Ensembles: Xianshiyue

Xianshiyue is believed to be the oldest of Chaozhou’s various musical traditions. Adequate historical documentation is lacking, but scholars estimate that its origins date back at least to the Southern Song period of 1127 to 1279 C.E. (Chen et al. 1989:19). Considered to have been crucial in its development were the much earlier waves of migration of people from the Yellow River valley southward to Chaozhou and many other parts of southern China beginning in the Qin dynasty...