Folk melodies showcasing traditional art in tune with tourism

YINCHUAN — Sa Lina, 38, has juggled a hectic schedule recently, performing Hua'er, a type of folk song popular in northwestern China, not only in her hometown in Ningxia Hui autonomous region but also in the neighboring Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

"Over the past two years, the link between culture and tourism has strengthened, creating more opportunities for local folk singers like me to showcase traditional art to tourists," says Sa, who has devoted herself to Hua'er for almost 20 years.

Hua'er, which means flower in Chinese, uses a distinct high pitch and has been exceedingly popular in China's Qinghai and Gansu provinces, and Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, for hundreds of years. The Chinese folk song genre, also known as a type of "mountain song", was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.

Sa was born in Ningxia's Haiyuan county, dubbed "the hometown of Hua'er". After graduation, she returned to Haiyuan to join a local art troupe and soon became an apprentice under Ma Handong, a well-known Hua'er singer.