Riding on the "winter" wind, ethnic minority youth are in dialogue with the world

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Liu Shangjun Han Yu

At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, there was a scene in which children of 56 nationalities entered the stadium holding national flags. Gao Xiang, a Qiang teenager who was only 9 years old at the time, felt that this face was "very shocking", but he certainly did not expect that 14 years later, in 2022, he also stood on the stage of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The flag-raising ceremony at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics was not performed, but it was called "the most direct performance" by netizens. In particular, when the melodious melody of "My Motherland and Me" sounded, the youth representatives of 56 nationalities and role models from all walks of life stood in two rows in the center of the stage, passing on the national flag to the direction of the flag-raising platform.

Among them, the students from the ethnic minorities of the Central University for Nationalities wore national costumes and hugged everyone tightly like pomegranate seeds to guard the five-star red flag.

"I must hold it up and show the image of China to the world." The national flag was passed in the hands of Li Runhuan, passed to the hands of the Mongolian brothers around him, and the hands of the Korean sisters, "the process of passing step by step is like a kind of inheritance, emotional relay." ”

"It is our responsibility to carry forward the traditional culture of the Chinese nation." Su Chen of the Dong ethnic group put on the festive costume of his hometown, "We advocate dark clothes, the Dong people have the habit of dyeing and weaving cloth, and traditional clothes will be dyed black and purple with natural pigments." I wore brown, and the silver jewelry I wore reflected the elements of auspicious clouds, birds and beasts, and rice that embodied farming culture. ”

Xiao Ran put the aquatic "intangible cultural heritage" on his body. This costume is made by traditional craftsmen from Sandu Shui Autonomous County, Guizhou, and embroidered with the embroidery of the national intangible cultural heritage Aqua horsetail. In the background, Xiao Ran became the spokesperson of aquarium culture, "As long as everyone is interested, I will go wherever I go and introduce it." ”

Among the representatives of these ethnic minorities, some ethnic groups with small populations, such as the Evenk and Nu ethnic groups, have achieved poverty alleviation in the hometowns of some of their classmates and have undergone earth-shaking changes.

Feng Junyi, a Nu girl who came out of the Grand Canyon of the Nu River in Yunnan, is a graduate student at the Central University for Nationalities. Her hometown of Gong County, Yunnan, is a gathering area of ethnic minorities, "Nu, Dulong, Lisu ... Living under the same roof," she said, she said she grew up in an atmosphere of national unity.

In her freshman year, Feng Junyi participated in the University Student Innovation Project, a national project on the inheritance and innovation of national handicrafts. She returned to her hometown and took root for a month in a Nu village called Chala Village in Gongshan County, where she lived in the home of the inheritor of the Nu carpet technique.

During the day, the villagers go out to farm, and she helps with the housework. In the evening, she spoke the unskilled Nu ancient language, doing interviews door to door, "this is also the first time to really go deep into the Nu tribe", Feng Junyi used the winter and summer vacation time to do three surveys, trace the historical changes of the Nu carpet, record its production process, and finally completed the study of "The Cultural Connotation of the Nu Fur Blanket from the Perspective of Cultural Ecology".

Today, all 28 ethnic groups with small populations have been lifted out of poverty. The Dulong Clan is the most representative one. "My hometown has changed a lot." Feng Junyi said that the Dulongjiang Tunnel through the high-altitude snow mountain is the best example, "before driving to the mountain road, nine curves and eighteen bends, really like riding a roller coaster", now the Dulong Highway is the "most beautiful highway" in Feng Junyi's eyes, "the scenery along the way has primitive forests, babbling water, the style of the original village, and the road is repaired to drive the development of the tourism industry in the hometown." ”

Close to Wenchuan, Gao Xiang's home, Mao County in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, was hit hard in the earthquake, due to the destruction of a large number of traditional Qiang buildings, coupled with the closure of the mountains, Gao Xiang recalled that the Qiang culture at that time was facing a great crisis. However, in recent years, the state has helped The deeply impoverished areas of Sichuan and the post-earthquake areas have been built, and national culture has grown new opportunities on the collapsed land.

"Traditional festivals such as the Qiang New Year and the Var-O-Foot Festival (Qiang Women's Day) have not only been preserved and passed down, but the county has also organized many public welfare activities to teach everyone the skills of the Qiang people for free." Gao Xiang said that it is precisely because of the strength of the country that he is fortunate to have become today's self.

As a small screw, The Evenk Dai zhuola used the stage of the Winter Olympics to have a connected dialogue with the world, "ethnic minority culture is not an empty symbol, it is like the Evenk costume I wear, integrated into life, can also be seen by the world", as a freshman in ethnology and sociology, Dai Zhuola looks forward to using what he has learned professionally, inheriting minority culture, and telling the story of cultural self-confidence. Feng Junyi, who is about to graduate, plans to return to her hometown to work, "The first step, I want to first learn the national language and script of the Nu people. ”

Source: China Youth Daily client