Guo, an 87-year-old native of Shaoshan, Xiangtan City, is one of the earliest collectors of Jiahe Folk Songs. In 1952, at the age of 16, she was already a member of the original Xiangtan County Cultural Troupe. To enrich cultural work in rural and remote mountainous areas, she came to Jiahe County Culture Center to study folk music, which led her to form a deep bond with Jiahe Folk Songs.

 

 

During her stay in Jiahe, Guo often heard local people singing Jiahe folk songs, and wedding songs. Inspired by the beautiful melodies, she collected and compiled a total of 1,321 folk songs in more than 360 villages during her 27 years in Jiahe. Among them, there are 284 wedding songs, and some of the outstanding and award-winning works have been included in various music publications and textbooks. 

 

Even after returning to Xiangtan in 1979, she still had a deep affection for Jiahe Folk Songs. Her dedication has brought the folk songs recognition not only domestically but also internationally, with one of her Jiahe Wedding Songs winning a gold medal at the 8th World Choir Competition in Latvia performed by the Hunan Youth Art Troupe in 2014.

 

As a former inheritor of Jiahe Wedding Songs, Guo was excited to learn that Jiahe Wedding Songs was successfully included on the national list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2021. She hopes that more people will pay attention to and join the ranks of inheriting intangible cultural heritage to well preserve excellent traditional culture.

 

On the day of the donation, the Jiahe Wedding Songs Heritage Base prepared a special plaque to express gratitude to Guo for her contributions to the inheritance of Jiahe Folk Songs.