Picturesque Shuhe offers a perfect setting for the art festival.

The slow and deep funeral song Meng Da is about the person who has died, describing his life from coming into the world to becoming ashes. The bright and happy wedding song Han Wo O wishes the newlyweds a prosperous life and long-lasting love.

The old people sit around the campfire in their traditional cotton clothes and goatskin capes. The bright red scarves tied around their waists, according to He, symbolize the Jinsha River.

"The river has nourished our Naxi culture," he says. Audiences are amazed by their singing and dancing and spontaneously join in.

He Liyuan, from Huayin village, is the person who helped organize the performance team to display the ancient ceremonial songs and dances. When he came to He Jixiang one day in 2007, the old man nodded yes without hesitation.

He Liyuan, 31, is a Naxi folk dancer in a singing and dancing troupe from Yulong Naxi autonomous county. He recalls hearing the ceremonial songs when he was about 4. The melodies and lyrics, which are in ancient Naxi dialect, sounded mysterious, and he was curious to explore the stories behind them.

An old woman living next to his family, who sang folk songs every day, inspired He Liyuan's determination to revive ancient Naxi songs. He liked sitting next to her and listening to those tunes.

But when the woman passed away at the age of 90, He Liyuan suddenly realized that he couldn't listen to those songs anymore. "The death of the old woman made me sad. The songs died with her," he says.

He started looking for singers who remained in the village in 2006.

In 2008, he found He Jixiang and a dozen other elders in the village, who could remember pieces of those songs. One old man knew the ancient songs but had become too old to sing them. He died two years ago.

"There's an enthusiasm or at least a lack of shyness when they're singing at home," He Liyuan says of the Naxi. "Here, these performances are genuine and real, and filled with emotion."