General Secretary here talks about cultural inheritance and development in Bacha Village, Bacha Hezhe Township, Tongjiang
Former General Secretary here talks about cultural inheritance and development in Bacha Village, Bacha Hezhe Township, Tongjiang
A thousand year old fishing song, singing the happy life of Hezhe's family
"I am delighted to see that your lives are thriving, your descendants are growing up healthy, and your culture has been passed down from generation to generation."
Some villagers, dressed in ethnic costumes, were learning Imakan rap on site.Everyone crowded over and sang one song after another.
Nowadays, on this cultural fertile land in the hinterland of the Sanjiang Plain, the thousand year old fishing song of Hexiang is even more elegant and joyful.
More and more young people are falling in love with Hezhe culture
Driving towards Bacha Village, on both sides of G331 National Highway, densely packed corn and soybeans covered the entire field, with black and green leaves swaying in the wind. As the wheels come into close contact with a colorful road surface, the earth plays the song of Ussuri Boat. This music road, which has been built for a year, has attracted journalists to open windows and listen.
As soon as you enter the village, you will face the Imakan Training Institute on the Urigong Square, which is the best location in the village. Imakan belongs to the national intangible cultural heritage. Rappers without instrumental accompaniment improvise and use different vocal melodies to depict characters and tell stories.
"Wusuli Mamuhena, Sakhalin Mamuhena..." The 67 year old successor Wu Guifeng is leading several old sisters to sing. Over the years, she has started training classes and sometimes even livestreamed lectures on online platforms. Flipping through Wu Guifeng's phone, she occasionally arranged through WeChat groups, saying, "Dear friends, rehearse at 8:30 pm," and "A few old friends, take a look at the newly recorded short video.".
"I have to be careful with every pronunciation, and when I need to curl my tongue, I have to curl it up." Wu Guifeng further recognized the importance and urgency of cultivating inheritors. On one hand, Bacha Village improved the teaching facilities of the training center, trained 45 Imakan students, and on the other hand, formed a folk art troupe, attracting 35 villagers to join, choreographing multiple ethnic songs and dances, and practicing and polishing during performance competitions.
In order to strengthen the research on the history and culture of the Hezhe ethnic group, and further explore and protect their cultural heritage, Tongjiang City has established an Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center.
Focusing on projects such as imakan rap and fish skin production techniques, the Tongjiang Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center has formed an integrated protection mechanism around research and census, digital protection, physical library construction, and the cultivation of inheritors. Li Dingren, the director of the center, was delighted to find that more and more young people are coming to study intangible cultural heritage. "Some newlyweds even hold weddings on the snow, which is a manifestation of cultural confidence."
Fu Sikai, a young man from Hezhe, born in the 2000s, is currently in his sophomore year. He returned home this summer to continue learning about Imakan with his family. "My classmates found out that I am the inheritor of this project, so they took the initiative to learn from me and searched for relevant information. I am truly proud!"
Bacha Village is bustling with activity, and cultural tourism is thriving
Liu Lei, a fourth term National People's Congress representative and deputy director of the Tongjiang Economic Cooperation Promotion Center, often visits Bacha Village. As a representative of the Hezhe ethnic group, she enjoys singing small tunes and chatting about daily life with villagers.
In recent years, the cultural tourism of Hezhe people has flourished. Ba Cha Village established "Hezhe Girl" and other fish skin handicraft cooperatives, with annual sales revenue of over 100000 yuan for high-quality decorative paintings, pendants, and other products; Establishing Hexiang Rural Cultural Tourism Company, operating multiple projects such as cruise ships and homestays; Carrying out brand activities such as the Maha Migration Festival, ice marathons, and traditional sports performances... In 2021, the per capita disposable income of farmers was 25579 yuan, an increase of 58% compared to 2016, and they won a bountiful year with both hands.
At present, Bacha Village is bustling with people, logistics, and cultural exchanges gathering here——
On the tourist road, off-road vehicles and RVs occasionally pass by, and hikers who stop by bike buy specialty food from villagers, set up tents and stoves, pick wild cherries and thick purple plums, and come to the campsite for camping.
In the village courtyard, summer social practice teams from Renmin University of China, Three Gorges University, and other universities had discussions with cadres and the masses. Seeing the thriving village, a student enthusiastically asked, "Can you come here to become a 'village official'?"
In the employment workshop, there is a mechanism of rewarding inheritors, subsidizing new students, and one-on-one support for inheritors of the Hezhe ethnic group. This not only improves the quality of intangible cultural heritage protection and inheritance, but also drives the employment of surrounding people. More and more people have taken the initiative to come and learn
What's even more gratifying is that the excellent traditional culture of the Hezhe ethnic group has left Hezheng and entered the campus. In the corridor of the teaching building of the Fourth Primary School in Tongjiang City, fish skin paintings with the theme of socialist core values are particularly eye-catching. "This is a work of students from various ethnic groups working together and dividing tasks. The children are very interested in it." Miss Hezhe, Guan Huali, is an art teacher, talking about the changes over the years with joy on her face.
Familiarize oneself with the Hezhe ethnic culture school-based curriculum, plan the fish skin painting club activities after the start of school, and enjoy the busy summer vacation. "We need to expand the space for aesthetic education, enrich after-school services, and let more people understand through 'small hands pulling big hands'."
The river of culture surges forward
The development of a nation is always supported by cultural prosperity. Hexiang Hometown can be said to have history and culture everywhere.
There is a consensus among the cadres and masses in Tongjiang on this matter, and action is needed. More and more professionals are joining in, focusing on drawing nourishment from minority cultures, promoting the inheritance, protection, and innovative integration of various ethnic cultures. The reporter visited an exhibition of Chinese and foreign folk art copyright achievements in Tongjiang.
On one side of the exhibition area, there are a variety of scarves, skateboards, and phone cases printed with folk patterns, as well as unique sand pottery products that attract tourists to experience the production. Guo Lin, the project leader of "Hezhe Cultural IP", established a cultural promotion company in 2019. He selected representative patterns of Hezhe culture to establish a digital pattern database and obtained more than 500 copyrights.
"In addition to being applied to cultural and creative products, architectural decoration, animation production and other commercial fields, we also want to do our part in actively inheriting national culture." Guolin takes this as an example, and the "Hezhe God Doll" urban mascot draws on the fashionable atmosphere, with a distinctive design image and personality. It is gradually appearing in Tongjiang City's comprehensive tourism guide project, public cultural construction, and other projects.
Moving to the other side, flowers bloom and prosper, pine and crane extend their years, and dragons and phoenixes bring good luck... The decorative paintings made of fish skin, bones, and even scales are stunning, created by Yang Shuangyan, the principal of the Dream Fulfillment Skills Training School, and her group of students. Living in Tongjiang, she is more easily exposed to Hezhen culture. Since she was young, she loved handicrafts and integrated Paper Cuttings and embroidery into the production of fish skin paintings. Her exquisite works with unique style are sold to many places.
Inheriting and developing traditional cultures of various ethnic groups is not about preserving them as they are, but about extracting the essence and innovating. Hexiang shoulders the cultural mission of creative transformation and innovative development, making great strides forward.
In the sunset, the reporter "went down the river" to experience Hezhe fishing and hunting culture, and the river was full of "golden eyes" jumping. Heilongjiang is vast and winding eastward. The fisherman from Bacha chatted with the reporter, discussing new things around him——
I just came to the village as a tour guide for the post-95s generation. Although I am not familiar with the lyrics, I love to study Hezhe culture; Some young people want to combine imakan rap with pop music rap, trying old songs and new ones; The School of Fine Arts at Jiamusi University has designed mascots "Bazi" and "Baniu" for the village, and launched WeChat emojis. The blue ethnic costumes and swan dance designs are lively and cute; The cultural and tourism complex project in the Hezhe fishing and hunting experience area, which is striving for funding, is equipped with sound and optical equipment loved by Generation Z, and construction will start in September
Some people compare culture to a river. Riding slowly on a boat, one can strongly feel the confidence and boldness of the long-standing Chinese civilization and the convergence of excellent cultures of various ethnic groups.
