"Oh, Wanquan, How Clear Your Waters Are" – this song, that started life as a "Luoni Ditty" of the Li people before evolving into the famous Li folk song "The Ballad of Wuzhishan", eventually became an interlude to the ballet "The Red Detachment of Women". Since then, it has reached new heights as both the opening music for the Boao Forum for Asia annual conferences and one of 100 'Songs of Excellence' selected for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, becoming an important cultural icon for Hainan. Today, we explore this song’s humble beginnings and see where it ended up.

Since ancient times, Hainan has been a land of verse and song. In areas inhabited by both Li and Han populations, certain popular melodies called “ditties” came into being as a way to overcome cultural and linguistic differences. These ditties took their names from various elements, including place names, the syllables used to sing the melodies, the content of the ditty, or their length. Examples include the "Luoni Ditty", the "Four Relatives Ditty", the "Red Hair Ditty", the "Thousand Families Ditty", the "Oh-Oh Ditty", the "Long Ditty" and the "Short Ditty". The ditties all had varying characteristics and uses.

The “Luoni Ditty”, which is the star of today’s installment, is prominent in and around Baoting and Wuzhi Mountain. Its melody is a musical signature for Hainan and is used in both heartfelt love songs and rousing hymns.

In this installment, we have invited Ms. Su Caixia, a local composer, editor of the "China Folk Songbook: Hainan Volume" and former news music director of Hainan Broadcasting Station, to come and explore the origins of the song "Oh, Wanquan, How Clear Your Waters Are".