Widely-spread in Taiwan and Southeast Asia

Parts of the original copies have survived to this day. The song books were also called Women's Books as most of the singers were women.

The practice of performing traditional tunes from songbooks is widespread. Residents of Malaysia and Singapore, who have roots in southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong provinces, have continued the practice. Immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao also bring their song volumes with them when they return to their hometowns to visit.

In 2006, Huang Linwen, an 80-year-old from Taiwan, went back to his hometown - Dongshan in Fujian Province - to celebrate the Mid-Autumn day after a long journey. He donated two precious hand-written copies of "Yang Silang Visits His Mother" and "Xue Dingshan's Warpath" to the cultural sectors in Dongshan County. He brought the two song volumes to Taiwan in 1956, and cherished them for more than half a century since. Huang said he was very excited to hear that Dongshan Songbooks were listed among the first national intangible cultural heritage items, and said Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan straits should aid in the preservation of this example of cultural heritage.

On the verge of dying out

In the Dongshan Park of Fujian Province, the elderly people were singing the old lyrics from the song books.

The efforts towards preservation mark a split from the 1970s and '80s when the songbooks weren't treated with much importance. At one point, the art was on the verge of dying out, as elderly practitioners of the art passed away. Some required that their songbooks be buried with them and others forbid the distribution of the volumes outside of their families, which meant that collection was difficult. What's more, a large number of original songbooks were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s when most of the art forms were suppressed in Mainland China.

Protection measures

To preserve this traditional Chinese historical and cultural art, Dongshan has listed Dongshan Songbooks as a key protected program, and adopted measures to save, preserve and carry forward the art form. In June 2006, the Bureau of Culture and Art held the "Preserve and Develop the Dongshan Songbooks" forum, with participation from more than 40 folks artists and singers.

Participants shared their ideas for the preservation of the songbooks, and the local government set up an office to spearhead the effort in collecting, sorting, copying, and conserving the songbooks. The county culture office has amassed a collection of the songbooks. An effort among senior associations will also give 2,000 senior citizens the chance to take the lead in performing various Dongshan Songbook activities being developed, and they will help pass the art on to younger generations.

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