全国的关注，并参与了社区以外的各种商业演出，同时也在每个圣诞节与来自其他苗族村落的表演者举办基督教歌唱比赛。合唱团的歌手们在日常以农耕为生，每周会聚集几次进行合唱团的排练，每个星期天会定时集合练习。
Miao Musical Culture in Xiaoshuijing
The Miao music of Xiao Shuijing Village is a unique fusion of the indigenous music of the local Miao villagers and the choir-style church music brought by Western missionaries in the early 20th century. This cultural blend has made Xiao Shuijing Village a hub of cultural innovation, continuing a century-old choir tradition that has become an integral part of the local intangible cultural heritage.
In the early 20th century, Western missionaries came to Xiao Shuijing Village to preach and established churches, thus initiating the choir tradition that continues to this day. Currently, about 80% of the Miao villagers are Christians. Despite not having formally studied music theory, the villagers have learned to sing hymns from a young age. They have maintained the traditional singing style of the Miao mountain songs while also adopting the four-part harmony of church choirs, earning the reputation of “Baroque in the deep mountains.”
The “Xiao Shuijing Farmers’ Choir,” founded in 2003, originated from the church choir and consists entirely of village members. The villagers practice spontaneously in their spare time, creating a daily routine of “farming by day, singing by night.” Since its inception, the choir has participated in numerous music competitions and events both domestically and internationally. Their repertoire includes a mix of classical and modern pieces, modern Miao songs, and occasionally, challenging difficult English songs.
小水井的苗族音乐融合了当地原住居民的原生态音乐和20世纪初西方传教士带来的“唱诗班”式教堂音乐，展现出一种独特的混合形态。这种文化的融合使小水井村成为了一个文化创新的交汇点，其延续了一个世纪的唱诗班传统，也成为了当地居民非物质文化遗产中不可或缺的一部分。
20世纪初，西方传教士在小水井村进行传教，并建立了教会，唱诗班随之产生并延续至今。目前，约80%的苗族村民都是基督徒。尽管村民们没有系统地学习过音乐理论知识，但他们从小就学会唱赞美诗。村民们在保持原生态苗族山歌的唱法的同时，也吸收了教会唱诗班的四声部唱法，被誉为“深山里的巴洛克”。
2003年成立的“小水井农民合唱团”源于教会唱诗班，其成员全部由村民组成。村民们利用白天农忙之余的时间自发排练，形成了“白天拿起锄头种地，晚上放下锄头唱歌”的日常生活景象。自成立以来，合唱团参加了许多国内外的音乐比赛和活动，所演唱的曲目既有古典与现代的结合，也包括现代苗族诗歌，有时甚至挑战高难度的英文歌曲。
Miao Writing
The Pollard script, which is also known as Pollard Miao or Miao, was devised in 1905 by Samuel Pollard (1864-1915), a British missionary, with help from Yang Yage and Li Shitifan. Before Pollard came along, the A-Hmao language, when written at all, was written with Chinese characters. Pollard Miao underwent many changes and revisions and only became stable in 1936, when a translation of the New Testament was published in the Pollard script.
Various efforts have been made to improve Pollard Miao writing, which inadequately represents the phonetics and tones of A-Hmao and is not ideal for writing Chinese loan words. A semi-official ‘reformed’ Pollard script has been in use since 1988, along with the older version of the script, and the pīnyīn version.
Pollard文字，也被称为Pollard苗文或苗文，是英国传教士Samuel Pollard (1864-1915) 于1905年在Yang Yage和Li Shitifan的帮助下发明的。在Pollard发明之前，A-Hmao语言若被书写的话，会被写成汉字。直到1936年，当《新约》的Pollard版本被发布时，Pollard苗文经过多次修改后才逐渐稳定下来。
由于Pollard苗文并不能充分地代表A-Hmao的语音和声调，且不太适合向汉语借词，人们只能为了改进Pollard苗文书写做出各种尝试和努力。从1988年开始，除了旧版本的文字和拼音版本外，还有一种半官方的”改革后”的Pollard文字被采用。
Source: https://omniglot.com/writing/pollardmiao.htm (Accessed: Dec. 13, 2022)
Miao Wedding
The wedding ceremony is a very important part of the Miao culture. The villagers of Xiaoshuijing believe in Christianity, so their wedding ceremonies combine elements of traditional culture and Christian beliefs. The following videos record the wedding ceremony of Long Shiyin (龙诗音), who’s father is the conductor of the Xiaoshuijing Choir.
In Yunnan, at a traditional Miao wedding, the groom is supposed to come with his best man to the bride’s house and play gongs and drums to show her family that he is sincere in his desire to marry her. After the groom has obtained the consent of the bride’s family, the bride shall leave with the groom, which is we also known as the “picking up the bride”(接亲). The groom and the bride then go together to the Dao Hall (a place used to worship Miao ancestors) in the middle of the village and kneel three times, which means to pray to the Miao ancestors for their future lives.
The traditional ceremony of “picking up the bride” has maintained, but the music has been changed to composed Christian music sung in the Miao language. Today, young Miao couples are formally married in the village church, with the clergy leading the process and conveying the message of the Christian faith to those attending the wedding.
婚礼是苗族文化中非常重要的一部分。由于大部分的小水井村村民信仰基督教，所以他们的婚礼结合了苗族的传统文化和基督教文化。以下视频记录了小水井合唱团指挥龙诗音的婚礼。
在云南传统的苗族婚礼中，新郎需带着伴郎敲锣打鼓地来到新娘家，表示他诚意求娶新娘。新郎在得到新娘家人的同意后，将带着新娘一同离开，这个过程称为“接亲”。之后，新人们会去村中的道堂（一个用于祭拜苗族祖先的地方）跪拜三次，祈求祖先的保佑。
传统的“接亲”仪式延续至今，但婚礼上演奏的音乐已被改为苗语的基督教音乐。当今住在小水井的年轻苗族夫妇会在村里的教堂举行结婚仪式，邀神职人员主持婚礼，并向参加婚礼的人传达与基督教信仰有关的信息。
