Who is the original singer of the song "Thirty Mile Shop"?

The folk song "Thirty Mile Shop" is based on a true story that happened in the village of Thirty Mile Shop in Suide County, Shaanxi, hence the name "Thirty Mile Shop". It is a longer folk narrative folk song with a tune counting one of the albatrosses. The story is about a man and a woman who fell in love and broke up, and had a hard time leaving each other. The heroine of the song is named Feng Ying, and the hero is named Shuangxi, and they have loved each other since childhood. Fengying is a progressive rural girl who dares to fight, she breaks through the shackles and obstacles of customary forces, and falls in love with Qiu Shuangxi, the "third brother". Because Shuangxi is going to join the army, Fengying has something in her heart and finds it difficult to say it, so Shuangxi comforts her: she will come back to see you when she leaves! The story is real, vivid and touching.

It is said that the melody of the song is a young farmer in the same village surnamed Chang organized, the lyrics are also written by him. This peasant singer, who originally lived in Suide and later migrated to Yan'an, composed the song in 1942. Initially, the song was sung to the tune of "Albatross", and the lyrics were only a few paragraphs long, but it became widely popular immediately. In the process of circulation, after people constantly processed and embellished, gradually enriched and perfected, the lyrics up to more than 30 paragraphs, here recorded seven paragraphs. In fact, people only sang a few of them when they sang the song. Later, when professional singers put it on the stage or recorded it on the radio, they only sang three or four paragraphs, and individually sang the seven paragraphs.

The melody of "Thirty Mile Shop" is very expansive and open, but the composition of the tune is very simple. The first and second lines are exactly the same, and the second half of the third line is the same as the second half of the first two lines (i.e., the falling tone of the three lines is "2"), and only the fourth line returns to the levistic mode. The tone is open and expansive, the speed is slow, the rhythm is syncopated, the lyricism is strong, and the tonal changes are utilized to focus on the young lovers' feelings of parting. Due to the truthfulness of the story reflected in the folk song, its beautiful melody and sincere and deep feelings, the song has won the favor of the people and has been sung by them. In the 1950s, Wang Fangliang adapted it into a folk song a cappella, and personally conducted the public performance of the Northern Shaanxi Folk Song Choir, which enriched, improved and promoted the song.