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From China's Southwest Borders: Minority Dances, Songs and Instrumental Music of Yunnan. Recorded and edited by Li Wei and Zhang Xingrong, Yunnan Art Institute. Notes for the English edition by Helen Rees and Amy Caitlin. Aspara Media for Intercultural Education, © 2001. 13659, Victory Blvd #577, Van Nuys, CA 91401. ISBN 1-880519-24-0. VHS: Volume 1: Vocal, Instrumental, and Religious Music, 65 minutes, Volume 2: Dances and Festivals, 55 minutes.
From China 's Southwest Borders, a two volume VHS set, provides a rare glimpse (actually many rare glimpses) of Yunnan's myriad "ethnic minority" dances and musics. Each of the hour-long videos is filled with footage taken all around China's Yunnan province, one of China's most ethnically diverse regions.
It is difficult to overstate the value of this collection, filmed and edited by Li Wei and Zhang Xingrong of Yunnan Art Institute over a period of fifteen years of extensive travel and field research in Yunnan province. No less than twenty-nine of Yunnan's ethnic minorities (including sub-groups) are represented in seventy different segments. To the best of my knowledge, much of the music and dance on the tapes has never before been released. The English edition comes with useful booklets that translate all of the Chinese subtitles and explain what one is seeing on the videos. In...