They are not from a famous band. Most spectators may not even understand what they chant.
However, a small concert in the National Library of China in Beijing on Saturday brought a distant cultural tradition back to life, along with a renewed awareness of the need to preserve it.
For centuries, people of the Hezhe ethnic group have lived in Heilongjiang province in Northeast China, relying on fishing and hunting for their livelihoods. Much of their traditional lifestyles changed in modern times when they settled in villages and adopted farming, but their ancient melodies — the folk music and traditional storytelling known as Yimakan — continue to linger in the forest. A rare performance exclusively of Hezhe oral traditions was presented in the nation's capital, inviting 16 performers to the stage.
The popularity of the event took the organizers by surprise; within less than 30 minutes of the concert being advertised online, all 180 seats in the recording room had been reserved.
The performances began with a chorus, The Boat Song of Wusuli River. This folk song, which is rooted in the rhythm of Yimakan, became famous nationwide in the 1960s and has been frequently performed for TV galas. Thanks to the song, the Hezhe ethnic group, which at the time numbered just several hundred people, became a household name in China.
Wu Baochen, 66, is a veteran Yimakan performer. When interviewed backstage, he became emotional.
"More than 30 people in my extended family now perform Yimakan storytelling," he says. "But there used to be only five or six elderly people in the village (who could perform it)."
Hezhen Yimakan storytelling was inscribed onto UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2011, calling for people's awareness to rescue it. Now a national-level inheritor of Yimakan, Wu says he still has so much to learn about the art.
"In Yimakan, it's difficult to learn and remember the lengthy epics, not least because the Hezhe language doesn't have a writing system," he says. "We have to rely on word-of-mouth instruction. But things have largely changed thanks to support from the government."
According to Wu Xuan, deputy director of Heilongjiang provincial intangible cultural heritage protection center, efforts have been made since 2011 to encourage local Hezhe communities, educational institutions, and researchers to pass on Yimakan and Hezhe culture. The protection center has helped to establish seven related learning facilities, and has organized 18 online groups on WeChat for learning Hezhe culture.
These efforts have yielded results. In 2025, Yimakan storytelling was moved onto the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. At the same time, based on the effectiveness of the protection of this heritage project, a related safeguarding program for Hezhen Yimakan storytelling was selected for inclusion in the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices.
The population of the Hezhe ethnic group has grown to more than 5,300 people, but it is still among the smallest ethnic groups in China. Continuous efforts are needed in the long term. The recent performance at the National Library of China is part of a larger project to document Hezhe folk culture. Since 2025, the project has comprehensively recorded Hezhe music, storytelling, and other folk customs.
"It's like a race against time, (because) several elderly inheritors died while the project was ongoing," Wu Xuan recalls. "Hezhe oral art may not be that well documented in writings like classic literature, but it remains a precious and lively treasure in our country's fine traditional culture."
Other than the concert in the national library, the 16 performers, ranging from children to senior citizens, also visited colleges in Beijing and had their music and stories recorded by China Record Group.
According to Tian Miao, deputy director of the social education department at the national library, the institution is working to establish a database of oral arts from those ethnic groups with relatively small populations. Hezhe is the third one to be included in the program this year after the Yugur ethnic group in Gansu province and the Derung ethnic group in Yunnan province. More than 400 folk songs have also been recorded.
"These resources will be permanently collected by the library," Tian says. "They'll be cherished and passed down to generations to come."
"We musicians often refer to old-time video clips and historical files to get closer to folk music," Lei Jia, a professor at the China Conservatory of Music, says. "But the ongoing project allows us to directly learn from folk artists and largely supports our future work."
Guan Kai, a sociology professor at Minzu University of China, adds: "It's a key role of libraries to preserve traditional arts. People in the future will thus understand the diverse living experiences and wisdom of humanity."
That documentation also includes the concert on Saturday. Perhaps it was more than a concert; it was an effort to keep a cultural tradition alive in people's memory.
wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn
