Northern Shaanxi storytelling "The Young Couple Carrying Water" from the album "Chinese music map of hearing Shaanxi Northern Shaanxi Southern Folk storytelling collection"

A Couple Holding Water. A couple holding water

Folk art Northern Shaanxi Storytelling Nationality: Han Region: Shaanxi

Singing, big three strings, Mazaza, swing board: Feng Xiaohong

Northern Shaanxi storytelling is a popular rap art form in Yan 'an and Yulin in northern Shaanxi, usually choosing three strings or pipa as the accompaniment instrument, among which the three-string storytelling style is more common. During the performance, storytellers play and sing while holding three strings, and use a swing board tied to their calves and a small wooden board called a mazaza tied to their wrists. The tunes of northern Shaanxi storytelling are rich, including northern Shaanxi folk songs, Qinqiang, Daoqing, Meishu, etc., with beautiful and rough characteristics, it is called "nine accents and eighteen tunes", and the lyrics are easy to understand, and can be performed in fields and courtyards.

This classic song of storytelling in northern Shaanxi reflects the phenomenon of "child brides" marriage customs once prevalent in northern Shaanxi. At that time, some poor families would sell their daughters to wealthier families to be child brides. These child brides who stay at their in-laws' homes are usually older than their male counterparts and have to share the labor of their in-laws on the one hand and take care of their minor fiances on the other. This song tells the story of a seventeen-year-old child bride who goes out to fetch water with her nine-year-old "son-in-law".

The storyteller sometimes sings a rousing tune with three strings, and sometimes raps in a cadence to the lilting beat of a swing board and Mazaza. The colloquial lyrics, while creating a humorous atmosphere, also make the listener feel the bitterness and unwillingness of these northern Shaanxi women who become "child brides".