Biography
Ma Ersa is a representative of Hui (also known as Dungan) Muslim Chinese musical traditions. Born in 1970, Ma Ersa was named after the Islamic Prophet Eysa - “Jesus” in the Christian tradition. Brought up in a mountain village in southern Gansu, the heartland of the hua’er song style, he absorbed the style while working as a shepherd and itinerant laborer, and gained a reputation locally as an outstanding singer. In the 1990s, a newly found enthusiasm for “authentic folk song” in China propelled him to national fame via televised folk song competitions. Through the inscription of hua’er songs to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, he has more recently been officially recognized as a transmitter of the tradition.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.