Regulars and Passersby 

2020

video, sound, loudspeaker, etc

During my stay in a remote mountain village in Guangdong, China, I found one wild crested myna that often flew into villagers' homes in search of food. the bird was completely unafraid of people as the villagers treated it kindly. Interestingly, the birds could mimic the local people speaking the local dialect.

The village used to have many old folk songs, and I found two lines of the song, "问你乜人呀路去，问你乜人呀路回". It means "Asking which way you left and which way you came back”.

I often sing the song next to the mynah, teaching it that way. After a long time, the bird could imitate my singing. It can sing the song in a dialect that is both familiar and unfamiliar.After myna and I sang successively, the original dialect charm of the Cantonese folk songs gradually faded, and some words were occasionally omitted. Living there all the time, as a bystander of the mountain and the village, the crested mynas does not need to understand the meaning of the lyrics itself-where do people come from and where do they go.

In addition, I played the folk songs sung by the crested mynah through the loudspeaker at the entrance of the village, so that passers-by could also hear vague questions: where are you from, where are you going?