The Dong people are one of the ethnic minority groups in China. They are said to be the descendants of the ancient Guyue people, with a history of 2500 years. The Dong group mainly inhabits Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It has a population of 2.6 million, the majority of which is engaged in agriculture and forestry.

According to the Dong people in southwestern China, "The Han people, having their own autography, pass down books, while the Dong people, without an autography, pass down songs from generation to generation. Rice is food for the body, and song is food for the soul." The Dong people have never had an autography of its own, and did not have a writing system until 1958. Before that the Dong Culture, the history and stories were all recorded and handed down by means of songs.

Grand Songs

Primarily an agricultural society, the Dong tend to cluster by families or as clans in villages. They are very good at dancing and singing. They celebrate their festivals with songs and dances.

Grand songs, known as galao among the locals, are the most representative public chorus of the Dong people. Grand songs have various types, mainly: the narrative style, mainly about story plots and persona dialogues; the lyric style, mainly about love between the two genders; morality style, mainly about religious and morality expostulations; and vocalist style, mainly showing the beauty of musical melody; There are also etiquette-and-custom, drum-tower, and local opera grand songs; According to different singers, there are grand songs for a male, female, and child's voice. Well-trained choruses perform all of these songs.

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