Chants in the hills

Chen Xinghua is one of the few in Ziyun county, Guizhou province, who can sing the epic. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The ritual, which went on for days to honor the departed, fascinated Yang Xiaodong and he started to learn the art form from his uncle at the age of 13.

Yang Xiaodong completed middle school in 2005. Like many other rural youngsters, he left the poor village for a better life in the city.

Though he went to Shenzhen in the south to work, he couldn't forget the songs. In 2010, Yang Xiaodong returned to the village to be a teacher.

In 2014, he joined the King Yalu Cultural Research Center, which was founded by the Ziyun government in 2009 to focus on research, translation and recording of the King Yalu epic.

"For the Miao people, King Yalu (the epic) is important－it is the root of our culture and is also about our history," says Yang Xiaodong over the phone.

The verses are the remains of the oral history of the legendary King Yalu and chronicle how he led his people to fight in wars.