Hunan Culture

Hunan is not only fascinating with local culture and human landscapes, but also its colorful ethnic customs, simple folk customs, unique regional culture, such as farming, festivals, costumes, diet and daily life, weddings and funerals, architecture, language, religious beliefs, etc. constitute a rich and colorful folk customs picture for your Hunan Travel.

Ethnic Groups in Hunan

Hunan is a multi-ethnic province with 55 ethnic groups including Han, Tujia, Miao, Yao, Dong, Zhuang and Hui. Most of the ethnic minorities live in the mountainous areas of West Hunan, South Hunan and East Hunan.

Traditional Villages in Hunan

• Shujiatang Village of Alaying Town in Fenghuang County
• Tang'ao Village of Chatian Town in Fenghuang County
• Hangji Village of Hangsha Township in Baojing County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture
• Hangsha Village of Hangsha Township in Baojing County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture
• Changxin Village of Changle Town in Miluo City, Yueyang
• Xinshi Village of Xinshi Town in Miluo City, Yueyang

For more information, please refer to Traditional Villages in Hunan

Inheritors of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Hunan

For more information, please refer to Inheritors of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Hunan

Huxiang Culture

The basic spirit of Huxiang Culture is "simple and righteous", "brave and warrior culture", "humanistic pragmatism" and "self-improvement". Qu Yuan was the first to play the patriotic movement in Huxiang, then Jia Yi-a Chinese writer, poet and politician of the Western Han dynasty, best known as one of the earliest known writers of fu rhapsody and for his essay "Disquisition Finding Fault with Qin" (过秦论), which criticises the Qin dynasty and describes Jia's opinions on the reasons for its collapse. Huxiang culture contains an open spirit of learning from others and an independent innovation spirit that dares to be the first in the world. In the long-term historical development of Huxiang culture, the reason why it can become a unique regional culture lies in its open spirit of learning from others.

Hunan Dialects

Hunan dialects include Xiang dialect, southwest Mandarin dialect, Gan dialect, and Hakka dialect. In addition, there are dialects of Xiangnan dialect and rural dialects that have not yet been determined. Hunan is a region with complex dialects. In areas where ethnic minorities live in, many people can speak their own ethnic language and also can communicate in Chinese dialects.

Xiang Dialect

Xiang dialect (also known as Xiang language) is the most representative dialect of Hunan Province, including Changsha, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Hengyang, Shaoyang, Yueyang, Yiyang, Loudi, etc. From the perspective of internal differences in Xiang dialect, there are also differences between New Xiang Dialect and Old Xiang Dialect. The Old Xiang Dialect is widely popular in Central Hunan. However, the new Xiang Dialect is widely popular in Changsha, Zhuzhou and other large and medium-sized cities.

Southwest Mandarin

Southwest Mandarin is mainly popular in most of Northwest and West Hunan, Chenzhou and some towns in South Hunan. Although the South Mandarin was formed later, it has a wide influence in the northwet Hunan and west Hunan, which is second largest dialect and the the largest dialect in Hunan and Hubei.

Hunan Traditional Opera

There are 19 local operas and nearly 100 art performance groups in Hunan Province, the most influential opera is the Hunan Huagu Opera. The Huagu Opera "Cousin's Anecdote" was selected as the key funded repertoire of the 2007-2008 National Stage Art Project, achieving the breakthrough in the selection of national-level fine operas. The large-scale landscape show "Tianmen Lonely Fairy Fox-New Liu Hai Kanqiao" was successfully staged.

Hunan Cuisine

Hunan Cuisine, also known as Xiang Cuisine, consists of the cuisines of the Xiang River Region, Dongting Lake and Western Hunan Province in China. It is one of the Eight Cuisine Families of China and is well known for its hot and spicy flavours, fresh aroma and deep colors. Common cooking techniques include stewing, frying, post- roasting, braising and smoking. Due to the high agricultural output of the region, ingredients for Hunan Dishes are many and varied.

 It is difficult to list all kinds of culture in Hunan one by one. If you want to know detailed information about all kinds of culture in Hunan, you can see the introduction of culture in every place of Hunan in the following. Of course, you can contact us for more detailed information.