January 21, the nineteenth day of the lunar month. Although it is still more than a week before the Chinese New Year's Eve, Xie Yanjia, a Xibe villager in mengjiatai community in Xinglongtai Street, Shenbei New District, Shenyang, has already hosted a welcome family banquet. From the early morning, Xie Yan, dressed in the traditional costumes of the Xibe people, and his relatives and friends were busy, washing vegetables, making noodles, and cleaning.
Two large iron pots were set up in the courtyard, and the bright red pork belly churned in the pot, and the aroma spread in the courtyard. "When cooked, the meat is used to make button meat, and the ribs can be stewed with sauerkraut, which is our traditional cuisine. We have a total of 13 dishes today!" Xie Yan enthusiastically introduced.
Xibe villagers stew meat in the courtyard. People's Daily Photo by Li Jinyuan
Shenyang Shenbei New Area is the largest Xibe ethnic settlement in China, with 3 Xibe settlement streets, 27 concentrated communities, and a Xibe population of nearly 30,000 people in the whole district.
In recent years, Shenbei New Area has attached great importance to the cultural resources of the Xibe ethnic group, strengthened the construction of cultural facilities, and built cultural facilities such as the Xibe Ancestral Archway, the Xinglongtai Xibe Nationality School, and the China Xibe Museum, and at the same time held a series of ethnic festivals such as the "Qigalaha" competition, the Xibe traditional archery competition, and the smear festival. Through the protection, inheritance and in-depth excavation of the Xibe intangible cultural heritage, it not only protects the folk culture with Xibe characteristics, but also promotes the integration of culture and tourism and promotes the development of local tourism.
"The people take food as the sky, and the Xibe people are a people who attach great importance to food." Talking about the food of the Xibe people, Fu Yonglin, a researcher at the Shenbei New Area Cultural Tourism Center, said: "Every festive season, in the xibe reunion banquet, six plates and six bowls, xibe flatbread, fried pumpkin noodles, crispy white meat, xibe cauliflower, spicy cans, thousand seeds, stuffy seeds and other special traditional cuisines are indispensable. "Rich and diverse traditional cuisines are brought to the table, and diverse national traditional cultures are inherited and developed in different forms of expression.
Xibe villagers make noodles. Photo by Tang Jianing
Young people are busy in the kitchen, while the elderly and children play on the kang, which is a special cultural activity of the Xibe ethnic group with a history of more than 300 years. "Galaha" is the kneecap of the sheep, and when "Galaha" is prepared, a metal ball is prepared, and the metal ball is called "dock". Everyone sat together, put many "Galaha" in the middle, and then threw the "dock" up, quickly grabbed the "Galaha" and caught the "dock", whoever grabbed the "Galaha" more, who won, which means to catch the good luck of the New Year. It is understood that Xinglongtai Street has also established a Galaha teaching base, and every year around the Spring Festival, a Galaha competition will be held.
In addition to playing Galaha, the Xibe people will also write Spring Festival, paper cutting, dumplings during the New Year, on the basis of traditional activities, there are more Xibe folk activities, such as archery competitions, wrestling competitions, Xibe songs, etc., so that the Xibe intangible cultural heritage can continue and develop.
As of 2019, Shenbei New Area has successfully applied for 52 "intangible cultural heritage" projects at or above the municipal level, of which 43 are Xibe cultural projects, accounting for 82.7%.
Fu Yonglin said that in the next step, Shenbei New Area will continue to excavate and sort out the history, folklore and culture of the Xibe ethnic group, closely integrate the culture and tourism of the Xibe ethnic group, and make the large-scale activities of the Xibe ethnic group such as the smear festival a well-known national cultural brand in the country, and promote the accelerated development of the Xibe cultural industry in the whole region.