By Josef Gregory Mahoney · 2020-12-11 · Source: NO.52 DECEMBER 24, 2020
Singers (fi rst and second left) pose with visitors in Poya Village, Funing County, Yunnan Province in southwest China(COURTESY PHOTO)
In Poya Village in Funing County, on the southern border of Yunnan Province, just a few kilometers north of China s border with Viet Nam, two successors remain, both of the Zhuang minority the last true singers of the Poya songbook. Mountain songs like the Poya have long been popular in Yunnan. Whether sung by one or more, they re a form of dialogue, typically between a man and woman, covering the pleasures and hardships of rural life, including the vicissitudes of love, longing and desire.