Wang says the hua'er songs that he knows can "fill several trains". He became active performing hua'er from the 1950s and has won a number of awards.

A tape cassette containing his singing is widely spread in Northwest China, although not many people know his name.

Melding East and West

Alive with color

Silence is loud

Besides traditional lyrics, Wang has created many new lines. One of his famous songs is about the watermelon of Ningxia, and his latest work deals with the issue of China's Diaoyu Islands.

Northwest China is where many different ethnic groups live, and hua'er is sung among the Han, Hui, Salar, Dongxiang, Tu, Bonan, Tibetan and Yugur people. In the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, it is especially favored by the Hui people.

Hui is a Muslim ethnic group, and among the hua'er they sing, one can find titles with Islamic names, such as Sofia Vents Her Grievance and The Green Ribbon of Isa's Straw Hat.

Ma Chengfu, a 50-year-old Hui farmer from Guyuan in south Ning-xia, says hua'er is a tradition that every Hui person should cherish.

However, the original conditions in which hua'er were sung have greatly changed in recent years.

To protect the natural environment, the Guyuan government has banned herding animals outside households. Many farmers also leave their homes to become migrant workers in cities.

Ma also works at construction sites in the city for most of the time, but he has not given up singing hua'er. Sometimes he would sing at the construction site when he has a rest, attracting crowds of passers-by.

Some other workers who know hua'er would also sing with him in the question-and-answer form.

"When I'm happy, I sing hua'er. When I'm sad, I also sing hua'er," he says.

To help pass hua'er down to the young generation, Ma volunteers to teach students to sing it at several primary and middle schools near his home.

In 2009, hua'er was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Chinese government recognizes a number of hua'er singers as master inheritors of the art form, including Ma and Wang, and subsidizes them to teach it to others. In 2012, the government of Ningxia established a "transmission base" of hua'er at the August 1 Park of Yinchuan, where aficionados gather together to learn and sing hua'er.

Zhao Jinyan, director of the base, is well-known because of her performance of hua'er on CCTV's popular talent show Star Way. Zhao has also founded an arts troupe to perform hua'er and other local folk songs, and is now planning national tours.

"Hua'er is a unique style of folk song from Northwestern China. I hope it will be heard by not only people from all over China, but also the world," she says.

Contact the writer at muqian@chinadaily.com.cn.