Village's proud musical heritage inspires visitor's instrumental purchase

Before visiting a village in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Hector Dorbecker, minister at the Mexican embassy in China, knew nothing about the dutar, a traditional handmade stringed Uygur musical instrument.

However, after watching an elderly craftsman playing the instrument in a Uygur-style courtyard in Jiayi village, Xinhe county, Aksu prefecture, Dorbecker decided to buy one of the instruments for 1,500 yuan ($208).

As the man played, colorful dutars hung from an overhead grape trellis.

"The instrument sounds beautiful, and my brother, who lives in Mexico, is extremely good at playing the guitar. Hopefully, next year I will travel to Mexico for a vacation and give him this dutar as a gift," he said.

The dutar was played in the village by Nurdun Ismayil, a third-generation inheritor of intangible cultural heritage in Xinjiang.

When he was 15, he began learning instrument-making skills, and over the decades, he has witnessed the increasing popularity of the dutar and other traditional instruments.

In the past, he had to carry his goods to the local bazaar for sale, but now he only needs to wait at home for online and offline customers to place orders. His family workshop has 18 employees, and during the peak tourism season in Xinjiang, its monthly turnover exceeds 50,000 yuan ($6,390), with half of this total coming from online sales.

Jiayi, renowned as the leading village for handmade folk instruments in Xinjiang, has been involved in producing ethnic musical instruments for more than 300 years. More than 100 of the village's 347 households are engaged in this business.

The local government has also helped establish a farmers' cooperative, which employs over 160 villagers in handcrafting dutars and other instruments.

Baihetiyaer Amuti, head of the cooperative, said villagers earn an average monthly salary of about 3,500 yuan by working near home, which also allows them to take care of their farm work.

To increase sales, the cooperative has started to introduce the instruments and stage performances on social media platforms through livestreaming in recent years, attracting curious customers nationwide.

"Last year, the cooperative's sales value reached 14 million yuan, and it is expected to reach 20 million yuan this year," Amuti said.

Ismayil, the craftsman, is delighted that more people are showing an interest in traditional Uygur musical instruments.

"I will continue to contribute to the preservation of these skills so that more people can learn about our traditional culture," he said.