Song of Shanghai ② | Miao Cleaning Auntie in Shanghai: With Songs, There is a Home
"Zhang Youlan, come down and sing!"
In a three story farmer's house with a small courtyard in Dachang Town, Baoshan District, a loud and melodious song can be heard. Three Miao women in their fifties, Liang Miaojian, Tang Aixin, and Zhang Yaojin, crowded into a seven or eight square meter "shoe box" room on the first floor, singing the Miao song "Song of Spring".
In my hometown, Feige can fly over the mountain and sing to the people on the other side of the mountain. Can their flying songs fly over high-rise buildings in Shanghai?
The room where the aunties rehearse is the "home" of Liang Miao and her husband in Shanghai. Upon entering, there was a high and low bed where she and her husband slept on the lower floor. The debris on the upper floor piled up into a small hill, and the aisle by the bed only allowed one person to pass by.
Zhang Youlan, who had wrapped her headscarf, came down from upstairs, entered the room, and sat down on a small stool, blending into the singing.
Aunties are practicing singing in a small rental room
These Miao aunties all come from Kaitang Town, Kaili City, Qiandongnan, Guizhou. They came to Shanghai through the "Belt and Road" initiative of their hometown and worked as cleaning aunts in shopping malls, subways, and office buildings. In 2019, the reporter listened to a small concert of these aunties at the Zhendan Museum in Lujiazui. Several years have passed, and most of the aunties are still in Shanghai, but many have changed jobs.
Myrica rubra now works in a mall in Nanjing Road Walkway. The company asked her to apply for a health certificate. She left early, but because she couldn't read, she always got lost. "In my hometown, I recognize all the mountains, but it's easy to get lost in Shanghai and I dare not go out," said Yangmei. Turning around, the health certificate was not obtained, and Yangmei hurried back with sweat on her forehead.
On this day, for waxberry, there is one thing more important than health certificate - their five sisters will hold a music workshop in Huaihai Middle Road to listen to the songs of their hometown to foreigners.
Aunties are practicing singing in a small rental room
Where to play songs between tall buildings
"If there is wine, there will be people, and if there are people, there will be songs." This is the rule of the Miao people. They have been telling stories about life through Miao songs for generations, and men and women enjoy singing. When in love, sing love songs. After getting married, sing wine songs. When people reach middle age, they gather together to sing a promise song. Sing when you're happy, and also when you're not happy. Go to visit your family and friends, don't bring any other gifts, at least have a carefully prepared "song gift".
After coming to Shanghai, the lives of these Miao aunties who sing every day have changed in the high-rise buildings. Firstly, they work seven days a week for more than ten hours a day, with little leisure time. Secondly, singing at work may lead to complaints, and singing at home after work may also affect the rest of neighbors. Sometimes, in order to sing together, they meet at the subway station after finishing work at 9 pm, and sing Miao songs all the way home after getting off the subway.
A corner of a rental house
"Like today, when we gather together to sing, it may only happen once or twice a year, like a holiday," said 52 year old Zhang Youlan with a smile. As soon as she stepped into her room, she picked up a bucket of sweet wine from somewhere and smiled, saying, "I brewed it myself, this one tastes good!"
Miao women are hardworking and hardworking, and their aunts hardly ever take leave in Shanghai. Taking leave requires deduction of money, and I cannot bear to part with it. Working on holidays earns three times my salary, and I am even more reluctant to part with it. But for this concert, each of the five people took their own leave. After practicing a few songs, they gathered in the small courtyard and put on makeup under the sunlight.
The yard is not large and is divided into two areas. The narrow area with a canopy is a communal kitchen, filled with pots and pans. The outdoor area is covered in colorful clothes, and a few grapevines hang from the side.
Aunties are in the courtyard
Zhang Youlan felt very satisfied to be able to find a job in Shanghai with a daily salary of 200 yuan, renting a small room for five to six hundred yuan per month and a shared courtyard. She introduced that there were over 200 people coming from their village to Shanghai to do cleaning. They mostly live in this area, and there are only a dozen or so households in this community of Dachang Town.
The one who is putting on makeup for the aunts in the yard is their friend "Little Bear" - Xiong Manyu, a 27 year old doctoral student majoring in Music Anthropology at Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2019, Xiong Manyu met Liang Miaojian at M50 Creative Park. By the Suzhou River, she watched Liang Miaojian open the "National K Song" app on her phone and sing a flying song:
"My whole life flowed like water, drifting and drifting, living in vain."
Liang Miao talks about embroidering flowers
Xiong Manyu was shocked by the sound of the song: "This is the first time I have heard people singing 'Flying Song' in the city, as loud as shouting. Her eyes moved from the phone screen to the distant river. At that moment, I seemed to not hear the roar of cars or the noisy raindrops, only her loud and clear singing."
Since then, Xiong Manyu has had an idea: to give the aunties a stage to sing, so that more people in this city can hear their voices.
Xiong Manyu is dressing up the aunties in the courtyard
A song written for Shanghai
Put on your makeup and the aunties set off for Huaihai Middle Road. Along the way, Zhang Yao kept asking, "Where is this?"? Where is this?
I have been in Shanghai for several years, but Zhang Yao's daily life revolves around renting out a house and working in front of the company. When talking to her family about Shanghai, she always mentioned the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, but she never went there. After driving for 20 minutes, she felt a bit dizzy and whispered, "Have you arrived yet?"? How long is it left?
Aunties carrying suitcases rushed to the performance venue
The destination is PaperShanghai, a shared office space on Huaihai Middle Road. Aunties take out their cherished red holiday costumes from their suitcases, and the complex patterns on the clothes are embroidered by themselves. They can only embroider one piece a year. The precious silver ornaments on the head and body are stacked in layers, wrapped in plastic cloth and paper, with three layers inside and three layers outside.
Aunties put on formal attire
The rainstorm before the performance did not prevent people from coming from all directions to listen to these Miao aunts singing. Among the 5 songs, 3 of them were lyrics written by Yangmei herself, who is a well-known songwriter in the village.
In the summer of 2020, Xiong Manyu moved to Dachang Town and rented the same community with her aunts for nearly two months. She conducted field research and her master's thesis focused on the music life of Miao migrant women in Shanghai. "Only by living with them can we know their real life in Shanghai and how they sing."
Xiong Manyu Makes Up Yangmei
Once, Yangmei's youngest daughter was about to give birth. Considering the fear of losing her job and the fact that it takes at least 4 days to travel back and forth from Shanghai to Kaitang, as well as the cost of round-trip tickets, after much hesitation, she gave up the idea of returning home.
But she composed a song called "Full Moon Song of Giving Birth" and sent it along with a 2000 yuan red envelope to her daughter. "I heard the water flow and knew your child was about to be born. Look at the scenery in the village. Bamboo knows when it will grow from the ground, fish knows when it will come out, and your child will naturally be born when it's time..."
Aunties in PaperShanghai
Songs are like a bond that connects these Miao aunties with their hometowns, relatives, and friends, as well as with Shanghai.
At the beginning of coming to Shanghai, Yangmei composed some songs related to Shanghai. One of the songs is called "Working in Shanghai": "When you come to Shanghai, it's okay to sweep the floor. Get some silver to cultivate the younger generation. Don't worry anymore, let it be. Don't think about it anymore. If you want to attract more ridicule, it's as light as boiling water. Pour it into the back ditch of the house, and the ducks won't drink it."
The red on the aunties matches well with the abstract paintings on the wall
A few years later, Yangmei composed some songs related to Shanghai. The first song of this music workshop on Huaihai Middle Road was her compilation of "A Good Place in Shanghai": "A good place in Shanghai, with beautiful urban scenery; houses built on the beach of Shanghai, living on top of a hundred floors; the city walls resemble dragons, with two ends resembling dragon bones..."
At the music workshop, everyone celebrated Yangmei's 54th birthday and everyone present sang her birthday song. Yangmei smiled happily, saying that she had never celebrated her birthday in her hometown, but there were so many people celebrating her birthday in Shanghai. "Shanghai is great, Shanghai has money to make, and there are so many people listening to us sing Miao songs."
Celebrating Yangmei's birthday
Although the gates of Shanghai have opened for Yangmei, she still misses her hometown, the life of singing every day, and watching "cow fights" together during festivals. Her eldest son and daughter have been married and have children in recent years, with only her youngest son still studying. "I want to work in Shanghai for another two years, and when my youngest son gets married, I will go home."
Plant the song
The audience at the music workshop were mostly young white-collar workers working in Shanghai. Aunties specially selected a love song "Friends, Old Friends" to sing for everyone to listen to. They took out pre prepared rose props and started dancing their own choreography.
Aunties sing "Song of Spring"
"With the changes of times and lifestyles, many young Miao people no longer know how to sing love songs, so these Miao aunties are still the main force in singing love songs. However, the difference is that they use their phones, QQ groups, and WeChat groups to chat with friends from all over the world." Xiong Manyu said.
Since 2019, with the help of the music volunteer team at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, this group of Miao aunties has held four music workshops in Shanghai. Their audience is no longer limited to family and friends across the phone screen, but has become people living with them in Shanghai.
Live audience
These listeners may have brushed past them in shopping malls, subways, and office buildings, but they have never paid attention to where they come from or what kind of life they live.
At the music workshop, Elisa Harca from the UK sat in the audience. She is the founder and CEO of the organizer of this small concert and has been working in Shanghai for 12 years.
Elisa Harca is with the Miao aunts
Elisa Harca found that she and these Miao aunties have one thing in common - they both get lost. "But I love Shanghai, it is a very inclusive city where people of different skin colors and ethnicities can find their own space." Elisa hopes to do her best to break boundaries, connect different people together, and let the world understand a diverse Shanghai and a diverse China.
Auntie asked the staff to take a group photo for them
Aunties also taught the audience to sing "Song of Spring" in Miao language at the workshop. Xiong Manyu will first teach everyone the pronunciation of Miao language, and then the aunties will teach everyone the melody. After two or three repetitions, the whole audience started singing together.
"A life without singing is barbaric," said Xiao Mei, a mentor of Xiong Manyu and a professor of music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. "German philosopher Heidegger said that language is the home of existence, and for Miao aunties, songs are the home of existence. Their lives are like water drifting, earning money in big cities, going back to build houses, and studying for children. But for them, having songs means having a home, and they can place themselves."
Xiao Mei and her student Xiong Manyu
Xiao Mei mentioned a concept of "losing songs" among the Miao people, which is to plant songs, let the stories and emotions in the songs circulate, and be shared by all the singers and listeners. In this way, their songs will continue to grow.
"The meaning of music is rich, not just for people on stage to sing, but also for people off stage to listen to. Singers, listeners, and listeners should plant songs together, just like planting a seed. These seeds of songs will take root and sprout in this city, awakening our own songs and helping us find our true home." Xiao Mei said.
Live Music Workshop
The workshop ended and the rain stopped. Aunties who didn't sing enough started singing a song of wine and bid farewell to the guests.
