Whether it is being sung spontaneously by rural people working in the field or travelling or performed more formally at one of more than a hundred traditional Hua er festivals held annually in these provinces, Hua er is an important vehicle for expressing personal feelings in a social setting and cultural exchange across ethnicities, as well as a popular rural entertainment.
About 450 students now attend classes at the Hua Shan Forum, a quarterly newsletter reaches 20, 000 readers, and more than a thousand teachers have been trained.