HARBIN, July 3 (Xinhua) — Dressed in festive attire, including deer-antler headgear, members of China’s Hezhe ethnic group gathered Sunday in Fuyuan, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, to celebrate the 11th Wurigong Festival.
Banging on Shaman drums painted with sun, deer and fish motifs, and dancing to vibrant rhythms, they were enacting cultural traditions that have been passed down the centuries.
The Hezhe are one of the less populous ethnic groups in China, residing along the Heilongjiang, Songhuajiang and Wusuli rivers. Due to their location in the east, they are known as the “sun watchers.”
“Wurigong” means joy and celebration in the language of the Hezhe ethnic group. The festival serves as a grand showcase of Hezhe culture, combining traditional music, dance, narrative art and sports.
From a mere 300 people before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China to over 5,000 today, the Hezhe ethnic group celebrates Wurigong, protecting and passing on their culture as they move toward a better life.
At the festival, shamans banged their drums, leading the tribe in a mysterious yet fervent traditional dance. There were also performances of the Yimakan narrative art, a form of rhythmic story-telling that conveys traditional tales. Finally, 20 Hezhe performers in fish-skin costumes delighted the audience with their spirited and lively dances to the accompaniment of folk songs.
Zhang Xin, a performer from the Hongguang Hezhe Village in Fuyuan, said that his costume is made from the skin of the chum salmon. Such costumes take between one and two months to make, at least.
You Wenfeng, 71, is an inheritor of the Hezhe fish-skin craft, a form of national intangible cultural heritage. She brought eight sets of Hezhe fish skin costumes to the festival, three of which were specially made for the occasion.
“Our Hezhe people have lived generation after generation as fishing and hunting communities, following the tradition of wearing fish skins in summer and roe deer skins in winter,” said You. “By showcasing these fish-skin costumes at the festival, we encourage the children to properly inherit this craft.”
Wu Baochen, a Yimakan master, served as a judge for the artistic competitions. Yimakan is a narrative art form created by the Hezhe through their long history of fishing and hunting. As the Hezhe have no written language, this oral tradition was once at risk of disappearing.
“Nowadays, there are textbooks and audio-visual materials for learning Yimakan, which makes it much easier,” said Wu. “The enthusiasm for preserving Hezhe culture among young people is greater now, with more and more people beginning to learn and sing Yimakan.”
Other events like ball games, wrestling, fish forking, archery and rabbit hunting were also held, characterizing the fishing and hunting heritage of the Hezhe ethnic group.
Wu Yu, from the city of Tongjiang in Heilongjiang, along with his wife and six-year-old son, attended the festival dressed in traditional Hezhe attire.
“We intentionally brought our child to the festival, hoping that he would experience the cultural traditions of our ethnic group,” he said. “The Wurigong Festival is not just a holiday. It’s a platform where the Hezhe people gather to pass down their language and culture.”