The Song of Dockers is a folk song formed by dockers yelling uniformly and in rhythm while handling cargo. The dockers, gathering at the Shanghai Port since its opening in 1843, consist of local porters, bankrupt peasants, urban poor as well as farmers, fishermen and boatmen from coastal areas of the Yangtze River and various coastal regions.

They worked in groups and protected themselves to make a living. The songs were sung according to their own styles, which resulted in the formation of various schools, including the Northern Jiangsu School, Hubei School, Anhui School, Ningbo School and local school (Shanghai School). Due to different dialects and folk song origins, the diverse music at Shanghai Port comes with different styles and has different features.

Tangqiao subdistrict office collected large quantities of data and made surveys in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces during the census of nationwide intangible cultural heritages. The Song of Dockers at Shanghai Port was added into the second batch intangible cultural heritage protection directory for Shanghai in May 2007. It was then elected into the second batch state-level intangible cultural heritage protection directory in February 2008.

To protect and pass down this ethnic port culture, Tangqiao subdistrict office collected songs and presented certain representative schools in an onstage program. The troupe was composed of 22 actors and community residents, including dockers and porters working for over three decades. The eldest participant was 73 years old and the youngest 58. The troupe participated in literature activities in the community, Pudong New District and Shanghai. In 2006, the troupe performanced at a sub-venue for the Shanghai International Arts Festival. In December 2007, the troupe won the silver award in the China Native Folk Song Contest sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and Shaanxi People’s Government.