Monday, May 04, 2020
Lockdown dreaming
Stuck in the house, in this city in this country for an indefinite period I'm glad that at least I'm alive and healthy and perhaps one day I will get out again to visit places such as the Nujiang. Looking though my old photos made me realise there are so many that I haven't posted on this blog - such as this one of Laomudeng (老姆登) between Liuku and Fugong.
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4 comments:
Brilliant. I particularly like the unconventional use of letters to make an alphabet of sorts for the local languages...Can’t see it in this photo, but I’m sure a close-up would show this.
Great shot, anyway..
Yes is that the Lisu language invented by a Scots missionary? They still use it, even in Party documents.
There's a great song called 老姆登 by the Yunnanese folk band 山人乐队. It's built around a Nu-minority melody and they use a type of lute from Nujiang and jaw harp to create a hypnotizing effect. There are some live versions on Youtube, but if you want the album recording you can use the QQ Music app, or Xiami. In a later interview, the band members recalled that during their 采风-trip (= collecting and recording folk songs) in Nujiang, they were more impressed by the Nu than by the Lisu (who were valley dwellers). The Nu lived in the higher-up villages and the man who came to meet them to play this melody looked straight up at the heavens while playing.
Nujiang is a great place, and just like you, I'm longing to go back there one day.
I want to thank you for your blog. Because of your writings, a friend and I went to Lake Wuxu in Jiulong County, Sichuan, in 2005 (my first time in China). I think we were the first westerners to go there since you went. I remember we asked the Tibetan family running the lodge by the lake if they remembered you and they said they did.
The town of Jiulong I remember as grim and unwelcoming, where we slept in a 10-yuan room above a chicken market and where the people were rather hostile towards us, the only time I really felt like this in China.
Today I felt like reading this blog again, to escape the boredom of a Belgian summer without traveling.
Thanks Willem - will check that music.
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