Midu was once called Midu. According to legend, it used to be a huge water town, Zeguo, and travelers easily got lost, hence the names "Midu" and "Midu". In order to avoid flooding, it was renamed Midu in the Qing Dynasty. It is like a piece of jade embedded in the western Yunnan Plateau. In the Tang Dynasty, Midu was the center of Nanzhao Kingdom. 65438+ Wan Zhongyuan soldiers and merchants not only brought agricultural technology to this fertile soil, but also spread the Yellow River culture to this amorous place. Thus, Midu had a saying that "the lamp came from the Tang Dynasty, and art began from the Tang Dynasty". During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, military, civil, commercial and Xinjiang migration activities continued, which brought the lingering Yangtze River culture here. Through the vicissitudes of history, Midu has exchanged and infiltrated with the national cultures of Han, Yi, Hui and Bai in China, which has integrated the strengths of local national cultures, absorbed the essence of the north and south cultures of the motherland and formed a splendid traditional culture with unique local national characteristics.

Midu is the hometown of lanterns, folk songs and ballads. "Running water" comes from rice fat. The songwriter Yin, male, 1924, is from Mizhi, Midu County. He recalled one night in the spring of 1947 when he wrote this song, and said, "The wonderful melody of herding sheep reminds me of the moon, deep mountains, forest wind and winding rivers in my hometown, so I chose the title of Moonlight. Jiang Xun, editor-in-chief of Yun Da Jiao Sing, suggested that it is better to use "Streaming Water". After this song was published, it gradually spread. " Mizhi is not only a beautiful folk song, but also an important birthplace of Yunnan Lantern Festival. The Dragon Lantern Festival here originated in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty and has a history of nearly 300 years. People from 18 village gather in Mizhi Temple on the 15th and 16th of the first month of every year. Lions and dragons and phoenixes are on a whim, and men, women and children are singing a song and partying day and night, which is very rare. It is known as the "Oriental Carnival".

There are many lanterns and folk songs in Midu. There are more than 400 kinds of Midu lanterns and folk songs, and more than 250 kinds of traditional dramas. Ten Big Sisters, Embroidered Pockets, Midu Folk Songs, The Wind Blows the Tree Head, etc. It has been sung for a long time and is a household name.

Successive leaders in Midu County have attached great importance to the inheritance and development of local ethnic culture, and put forward the slogan of local ethnic culture construction: "Singing" Running Water "and" Dancing Red Midu Lantern ". 1999, selected 13 famous songs represented by "Running Water" from more than 400 Midu folk songs, produced a 60-minute VCD music art film called "A Journey to Midu" and distributed it to audiences at home and abroad. In recent years, Midu County has held a large-scale lantern festival every Spring Festival, carried out large-scale lantern singing backbone training and lantern group dance competition, and 1 professional lantern group and1more than 30 folk amateur lantern teams have been active in urban and rural areas all the year round.

"When you get to Hongyan Slope, you can hear songs everywhere", "Ten Midu people, nine can sing lanterns". Midu, where this river flows, is being presented to the world with its charm full of local traditional culture.