information:filtering, stylistic:tone, stylistic:style_transfer
"Mo Li Hua" is a Chinese folk song of the "xiaoqu" tune type genre, hailing from the Jiangnan region which encompasses the lower banks of the Yangtze river around Suzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou. The song has been typically dated back to the 18th century to the reign of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty though some scholars have argued that the lyrics predate the Qing dynasty entirely and possibly hail from the Ming era. Over time, many regional variations were created, and the song gained popularity both in China and abroad. The modern notation of the folk song was first transcribed in writing in the West by the British diplomat John Barrow, an assistant attache to George Macartney, documenting the tune during the Macartney diplomatic mission to the imperial court of Qianlong in 1793. His publication of the song in 1804 in Europe propelled it to a "grand entrance on the world stage" and gained it "widespread international popularity" according to ethnomusicology scholar Frederick Lau. The song was adapted in performances such as that of the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's final opera, Turandot, set in Imperial China, where the tune served as the leitmotif for the titular fairy-tale Chinese princess. The tune has been adapted and referenced in "various traditional Chinese and international music concert circuits, concerts by pop bands and solo singers, scholarly debates, new choral arrangements, and state-sponsored events as an emblem of national pride" and has often been hailed a "significant national musical and cultural icon" of China akin to that of Korea's Arirang and Japan's Sakura Sakura.