Wurigong Festival of Hezhen Ethnic Group

Introduction to the Wurigong Festival

In the Hezhe language, Wurigong translates to “a day of joyous gathering” or ethnic sports gala, a newly established ethnic festival initiated in 1985. Held biennially in the fifth or sixth lunar month, the celebration lasts three full days and rotates among compact Hezhe settlements as the host venue. The festival inherits the Hezhe’s age-old fishing and hunting culture, blending traditional competitive sports with folk singing and dancing performances.

Daytime Traditional Competitive Events

Diverse folk contests unfold throughout the daytime, including open-water swimming, canoe racing, cast-net fishing, tug-of-war, straw-fish spearing, straw-target archery and crossbow shooting. Among all programs, spear-throwing at straw balls stands out as the most iconic indigenous sport, adapted from the Hezhe’s classic shallow-water fish-spearing technique for land-based competition.

The straw ball is wrapped from damp wild weeds into a football-sized sphere, with two fixed competition rules.

In the first format, competitors line up behind a starting mark and hurl a two-meter-long three-pronged wooden spear toward distant straw balls; those who pierce the target claim victory.

The second is a team-based match split into two sides: one team tosses the straw ball high into the air, while the opposing group must spear it before it hits the ground. A successful strike allows the spear team to advance 15 to 20 paces forward; a miss forces them to step back the same distance. Teams switch roles repeatedly, and the side reaching the finish line first wins the game.

Riverside Bonfire Gala at Night

As dusk falls, locals pile up bonfires along riverbanks for communal feasts and all-night folk galas. Villagers gather for shared dinners accompanied by rich wine and seasonal specialties, followed by grand singing and dancing performances. Dancers present the swan dance, shaman ritual dance and osprey dance, moving in rhythm to the booming sacred drum beats with unrestrained passion to melodious indigenous folk tunes黑龙江省文化和旅游厅.

The Hezhe boast more than ten categories of folk songs covering every facet of daily life: wedding odes, mourning ballads, ancient ritual melodies, fishing chants, hunting ditties, ceremonial tunes, love songs, lullabies, epic narratives and contemporary folk creations. Jialingkuo, soft lyrical folk ditties, remain women’s favorite vocal genre国家民族事务委员会. Elder Hezhe men are most fond of Yimakan, a distinctive talking-singing oral art comparable to northern Chinese drum storytelling. Carrying epic literary traits, this intangible cultural heritage preserves the ethnic group’s unwritten history and ancient legends黑龙江省文化和旅游厅. Under the silvery moonlight and flickering bonfire flames, every Hezhe hamlet is immersed in cheerful festivity.

Cross-regional & International Exchanges of Wurigong

On March 11, 2001, Hezhe compatriots residing in Beijing hosted the first off-site Wurigong get-together, drawing over one hundred participants of various ethnic groups across China. Though the Hezhe is a small-population minority, it nurtures numerous outstanding talents including national congress deputies, professional vocalists, dancers and local entrepreneurs.

In recent iterations of the Wurigong Festival, ethnic representatives of Russia’s Nanai people have been invited as honored guests. Elders fluent in the Hezhe language converse directly with their Nanai counterparts, exchanging folk customs and traditional skills to deepen cross-border ethnic friendship.