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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 14, 2001

Tiny Flute Brings Music of Ethnic Yi People to World

The tiny flute, commonly known as the "little melancholy flute" according to a legend of the Yi people, is a musical instrument unique to them and has a history of over 1,000 years.
With three holes in the front and one hole at the back, the little flute is just seven centimeters long and one centimeter in diameter.


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During the 11th Nanning International Folk Song and Art Festival, She Xuebao entertained an audience by expertly playing a tiny flute.

The haunting music reflected the tender affection of lovers and their endless longing for each other.

The fascinated audiences gave thunderous applauses to the artist from China's ethnic Yi group.

The Yi people are one of China's six major ethnic groups. They live mainly in southwest China's Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The tiny flute, commonly known as the "little melancholy flute" according to a legend of the Yi people, is a musical instrument unique to them and has a history of over 1,000 years.

With three holes in the front and one hole at the back, the little flute is just seven centimeters long and one centimeter in diameter.

She Xuebao told his audience with much pride that he had made the flute himself using bamboo as the flute pipe and an insect shell as the whistle.

Traditional flute pipes were made from the hollow canal of an eagle feather.

She Xuebao, who comes from a mountain village in the Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Chuxiong, Yunnan Province, developed a passion for music at a young age.

He received a thorough musical training at Yunnan Normal University more than 20 years ago.

"It is not easy to play the tiny flute as the technique is very difficult to master the alto and the lower notes as it has so few holes. You can play only eight-scale music on the traditional melancholy flute, " says She Xuebao.

In the second year after his graduation from university, She Xuebao and two other colleagues began to study how to make and play the tiny flute under a veteran folklore artist.

After three years, the artist eventually mastered the skills required for making and playing the flute.

She Xuebao later changed the method of making the tiny flutes by lengthening them to 15 cm in length, making the diameter 1.5 cm and putting eight holes, instead of five.

"The new flute is easy to master," said he.

According to him, he can now play musical pieces with a bigger range of notes ranging from low bourdon eight to alt eight, and can easily perform modern music.

By playing his tiny flute, he has won fame for himself and also introduced the music of the ethnic Yi people he represents to the world through special TV programs and CDs.



The Yi ethnic minority

The Yi ethnic group, with a population of 6,578,500, is mainly distributed over the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. There are more than one million Yis in Sichuan Province, and most of them live in an area south of the Dadu River and along the Anning River. Traditionally, this area is subdivided into the Greater Liangshan Mountain area, which lies east of the Anning River and south of the Huangmao Dyke, and the Lesser Liangshan Mountain area, which covers the Jinsha River valley and the south bank of the Dadu River. There are over a million Yis in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, which holds the single largest Yi community in China. Yunnan Province has more than three million Yis, most of whom are concentrated in an area hemmed in by the Jinsha and Yuanjiang rivers, and the Ailao and Wuliang mountains. Huaping, Ninglang and Yongsheng in western Yunnan form what is known as the Yunnan Lesser Liangshan Mountain area. In Guizhou, more than half a million Yis live in compact communities in Anshun and Bijie. Several thousand Yis live in Longlin and Mubian counties in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
More Information about Yi Ethnic Minority...



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