"Lan Huahua" ( zh, t=藍花花/蘭花花, s=蓝花花/兰花花, p=Lán Huāhuā) is a folk song from northern

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

in China. The song tells of a rebellious woman named Lan Huahua who, forced into an arranged marriage, chooses to break with convention and runs away with her lover. In other versions of the story, she committed suicide. The song became highly popular in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

era where she was portrayed as a symbol of class struggle, and the story of the song has been retold in poems, novels, musical dramas and television shows.

Background

Origin

"Lan Huahua" is a folk song from northern Shaanxi, and popular in western

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

, northern

, and Eastern

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

. There are no records of the song before the 20th century, but a line in the lyrics refers to "13 provinces", taken to mean the whole of China, suggesting that the song may have its origin during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

when the country was organized into 13 provinces and two capital regions (

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South Zhili Nanzhili, formerly romanized as and also known as South or Southern Zhili or Chih-li, was a historical province of the Ming Empire. Its capital was Nanjing, from which it is also sometimes known as Nanjing or Nanking Province. Nanzhili co ...

). Another suggestion is that the song comes from the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

era – Lan Huahua is said to be real person who fell in love with a member of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

that had moved into

Yan'an Yan'an; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi Province of China, province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several c ...

. In this story, the soldier wrote the song in her memory after she was forced into marriage to someone else and later died.

Variations

There are a number of different versions of the song. The song was collected from various places in Shaaxi including Gulin,

, and

Suide Suide County () is a county of Yulin, Shaanxi, China, bordering Shanxi province across the Yellow River to the southeast. Administrative divisions , Suide County is divided to 15 towns. ;Towns Climate Transportation *China National Highway ...

, and included in the 1945 anthology ''Selection of northern Shaanxi folk songs'' (陝北民歌選) from the Lu Xun Academy. This version has 20

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

s arranged into 3 sections. The first section tells of the birth of Lan Huahua, how she was the best of all the girls in 13 provinces, and her marriage into the Zhou family. The middle section tells of Lan Huahua running away from her marriage and her relationship with her lover, while the final short section tells of the end of the relationship, with Lan noting how many "friends" there could be in the world. In another version, Lan Huahua dies by suicide. A shorter version is based on stanzas 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, and partially of 13 of the longer version. This version removes mentions of her flirtatiousness and sexuality, and it ends with Lan running away to be with her lover. This version was recorded by

Guo Lanying Guo Lanying ( zh, 郭兰英; born 31 December 1929 in Pingyao, Shanxi) is a noted Chinese operatic soprano best known for singing patriotic songs such as " My Motherland" (1956) and " Nanniwan" (1943). She was born into a poor family in Ping ...

. Another version popular in the 21st century is further sanitized, removing the mention of her marriage to the landlord.

Lyrics

There are a number of different versions of the song. The version given below is a shortened popular version, which also exists with some minor variations in its lyrics.

Adaptations

The story of Lan Huahua has been retold many times in a variety of forms. An illustrated poem of the story was published in 1959, and a musical was produced in 1978, which was then adapted into a TV miniseries in 1985. Musically, it has been adapted into a narrative piece for

erhu The (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, that is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two-stringed fiddle''. It is used as a solo instrument as ...

titled ''Narrative Song of Lan Huahua'' (兰花花叙事曲) by Guan Ming in 1986. The first section of this piece is based on the tune of the song. The story has also been adapted into an opera ''Lan Huahua'' by composer Zhang Qianyi and librettist Zhao Daming for the National Centre for the Performing Arts, which premiered in 2017.

References

{{reflist Chinese folk songs Culture in Shaanxi