Shiping Seaweed Chamber

Haicai songs are named after the plant growing in the Yilong Lake of Shiping. As most of them were produced in the so-called Eating Tobacco activities, people also call them Tobacco Songs. Theses songs were sang and carried on during these customs, which can also communicate, create and develop folk songs.Haicai songs are the combination of Han and Yi cultures. Besides amusing people, they are also text books of local cultures. The singing of these songs is very popular among Yi people. Lyrics of these songs are always beautiful and tunes of them always so elegant while the content of them relates to every part of people's lives, namely their history, agriculture, morals. Thus Haicai songs can communicate Shiping people's knowledge, broaden their vision, preserve and carry on ethnic culture and then increase their pride of their nationality. Besides, through the singing of Haicai songs, local people's happiness and sadness can be expressed. So these tunes are also their lives, expressing their feelings and bringing people much closer while making their lives much colorful and making their ethical values carry on. By singing in their unique voices and characteristic words, local people's self-worth can also be showed up.In the process of spreading from Yilong Lake, Haicai Songs were also influenced by people from different surroundings, historical background, levels of economy and singing environments. As a result, they became a production of Yi people while influenced by Han culture. We can also come to this conclusion by the study of the language and music background of these songs, detailed analysis of their musical characters and research of their historical records. Similar history, ethnical tendencies and culture accumulation, plusing frequent trading and marriages, close neighborhood, all make Haicai songs shrive like the water of Yilong Lake. It should be pointed out that due to the different character of singers, Haicai songs vary in functions and musical characters with different singers. But as a whole, it maintains its original version and have formed its local character.