Rescue and Interpretation of Endangered Oral Traditions: A Study on the Ancient Ballads of the Lipu Branch of the Yi People in Panxi Region

Abstract

The ancient ballads of the Lipu branch of the Yi people in Panxi are a highly typical and sophisticated oral cultural heritage in the
Jinsha River basin, which centrally embody ethnic migration memories, life ritual norms, ecological cognitive systems and traditional cosmic
views. However, these ancient ballads are currently confronted with a triple crisis: a gap in inheritors, an endangered language carrier, and
fragmented documentary records. Therefore, this paper takes the ancient Lipu ballads as the research object, and systematically and hierarchically sorts out their typological system, textual characteristics and cultural connotations from the perspectives of oral poetics, cultural anthropology and intangible cultural heritage protection theories. On this basis, it naturally and properly puts forward the paths of multi-modal
rescue recording and digital living inheritance, thus filling the obvious academic gap in the research on the Lipu branch, and more importantly,
providing a replicable and promotable micro sample for the protection of such ethnic minority oral traditions.