Xie Qingliang – Inheritor of Liu Sanjie’s Ballads

New tide is rolling in the sea of songs,

Sanjie’s culture is being spread.

Watered by the Internet,

The flowers of folk song are blossoming anew.

Hundreds of flowers compete from spring to

autumn,

Colorful and varied,

With a netizen folk song club,

We would sing together all over Asia.

Xie Qingliang still lives a rural life. He makes his living through farming, but folk singing remains a high priority in his life. He no longer cares whether he is the “Melody King.” His main concern now is introducing folk song to audiences everywhere, to show them how interesting and what fun it can be, and to entertain the locals.

In June 2014, the Yizhou government held a free folk song workshop at the municipal library and invited Xie to introduce the basic elements like singing techniques and composing skills. He taught participants a series of popular folk songs and helped the entire class with an improvised piece. Xie Qingliang hopes initiatives such as this will enable the next generation to keep the spirit of folk song alive.