Jianshui Yi Seaweed Chamber Study

A unique music variety of Yunnan's ethnic Yi minority, Haicai tone is popular mainly among the Nisu branch of the Yi minority who inhabit the south Yunnan areas such as Jianshui, Shiping and Tonghai counties. Although originated in Shiping County, Haicai tone propagated to Jianshui County where it gained substantial popularity and development, just because that Jianshui is a close neighbor of Shiping County, that Jianshui shares with Shiping the same ethnic, historical and cultural backgrounds, and that the long term of intermarriage and trade exchanges between the two counties had boosted continuous economic and cultural infiltration and blending.Basing on the music characteristics of Haicai tone in Jianshui County, and through comparison of the similarities and differences among Haicai tone and three other major operas in terms of melody, lyrics and music structure, this paper studies the laws of propagation, development and evolution of Haicai tone in Jianshui County, and the influences on Haicai tone exerted by factors such as historic settings, humanistic features and geographic environments. The paper also explores the similarities of and differences among the four major tones that coexist in Jianshui area, and unfolds certain discussions about the causative factors that induced such a phenomenon as well as the development trends of those four major tones.