Al laox, is a kind of polyphonic folk song which are sung and widely practiced by parts of Dong people in southern China. As an indispensable component of the non-literary peasant society of Dong ethnic culture, Al laox music tradition has been systematically passed down, with full participation and ritualized performance in Dong people's daily life. / As a case study of "local music tradition", this research will contribute to further research topics, such as the common characteristic of Dong traditional music, sociological meaning of polyphonic folk song and contemporary transformation of traditional music etc. / This dissertation aims to investigate the interaction between "Al laox music tradition and community identity of Dong People". Based on extensive fieldwork and textual analysis, this thesis discusses, on one hand, how Dong people construct their identity with Al laox music tradition, on the other hand, it examines what exactly the Al laox music tradition is and what it means to native people. Thus, this bidirectional concerns not only respond to the general ethnomusicological issue of "how culture shapes music", but also gives an interpretation of "how music function culture". / This dissertation has two methodological concerns: (1) a micro-ethnographical study of village social structure in relation to the Al laox music tradition, and (2) a survey of Al laox as a ritualized communal singing ritual. The former focuses on a typical Dong community as a locus to examine the operation of Gaolao music tradition, whereas the latter illustrates how Dong people construct distinct stratified identities through singing especially in three coorelative rituals. Specifically, this research takes Xiao Huang village in Congjiang county, Guizhou province and the relavant villages around as object and structures around three significant ritualized singing pattern, gabx gongx, xeegnl doul and weex yeek. / 楊曉. / Adviser: Tsao Poon Yee. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: A, page: 2944. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 392-418). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Yang Xiao.