01667nas a2200193   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002653003300043653001700076653002600093653001400119100002100133245010100154856015300255300001200408490000700420520102600427022002001453                                       d10aIntangible cultural heritage10aKam Big Song10aSocio-Cultural Change10atradition1 aCatherine Ingram00aTradition and Divergence in Southwestern China: Kam Big Song Singing in the Village and on Stage  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84868276844&doi=10.1080%2f14442213.2012.732601&partnerID=40&md5=d3fc7d019a8f40c798516e099d812843  a434-4530 v133 aKam big songs, comprising a major musical genre sung for centuries in Kam villages in southwestern China, have now been sung in staged performances for over sixty years. Concurrent performance of big song in both village and staged formats has produced different features and paths of development for each, as well as complex interdependence between the two formats. Kam big song singing thus presents a valuable insight into the way that tradition and divergence from tradition might be understood in the twenty-first century. In this article, I outline some of the most significant aspects of villagers  big song singing over the last sixty years. I demonstrate the difficulties in both locating the concept of  tradition  within contemporary big song singing and analytically situating the divergence of big song singing into different performance formats. I thereby illustrate key concerns, potential elucidations, and the complexity of the analytical task in understanding the contemporary trajectory of  tradition .  a14442213 (ISSN)