The southwestern provinces of Guangxi , Guizhou , and Yunnan make up a mountainous region with the greatest cultural diversity in China. The Zhuang people who live in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region enjoy singing shange in pairs or groups of five to six people. While majority of shange are about love between a man and a woman, some narrate epic tales. They can also be improvised in surprising ways to match the situation.\n\nThe Miao people, characterized by the unique hairstyles of the women, are scattered around Guangxi Province, Guizhou Province, and other parts of southwestern China. They have a unique singing technique that involves drawing out a single note as long as possible. Using this technique, they sing feige that sounds like flying birds and jiuge . The lusheng music played by men is also worth a listen.\n\nThe Kam (Dong) people live in Guizhou and are well known in China as the most vocally gifted tribe. Each village has several singing groups comprised of several dozen people, organized by gender and age. These groups sing dage , which are traditional polyphonic songs. The gulou and dage are such famous symbols of the Kam people and are used in tourism programs as well.\n\nAlthough there are many ethnic groups in Yunnan province, the Yi people are well known for their singing. Yi women sing songs with extremely high pitches to the accompaniment of yueqin played by the men. The Yi are also famous for their mass dances and singing parties during summer bonfire festival.

CD5 HÁT VĂN\nHát văn (văn singing) is a special traditional music associated with the Tứ Phủ religion, a local religion of the Kinh people in Vietnam. Hát văn or chầu văn means singing for reporting something to gods. In religion, it can be called cầm ca chúc thánh, which means “singing for praising gods”. There is a sentence in a book: “The Buddha loves the scripture and gods love singing”. The combination between singing and instrument playing, various repertoire and melodies, and strict regulations in performing ritual music helped hát văn become a professional traditional music, which strongly attracts listeners. The Tứ Phủ belief (the Four-God belief) is the environment in which hát văn has been nurtured and developed. The Tứ Phủ belief mentions the gods of the four components of cosmos, the world located in Heaven, Earth, Water, and Mountains. These gods are ranked differently. At the top of the temple is the Father of the Jade Emperor. Under the position of that god are Tam tòa Thánh Mẫu, ngũ vị vương Quan, tứ vị Chầu bà, ngũ vị Hoàng tử, Tứ Phủ thánh Cô, Tứ Phủ thánh Cậu, Ngũ Hổ, and ông Lốt. The Mẫu Liễu Hạnh God is considered to play the center role. Before becoming one of four Vietnamese gods, he was a normal person on the Earth with the hometown and the name.\n\nThe people in charge of performing music in the Tứ Phủ belief are called cung văn. A person practicing the cung văn profession has to train for a long time, from five years to seven years. This person has to be excellent in writing Hán-Nôm words and organizing a worship ceremony and hát văn so that he/she can take care of a temple. The cung văn profession is transferred only to family members. Hát văn music is usually performed by two cung văn, including one person playing the nguyệt (moon-shaped lute) and the other playing percussion instruments. One of them or both can sing. In a big rite, the number of performers in a band can be four or five with the participation of the tranh (16-chord zither), the nhị (Vietnamese two-string fiddle), or flutes. The nguyệt originates from the yeuqin instrument of China. However, comparing to the yeuqin instrument, the nguyệt has a longer neck with eight to eleven frets. A neck with ten frets is the most popular. Two strings of this instrument used to be made of silk but now are made of nylon. The small string is called dây tiếu, and the bigger one is called dây đài. The nguyệt is usually tuned to dây bằng (the fifth interval) and dây lệch (the fourth interval). It is seldom tuned to dây tố lan (the minor seventh interval) and to dây song thanh (an octave).