Han Zhanxiang
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Han Zhanxiang, Male, Salar, from Xunhuasalazuzizhi, Qinghai, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Salar Hunli (Ⅹ-57). The tradition is documented in Xunhuasalazuzizhi, Qinghai. Within the regional tradition and school record of Salar Hunli in Xunhuasalazuzizhi, Qinghai: Salar weddings are concentrated in the plain-plateau belt of Xunhua Salar Autonomous County. Although the ritual procedure varies slightly in timing between villages, the basic order is largely the same: matchmaking, sending off the matchmaker, delivering betrothal tea, delivering betrothal gifts, reciting the marriage scripture, seeing the bride off, and returning to the bride's family — each step linked to the next, the whole process taking more than half a year. Winter is the season for the main ceremony, because farming is idle, livestock are fat, and the roads are easy to travel; several families' affairs are squeezed into the same period, and the matchmakers' back-and-forth trips become the measure of the season. The congratulatory speeches and song contests at weddings each have their own modes in the Lintan and Xunhua areas; the articulation of the lyrics and the weight of the held notes differ from village to village, while the ritual skeleton remains unchanged. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, this whole set of procedures was transmitted household by household by village elders and folk artists; by the time compilers such as Han Zhanxiang had put the wedding congratulatory speeches and sung lyrics in their original form into the collections Salar Folk Stories, Salar Ballads, and Salar Proverbs, the wording that had only been in use within villages became known to outsiders. The Duiwei Aoyina preserved in Salar weddings is an ethnic dance with certain dramatic characteristics whose main content is the traditional education of the people in their migration history. It was still preserved in weddings before the 1950s, but because of social change and the shortening of the wedding period, this form of expression no longer exists, and only some elderly people still remember it.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
Male, Salar ethnicity, born in July 1942, a native of Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province. For many years he has devoted himself to collecting, excavating, collating and compiling Salar ethnic and folk culture; through extensive investigation and research he has acquired a great deal of folk-cultural knowledge and has become a folk artist and folk-custom specialist much loved by the Salar people. In the 1980s he took part in editing the three compilations Salar Folk Tales, Salar Ballads and Salar Proverbs, together with four volumes of source literary material of considerable documentary value, their purpose being to recite wedding benedictions and to sing hua'er. He is skilled at improvising and singing, and has created many works of Salar literature and art that the people enjoy. In the project to collate and safeguard traditional Salar wedding culture he has laid stress on presenting the wedding benedictions and each ritual sequence in their original flavour and on the aptness of the sung words to the wedding scenes. Within the documented technical tradition of Salar Hunli in Xunhuasalazuzizhi, Qinghai: The Salar wedding is the most important ceremonial activity in the life rituals of the Salar people. Traditional Salar wedding ceremonies are all held in the depth of winter each year. From betrothal to the holding of the wedding ceremony, one must pass through several procedures — matchmaking, sending off the matchmaker, delivering the betrothal tea, delivering the betrothal gifts, reciting the marriage scripture, seeing the bride off, and returning to the bride's family — taking somewhat more than half a year in all. Ancient Turkic wedding customs such as the presentation of the "sheep's back" are still preserved in Salar weddings to this day. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Sending the matchmaker and the betrothal tea": The first two steps: dispatching the matchmaker and delivering the betrothal tea. "Reciting the marriage-matching text": A sung text used at the moment of agreement, its wording closely fitted to the scene. "Offering the sheep on the platter": An old Turkic custom of presenting a whole sheep on the ceremonial table. "Duiwei Aoyina, the migration dance": A dance-drama about the migration history that survives only in the memory of the elderly.
Sending the matchmaker and the betrothal tea
The first two steps: dispatching the matchmaker and delivering the betrothal tea.
Reciting the marriage-matching text
A sung text used at the moment of agreement, its wording closely fitted to the scene.
Offering the sheep on the platter
An old Turkic custom of presenting a whole sheep on the ceremonial table.
Duiwei Aoyina, the migration dance
A dance-drama about the migration history that survives only in the memory of the elderly.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
National representative bearer of the Salar Wedding, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
The Duiwei Aoyina preserved in Salar weddings is an ethnic dance with certain dramatic characteristics whose main content is the traditional education of the people in their migration history. It was still preserved in weddings before the 1950s, but because of social change and the shortening of the wedding period, this form of expression no longer exists, and only some elderly people still remember it.
05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage
National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Han Zhanxiang | Xunhuasalazuzizhi, Qinghai | 04-1969 | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。