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Hakka hill songs (客家山歌; pinyin: Kèjiā shāngē, Hakka: ) are probably one of the better known elements of Hakka culture. They are rural songs sung in the Hakka language by the Hakka people.

The songs vary in theme from love to personal conduct. In the past, they are said to have been used as a method of courting between young men and women.

Hakka hill songs are also used as a form of communication at a distance. Since Hakka people mostly live in hilly areas, song is used as a better means of communication than spoken words. The melody of Hakka Hill Songs tend to have higher pitch so the sound can travel farther.

Hakka Hill Songs can be made up impromptu, to communicate with others or to express oneself. The lyrics can also be made to contain puzzles, as a game or a more competitive nature. The challenger will answer the puzzle in the form of song of similar melody.

The Moiyen (Meixian) county, home to many Hakkas in Guangdong, hold Hakka hill songs competitions inviting Hakka competitors from all over China to participate.

Hakka Hill Songs are traditional Chinese folk songs that reflect Hakka culture.

Hakka Hill Songs are folk songs improvingly created and sung by Hakka people on the field. Hakka people verbally created songs, these songs had been spread, modified, and then handed down to generations in Hakka area. Nowadays, Hakka hill songs are popular in Meizhou area in the Northeastern part of Guangdong province, the western part of Fujian province, the southern part of Jiangxin province and the northern part of Taiwan where Hakka people lives.Hakka Hill Song is regarded as the pearl of Hakka Literature. Hakka hill songs, as a kind of oral literature, has been widespread and orally passed from generation to generation in Hakka area, therefore, it is hard to find out the origin composer. Hakka people love to sing hill songs, they usually express their inner feeling by singing. They also like to sing of their own achievements and of the pure love between young couples. The melody of Hakka hill songs are different from area to area because Hakka people is widely spread in different regions of China, and because the Hakka language they speak is different in many respects. Take Meixian County, a famous Hakka area in Guangdong Province, for example, there has been several unique tunes in this small region, never mention the different tunes in other areas of Guangdong like Xingning, Wuhua, Dapu, Fengshun, Jieyang, Zijin, Heyuan, Huiyang and Hakka areas in north and west of Guangdong. Despite all of the differences between their tunes, Hakka hill songs share a common feature which is that one Hakka hill song can been sung by Hakka people from different regions. There is no rigid rule of singing skills, and the length of the tune totally depends on the singer's own arrangement.

History
If we have a closer look at the Central Plains, the cradle of Chinese culture, where Hakka people had lived before their migration to the south of China in early Jin Dynasty, We will see that the origination of Hakka hill songs probably is The Book of Songs which has influenced Chinese literature for thousands of years. Of course, except the influence of its origination, Hakka hill songs had been continually developed during Hakka people's migration. Many different cultures along Hakka people's long journey, such as the culture of Wu State and Chu State, the culture of She peoples and Yao Peoples, had helped to shape the unique Hakka hill songs.

The long Hakka migration finally ended during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the Hakka make their homes in the mountainous area of southeast China between Jiangxi(江西), Guangdong, and Fujianprovinces. Shan'ge was furthther influenced by the daily work of the Hakka on the mountainside: mountain singing was a way to socialize with one another and alleviate the pain of hard work. The singing of Shan'ge was at one piont suppressed by an official ban from the government of the Qing Dynasty. However, despite the ban, mountain songswere sung in secret, carrying a rebellious spirit bwtween the lines even though outwardly most of the songs were seemingly only about everyday topics such as love and laboring in the fields.

Types and Characteristic
Hakka Hill Songs is also called Jiu Qiang Shi Ba Diao(nine airs eighteen tunes) because of its various types of tunes created by different Hakka accents and environmental issues. The so called nine airs are Hailu air, Sixian air, Raoping air, Fenglu air, Meixian air, Songkou air, Guangdong air, Guangnan air, Guangxi air, and the eighteen tunes are Pingban tune, Shangezi tune, Laoshange tune(also call South Wind tune), Siniange tune, Bingzige tune, Shibamo tune, Jianjianhua tune(also called the Ancients in December tune), Chuyizhao tune, Taohuakai Tune, Shangshancaica tune, Guanziren tune, Naowujin tune, Songjinchai tune, Dahaitang tune, Kuliniang tune, Xishoujin tune, Tiaomaijiu tune, Taohuaguodu tune(also called Chengchuange tune), and Xiuxiangbao tune. Hakka Hill Songs actually has more tunes than the above, but the other featureless ones are not recorded and so remainded unknown. Hakka Hill songs includes the use of seventeen kinds of Hakka flat intonation, and seven kinds of oblique intonation. Its structure is usually four sentences each with seven words, and the first line,the second line and the fourth line often include flat intonation.

Stories of Hakka Hill Songs
A Girl with Her Three-Year-Old Husband

Once upon a time, a girl was born on the outskirt of Meizhou town. She was sold to a family at a very young age as a wife of this family's future son. Not until when she was 16 years old did her 'mother-in-law' give birth to a boy who was going be her husband. When she was 18 years old, the little boy was only three years old. It made the girl feel painful to sleep with her "three-year-old husband" every night. One night, she sang bitterly "Little three-year-old husband, who is sleeping casually on the bed, Who I have to serve every day, is ruining my whole life. (三岁老公鬼钉筋, 睡目唔(不)知哪头眠,夜夜爱涯(我)兜屎尿,硬想害我一生人)" An old women living on her neighbor heard her song and sang back " My dear girl, you should be good, you husband would grow up ten years after, the waning moon at early days of each month, will be a full moon at the 15th and the 16th. 隔壁侄嫂你爱贤，带大丈夫十把年，初三初四娥眉月，十五十六月团圆. " the girl felt even bitterer to hear the women's words and immediately responded " My dear aunt, you know, when the boy grow up, I would become an old women. The flower is blooming and the other withered, the full is risen and the sun fallen. 隔壁叔婆你爱知，等郎长大我老哩，等到花开花又谢，等到满月日落西. " these heartbreaking words deeply touched the women, she herself felt very sorry for the girl's suffering.