When talking about Sichuan traditional folk art, I have to mention Sichuan dulcimer. Its crisp and tactful voice is complemented by a delicate rap narrative, embellished with a distinctive "haha tune", and the lyricism is quite like the feeling of big beads and small beads falling on a jade plate. Classic songs such as "Capturing Saburo Alive", "Hua Rong Road" and "Qingfeng Pavilion" were popular in Chengdu, Chongqing, Luzhou, Zigong and other places, and were welcomed by many people.

Liu Shiyan is an important intangible cultural heritage singer who inherits the history of Sichuan dulcimer for more than 200 years and sings along the stream. At the beginning of 2022, she was selected into the list of 100 candidates for the 2021 "China Intangible Cultural Heritage Person of the Year". Xue Baokun, a famous folk art theorist, once commented on her: "He is a representative of this form in Bashu and Southwest China."

Eighty-nine Qingyan sang freely, and "classes don't stop" online and offline

"Mr. Liu's performance made me remember deeply, and I felt her sentiments and emotions." On February 28, Liu Shiyan performed a segment of Sichuan dulcimer in an online MOOC focusing on Chinese traditional culture. Netizen "Dong Long" listened and taught Message on the website. At present, more than 5,000 netizens have "registered" to choose courses, and many netizens left their own feelings after listening to the class: "When Mr. Liu Shiyan plucked the strings, I felt that this art is so beautiful, and we need to inherit such a tradition. Art."

Liu Shiyan, who is over eighty years old, is no stranger to online teaching. Before each class, she will prepare video resources in advance. Offline Liu Shiyan, on the other hand, immersed herself in the sound of the piano, in the classroom, and at home with her students, teaching them in depth and systematically how to learn Sichuan dulcimer. As long as the "children" are willing to learn, Liu Shiyan will teach them free lessons, and sometimes when they are tired of learning, he invites them to eat at home together, and everyone "packs a meal" together.

Born in a Hui family, her music enriched her childhood, and the care of her parents allowed her to roam freely in the art palace. The scenes of her childhood made people feel like she was standing outside the time and years, as if she had traveled through thousands of years in an instant. The seasons of the sun, moon, and stars change, and I understand the joys and sorrows of life, old age, sickness and death, and turn it into a song in the journey of life.

Now Liu Shiyan is more at ease, and she was selected as the 2021 "China Intangible Cultural Heritage Person of the Year" in her old age. She is happy and feels that inheritance is her obligatory responsibility. "I hope that in my lifetime, I will work hard to make Sichuan dulcimer to a higher level, cultivate more young people, and cultivate more audiences."

Li Wei, a staff member of the Sichuan Academy of Arts, is one of the young people Liu Shiyan has recently trained. Li Wei, a graduate of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, began to pay attention to dulcimer because of writing related papers. Later, when he heard Liu Shiyan's "Autumn River", he was deeply fascinated by this traditional culture. In 2015, he began to systematically study Sichuan dulcimer. Won the first prize in the acrobatic puppet shadow puppet competition. He felt that the process of learning Sichuan dulcimer was a bit like drinking tea at Daci Temple in Chengdu: "I soaked myself in it, it was a bit bitter and then sweet." The charm of traditional Chinese culture, under the interpretation of Liu Shiyan, attracted interest of young people put themselves into the industry.

To inherit and innovate, we must have our own "iron threshold"

When it comes to non-genetic inheritance, inheritance and innovation are indispensable. The words inheritance and innovation are simple to say, but they are internalized in every non-hereditary inheritor, and they also need to be comprehended by themselves. There is a term in Sichuan dulcimer called "iron threshold", which means a peak that is difficult to cross, an achievement that is difficult to achieve. The intangible cultural heritage series "Yan Yingyin" of Sichuan Quyi Research Institute wrote: "Accurately imitating a work of art is called a craftsman; inheriting and developing an art, creating one's own 'iron threshold' is called Everyone; to promote and change the direction of an art, it will have a profound impact on future generations, and it is called a master.”

80 years ago, Liu Shiyan's master Li Decai created a school and made a legend in the history of dulcimer. In front of the Taishan Mountain in this industry, Liu Shiyan, an apprentice, also experienced a period of confusion and distress. But Li Decai often warned Liu Shiyan: "Those who learn from me live, and those who look like me die. Copying the teacher, there is no way to survive." So Liu Shiyan spent more than ten years, pondering and thinking slowly, and constantly practicing in various performances. With her talent and diligence, combined with her own voice conditions and strengths, she has formed her own artistic style characteristics. Her voice is subtle, deep, gentle and honest. Threshold", and won the 5th China Golden Disc Award together with artists and singers such as Zhao Jiping, Yan Su, Pu Shu, and Wang Feng.

The unique personality charm formed in the inheritance has won the favor of more industry insiders and audiences. Xue Baokun once praised her, thinking that Liu Shiyan, on the basis of inheriting the spirit of traditional culture and adhering to the skills of Li Decai, a famous dulcimer of the "De School", developed her own "gentle and honest" style of women. The cultural charm of the art form, the regional customs, the combination of rigidity and softness, and the poetic characteristics of the form itself have been conveyed to an almost perfect level, and it has written a rare chapter in the history of Chinese music.

In the face of the blossoming praise, Liu Shiyan is grateful to those who have helped her along the way. In her opinion, music is the art of time, and life is also the art of time. We have inherited the gifts of our fathers. With tens of thousands of days and months of hard work, one tone, one tune, one step at a time, one step at a time, a life that belongs to him is completely fulfilled. "Seriously, doing my best; being free and easy, and willing to be modest, is my attitude towards art and life."

Talent Profile

Liu Shiyan，The famous Sichuan dulcimer, the national representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage of Sichuan dulcimer, inherits the gorgeous and charming charm of the German style dulcimer, and absorbs the strengths of sister arts to develop and develop, forming its own euphemistic, delicate, subtle and profound characteristics. The audience praised him as "one inch of throat with a thousand twists and a thousand turns, and a needle with ease".