He Jinhua is a national first-level artist with the Yulong County Song and Dance Troupe of Lijiang in China. The daughter of farmers, He was invited to the county seat to perform with the ensemble as a teenager in 1986, and never left.
Since then, He has achieved the rare distinction of the title of Chinese National First-grade Performer; received a silver medal in the 2008 Chinese Central Television Young Singers Competition, a gold medal at the 2010 China Arts Festival, and other recognition. She has also performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the United States.
In 2022, she released the album of Songs of the Naxi of Southwest China on Smithsonian Folkways. Regarding “Songs of the Naxi”, He Jinhua says: “I’m honored to have been able to work with such a renowned record company. I feel that it is a matter of urgency to preserve the longstanding culture I have studied all these years, as the elders who can still sing these songs are already leaving us.”
(headline image: He Jinhua – Photo by Helen Rees)
Discography:
Songs of the Naxi of Southwest China (Smithsonian Folkways, 2022)