Xiangxi Miao folk songs are an important part of Miao folk songs. Xiangxi Miao folk songs are spread in Jishou City, Fenghuang County, Huayuan County, Baojing County, Guzhang County, and Luxi County in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province (the spread area also includes Mayang, Chengbu in Hunan Province, and Songtao County in Guizhou Province). Xiangxi Miao folk songs have a long history and are sung in the Xiangxi Miao language. Xiangxi Miao songs have many modes, complete musical structures, unique melodies, free and complex rhythms, and various singing forms, with a strong ethnic color. In 2008, they were selected as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage in China. Xiangxi Miao folk songs have a long history. In the 18th century (Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty), the "Ten Years of Yongmiao Customs" in the Yongsui Hall Chronicles recorded that "the drums and dances stopped when the war broke out. Then men and women would gather in the open fields near the temples and sing Miao songs to each other. Men would sing and women would join in, or women would sing and men would join in, and they would answer each other." In 1820 (the 25th year of Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty), Yan Bingwen's "Miao Defense Customs" also recorded singing competitions: "Sometimes there were competitions based on singing skills. Men would produce silk and women would produce hairpins and rings as ornaments. They would form teams and sing all night long to compete for victory. The winner would receive the prize, and those who were not good at singing would not be allowed to join the team." In 1974, Ling Chunsheng and Rui Yifu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Philology wrote in their "Report on the Investigation of the Miao Nationality in Western Hunan" that "ballads play a very important role in the lives of the Miao people, especially in various rituals. They improvise songs anytime and anywhere to express their emotions or narrate local events. Whenever a certain ceremony or event is held, men and women sing to each other day and night, and sometimes even for several days and nights. Most of the songs they improvise are finished after they are sung, and very few are preserved. Even if some are passed down by being sung by many people, they rely entirely on inaccurate and short-lived memory. The words and sentences are often changed or even completely changed, so they have been passed down. There is no fixed form. Ballads sung only in various ceremonies such as religion or weddings are often passed down, and although they are also passed down entirely by memory, the words and sentences are inevitably passed down or changed, but their content can be said to be roughly the same; so there are more preserved. For this reason, the Miao songs we collected in Xiangxi are mostly ritual songs, and there are very few improvisations. "After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Xiangxi Miao folk songs have undergone great changes and improvements in singing form and content, and there are a group of professional singers. Zhang Yunzhen, a national first-class actor of the Hunan Provincial Ethnic Song and Dance Troupe (formerly the Xiangxi State Song and Dance Troupe), has a great influence in the province when singing Xiangxi Miao folk songs. What makes the Xiangxi Miao people even more proud is that Xiangxi Miao singer Song Zuying has walked out of the mountains with the charm of Miao songs, singing all over China and the world.