On February 25, 2012, Confucius Institute at UT Dallas held the 27th Confucius salon in Lecture Hall JO 4.102. Mr. Peng Jingquan, famous artist in China who is from Miao district, was invited to give a lecture on the heritage and development of Miao folk songs. More than 50 audiences who are experts or Hmong USA from community and UTD attended the salon.

Mr. Peng introduced the developing history and distribution of Miao nationality in China and explored its custom, language, religion, present situation, and culture. He shared his achievements with us about his collect folk songs from Xiangxi in Hunan Province. Mr. Peng told us the story of Chi You and the Battle of Zhuo Lu with Yellow Emperor happened about 4600 years ago. Chi You is said to be ancestor of Miao nationality. After he was defeated, the Miao people had to scatter to find their new places of residence. Miao nationality has more than four million populations in China now who mainly live in Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan, and Guangxi provinces. The introduction of Miao’s particular folk-custom, long culture, and honest folkways moved the Miao USA attended to burst into tears. Through introducing the young Miao singer Wu Tingcui, enjoying the beauty of her original songs, and investigating the particular imparting alone ways of Miao songs from the old generation to the younger generation, he discussed the hardship and urgency of inheriting the intangible cultural heritage of Miao culture.

An aged man spent more than two hours to come here for the lecture. After the salon, about 10 Hmong USA asked a lot of questions about the life of Miao nationality.