Syncretism in Salar Love Songs

Abstract

Having melded Oghuz-Turkic, Tibetan, and Northwest Chinese linguistic and cultural elements, the Salars might be expected to show an equal degree of syncretism in their love songs. Indeed, they have hung on to a nearly extinct apparently native song form yur, while also adopting the regional Chinese form hua'er 花儿. Yur are Turkic at least linguistically, though the melodies show Tibetan influences. This paper examines the degree of cultural, linguistic, and musical syncretism in varieties of yur songs, with reference to local Chinese and Tibetan love-song forms. The use of metaphor is uniquely Salar, whereas musical ornaments are strongly influenced by local prestige forms and usually are Tibetan in origin.