Chinese ethnic minorities sing songs to mediate disputes in court; case goes viral online
Traditional beliefs hold that singing folk songs is more powerful, efficient way of communicating than using the plain spoken word
Some courts in southwestern China’s Guizhou province have hired folk singers to work as mediators in a bid to settle legal disputes among local ethnic minorities.
In a 2023 video that recently went viral on social media, a man in Rongjiang County, Guizhou province, took a woman from a neighbouring village to court after she spread a folk song she made up to defame him and his wife in several chat groups.
Both parties are from the Shui ethnic group, for whom folk singing is a major way of expressing feelings.
It is traditional to sing folk songs at serious occasions such as marriage proposals and dispute settling. Many in the ethnic group believe that folk songs are more powerful than plain words.
The defendant said the song at the heart of the dispute was adapted from an old number and tells the story of a useless man who depends on his thick-skinned wife to earn a living.