Traditions and Language of Hezhe (赫哲族)
One of the smallest ethnic minority groups in China, the Hezhe population was once reduced to around 300 by the time the PRC was founded in 1949. Economic and medical advances since then have the population has swelled to over 4,600.
They live a nomadic life of hunting and fishing around Heilongjiang province and their language, which has no written form, belongs to the Manchu-Tungusic group of languages. For outside communication, they use written and spoken Chinese. In winter, they use sleds and skis to travel and hunt.
The traditional clothes of the Hezhe people, though they have fallen out of fashion since the mid-20th century, are worth mentioning, as they have the unusual characteristic of being made with deer hides and fish skins. Bear hides and birch bark are used to make winter boots. The traditional shaman religion has also fallen into disuse.
Wealthy tribe members could practise polygamy, but most people were strictly monogamous. Widows could remarry, but there was no ceremony, and the dead were buried in the wild in log-lined pits. Children who had died were wrapped in the bark of birch and hung from tree limbs in the hope that their souls would be taken by the wind.
- Population: 4,300
- Distribution: Heilongjiang
- Language: Hezhe and Han
- Religion: Shamanism
Culture of Hezhe (赫哲族)
The Hezhe people have a rich folk heritage; epics, ballads, songs, embroidery and carving are all traditional aspects of the Hezhe culture.
History of Hezhe (赫哲族)
The Hezhe can be traced back as far as the Nuzhen people, nomadic Tartar horsemen. Nanai, Nabei and Naniao, all local names for the Hezhe, mean ‘natives’ or ‘aborigines.’ They suffered genocide under Japanese rule, when they were forced into concentration camps and opium addiction became commonplace. Numbers declined drastically until the end of the war, almost reaching extinction.
Modern Times of Hezhe (赫哲族)
After the war, numbers started to increase again; farming was encouraged the economy thrived and they even had television and other modern electricity-dependant technology. Their animal skin clothes have been replaced with leather, rubber and textile fabrics. Medicine and education are available even to those who choose to retain their traditional nomadic lifestyle.
They now take care of themselves in the Xiabacha Hezhe Autonomous Township in Fuyuan County.
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