Chinanews.com, Kunming, Jan. 27 (Reporter Miao Chao) On the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in southwest China, 26 ethnic groups gathered together to form a colorful Yunnan, including nearly 30,000 Mongolian people.

In recent years, more and more Inner Mongolians have come to Yunnan to spread grassland culture, allowing more people to understand Inner Mongolia thousands of miles away and feel the vastness and open-mindedness of the grassland.

The 46-year-old Da Lai is one of them. He let the melodious melody of Matouqin "fly" in the south of the colorful clouds.

　　Da Lai was born in Horqin, Inner Mongolia. He is a Mongolian matouqin performer, executive director of the Chinese Matouqin Society, vice president of Yunnan Mongolian Research Association, and professor of Kunming Art Vocational College.

　　In 1996, Dalai graduated from Inner Mongolia Zhelimu Art School (now Horqin Art Vocational College).

In his matouqin learning career, he studied under Xie Temurbagen, Bu Henasen and Qi Baoligao.

In 1997, 21-year-old Dalai was invited to perform in Kunming, Yunnan Province with a matouqin. He was moved by the enthusiasm of the local audience for grassland music.

It was also in this performance that he met and fell in love with a girl from the Bai nationality in Yunnan, and finally entered the palace of marriage.

Because of love, Dalai chose to stay in Yunnan.

　　After staying in Yunnan, Dalai performed in Guizhou, Henan, Yunnan and other places, making ends meet while insisting on his music dream.

He worked as a salesman, ran a performance, and once opened a barbecue shop on the street, selling barbecue while playing the Matouqin.

Later, he opened a restaurant called "Mongolian House" in Kunming, and his life gradually stabilized.

　　"I have been away from my hometown for many years, and I miss Inner Mongolia and Horqin Grassland all the time. As long as I play the Matouqin, I feel like I have returned to my hometown." So, in the "Mongolian House" restaurant, he gathered a group of music-loving friends to form "Ayinqin Orchestra".

　　Whenever diners walk into the yurts of the "Mongolian House" restaurant, everyone eats meat with their hands, drinks milk tea, and listens to Dalai and his orchestra playing "Swan Goose", "Eji in Dream", "Ten Thousand Horses Galloping"... The melodious melody of Matouqin flows at the fingertips, instantly bringing people to the vast grassland.

The picture shows Dalai playing the matouqin.

Photo provided by the interviewee

　　Dalai's melodious matouqin melody also attracted the attention of Kunming Art Vocational College, and he was hired as a matouqin teacher in the college.

"I have always had an ideal, which is to let more people experience and perceive Mongolian culture. Education provides me with a stage to realize my ideal."

　　Dalai entered Kunming Art Vocational College to teach Matouqin, and has trained hundreds of students majoring in Matouqin over the years.

He also organized students to perform in the countryside, and took the Matouqin to nearly 200 villages in Yunnan.

　　There are about 30,000 Mongolian people living in various places in Yunnan, and the main gathering place is Xingmeng Township, Tonghai County, Yuxi City.

Having lived in Yunnan for many years, Dalai often visited Xingmeng Township. "Xingmeng Township resumed the Naadam Conference in 1981. Every time the Naadam Conference, Mongolian compatriots in Yunnan will participate."

　　In 2011, Xingmeng Township invited Dalai to be the director of the Naadam Conference, and Dalai readily accepted.

"I remember that year, my hometown Hohhot, Ordos and other places in Inner Mongolia sponsored 1.6 million yuan for the Nadam Festival in Xingmeng Township, and organized 40 dancers to perform voluntarily in Yunnan."

　　Under the careful direction of Da Lai, the Xingmeng Township Naadam Conference that year was brilliant. The square that originally could only accommodate more than 10,000 people attracted more than 40,000 people, many of whom came to see the "prairie event". Compatriots of all ethnic groups in Yunnan.

　　Today, Dalai is still often responsible for the planning and implementation of various cultural activities of the Mongolian people in Yunnan, and at the same time continues to teach the matouqin performance skills to batch after batch of students of different ethnic groups.

"The state's support for the inheritance and protection of ethnic culture is getting stronger and stronger. Mongolian culture blends and develops with other ethnic cultures in Yunnan, making all ethnic groups more united in cultural blending."

　　On the eve of the Spring Festival this year, the 2023 "Spring Blossoms" China, India, Cambodia and Mongolia Spring Festival Gala hosted by the Information Office of the Yunnan Provincial People's Government and the Foreign Affairs Office of the Yunnan Provincial People's Government was launched.

Dalai and his partner "Matouqin" participated in the creative scene "Night Like Water", one of the evening programs. The melodious melody of Matouqin let the world know that Mongolian culture is flourishing together with other ethnic cultures on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.

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