The 2025 China Native Folk Song Festival, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, was recently held in Hohhot, Ulanqab, Ordos and other places in Inner Mongolia. Manhan tune "The Yellow River in the World", Nu ethnic folk songs "Oh Dede" and "Children's Songs", Yueqing collision song "To Birds", Tajik ethnic folk song "Guli Bita", Changyang mountain song "Pulling Grass, Drums and Drums"... These folk songs that grow from fields and stoves are originally the most closely related sounds to life, and each song is a deep confession to a certain soil and water. But now, people feel that they are so unfamiliar. How can traditional folk songs enter modern life and achieve better protection and inheritance? Finding the point of integration with life. Folk songs are an art that originates from life. Whether it's mountain songs, field songs, fishing songs, or woodcutting songs, pastoral songs, or boat songs, they are all created by the working people in their production and life. As the saying goes, 'the hungry sing about their food, and the laborers sing about their work'. The changes in modern production and lifestyle have caused folk songs to lose the soil they rely on for survival, "said Zhang Tiantong, a professor at the China Conservatory of Music. It is not realistic to let folk songs continue to be sung in modern society without any carving, and they should be changed in a timely manner. Taking the participating works in this folk song festival as an example, whether it is Shanwei fishing songs, Dong ethnic songs, or Zhuang Liao songs, most of the singers have translated the lyrics to a certain extent, while also incorporating some dialect or ethnic minority lyrics. We once tried to sing in our native language, but the audience couldn't understand. Later, we switched to singing in Chinese, and the effect was much better. "Speaking of the experience of singing the traditional Qiang folk song" Hua'er Naji ", Qiang singer Yingzhong Wangji from Aba, Sichuan, said that inheriting traditional folk songs requires" seeking change ". Folk songs are an artistic language rooted in life, and only by being close to life can they be sung and spread. Wuhe folk songs are typical representatives of folk music culture in the Huaihe River Basin. Their performance forms include singing and whitewashing, as well as solo singing, duet singing, rap, and mini singing. They were listed as representative projects of national intangible cultural heritage in 2008. Different from the content of traditional Wuhe folk songs, "Picking Pomegranates" was created to support the promotion of the first law in New China, the Marriage Law. It depicts the story of a young man and woman who are dissatisfied with their parents' arranged marriage and pursue free love and a better life. For many years, 'Picking Pomegranates' has been widely sung and loved by the local people in northern Anhui. Xue Shengyou is a national representative inheritor of Wuhe folk songs and also the singer of "Picking Pomegranates" at this folk song festival. In his opinion, free love is still an important theme in today's life, so "Picking Pomegranates" has been sung for more than 70 years and can still resonate with people. Nowadays, there are some new problems in the marriage and love of young people, such as parenting pressure and high dowries. If these problems can be reflected in folk songs, folk songs will definitely attract more young audiences, "said Xue Shengyou. Opening up a new stage in the past, the stage of folk songs was in the fields, where people transplanted rice and pulled grass while singing. Where is the stage for folk songs today? From a macro perspective, in recent years, we have organized events such as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Quyi Week and the China Native Folk Song Festival, striving to build a promotion platform for traditional music intangible cultural heritage to enhance its visibility and influence. ”Hu Yan, Deputy Director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said. From a micro perspective, moving folk songs from the fields to the modern performing arts stage is an important way to inherit folk songs. ”Zhang Tiantong said. This folk song festival, whether it is the opening and closing ceremony performances, concentrated exhibitions, or grassroots performances, has built a modern stage, accompanied by modern musical instruments, multimedia videos, situational performances, etc., perfectly showcasing the charm of folk songs and bringing the audience a lingering artistic enjoyment. In fact, there are many other stages like this, such as various concerts, concerts, and annual Spring Festival Gala, which provide a platform for showcasing folk songs. However, singing folk songs on stage is different from singing folk songs in the fields. It requires artistic and stage based transformation of folk songs, from lyric writing and arrangement to production and arrangement. The audience for professional stages is limited, and in order to bring folk songs into modern life, it is necessary to have more contact with the public. The integration of culture and tourism provides an excellent opportunity for this. The performances of this folk song festival are mostly held in cultural and tourism venues, such as the Chilechuan Grassland Tourism Resort, Dahei River Military Culture Park, Saishang Old Street, General's Office Museum, Wusutu Xinghua Valley, Zhaojun Museum, Hohhot Sculpture Art Museum, Laoniuwan Yellow River Grand Canyon, Xiangsha Bay Scenic Area... As soon as the melody starts, tourists immediately gather around without organization or guidance. The charm of folk songs naturally penetrates into the hearts of tourists. The theme of this folk song festival is "Let's Sing Folk Songs Together". The organizers have launched various new media platforms to set up topics and special sections, encouraging actors, audience members, and netizens to communicate and interact online. They have also carefully created exclusive playlists based on the performance programs, and accurately pushed them to netizens who follow and love traditional music. Usually, folk singers not only perform offline, but also broadcast online, and a live broadcast can even attract millions of viewers. The opening of an online "second stage" has opened up a new path for folk songs to enter modern people's lives, and has also promoted the formation of an atmosphere of loving, learning, and singing folk songs to a certain extent. Find the new inheritor, Jiang Jingle, who is 85 years old and the provincial-level representative inheritor of the Jinsha River downstream boatman Hao Zi. He is the oldest member of the participating team in this folk song festival. During the folk song festival, he led five disciples on stage to showcase the passion of the chant. Representative inheritors of traditional music, such as Jiang Jingye, are important forces in inheriting folk songs. However, inheriting folk songs cannot rely solely on inheritors. There are two reasons: firstly, the number is insufficient. Currently, there are only 475 national level representative inheritors of traditional music, and even with the addition of provincial, municipal, and county-level representative inheritors, the number is not large; Secondly, in the process of artistic and stage based folk songs, many inheritors are insufficient. Turning our attention to universities is a path to cultivate new inheritors of folk songs, "said Zhang Tiantong. At this folk song festival, the song "Hey Hey" created by combining the characteristics of Zhuang three part folk songs and Zhuang Liao songs has attracted a lot of attention. This song was performed by Lu Shunhong, a representative inheritor of Zhuang Liao Song at the national level, and the "Shao Li Combination". 'Zhaoli' means' beautiful girl 'in Zhuang language. The four young singers of the "Shao Li Group" (Liu Haijia, Pan Ting, Yao Qiyuan, Wei Xinlin) all graduated from art schools and are engaged in music education work. They regard universities as the main battlefield for inheriting folk songs, and folk song activities as a new stage for spreading folk song culture. They have conducted extensive exploration and practice in the creative transformation and innovative development of native folk songs. For example, Yao Qiyuan teaches students according to their aptitude, allowing children with good voices to specialize in folk song singing and students with flexible finger techniques to focus on instrumental music; Wei Xinlin offers folk song art education courses at school, teaching students to gain insights into the local customs and traditions from native folk songs; Pan Ting and Liu Haijia not only guide students to master traditional singing techniques, but also pay special attention to incorporating modern music elements into their creations. The inheritance of folk songs is not only about singing them down, but also involves the organization, research, and theoretical construction of folk songs, which cannot be separated from the power of inheritors. The participants of this folk song festival include singers from all over the country, as well as scholars from universities and research institutions. At the traditional music sustainable development exchange and dialogue event held during this folk song festival, Professor Yang Yucheng from Inner Mongolia Normal University introduced that after years of research and practice, his team has explored a new path of reverse reconstruction of oral traditions based on "routines", which will bring new ideas for the inheritance of traditional folk songs. (New Society)