Andrew Higgins : A showdown over traditional throat singing divides China and Mongolia

A showdown over traditional throat singing divides China and Mongolia

 

By Andrew Higgins,August 10, 2011

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Hanggai, a Beijing-based band whose sound is a modern take on Mongolian… (Frans Schellekens/REDFERNS )

For nearly two decades, Odsuren Baatar, a master of Mongolian throat singing, has been visiting China to teach his craft — making the human voice soar, quiver and drone, its pitches in eerie unison like a bagpipe.
When he first started going there, his students were all beginners, because nobody in China knew much about throat singing. But they were eager to learn, and, after years of sharing his techniques, Odsuren took pride in having helped promote an art form prized here in Mongolia as a singular national treasure.
His pride, however, turned to dismay and then anger when he saw a copy of a video that China had quietly submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: It featured one of his former students pitching a bid by Beijing to have throat singing registered by the United Nations as part of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity,” with China getting the credit.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-08-10/world/35271686_1_throat-tuvan-china-and-mongolia