尽管海南的黎族人民没有自己的书面语言,但他们创造了自己的口述传统而且代代相传。而村中一位九十岁的老奶奶被誉为“唱歌之王”。她不会讲普通话,但她却创作出成千上万的歌曲。她确信自己肯定能将传统民歌传承给年轻的一代。

Although the Li people of Hainan Island don't have their own written language, they have created their own oral traditions that have passed down through the generations.
Ninety-year-old Wang Meda is called the "Singing Queen" by people in this ethnic Li village. She cannot speak mandarin, but she has created thousands of songs in "Hlai", the spoken language of the Li Ethnic Group. She's made sure to pass the traditional folk songs down to younger generations.
Ji Qiumin, Wang Meda's granddaughter, said, "My grandma used to croon a lullaby to me when I was a little girl. And it was the first folk song of our Li people that I’ve ever known. When I got older, she recorded songs with a recorder so that I could learn them."
The Li people's folk songs are rich in content. Most of the lyrics consist of seven characters, and the topics range from everyday work to star-crossed love.
Ji Qiumin also said, "Singing is a common practice for ordinary Li people, especially for folk singers like my grandma. When they work in the field, they sing. When they try to tell a story, they also sing."
For Wang Meda, singing is her lifelong career. Now in her 90s, she still teaches kids in the village to sing folk songs, as her grandmother and mother did for her.