Tu Hunli
01 · Historical Records
The ceremonial sequence of the Tu wedding proceeds step by step from matchmaking, betrothal, and the discussion of gifts through to the wedding ceremony itself. Among these, the discussion of gifts is the first occasion on which the two families sit together to settle the betrothal presents and the ritual procedure; all subsequent arrangements are based on it. The men who go to fetch the bride are locally called nashijin, and they must be chosen from those who can sing and dance, are eloquent, and know the customary rules; once selected, they take on the task of negotiating through song contests all the way on the road for the groom's family. The formation of these wedding customs is related to the semi-agricultural, semi-pastoral production pattern of the Huzhu area: on the day of fetching the bride, the strong laborers needed for farming and herding must be gathered together for a single ceremony, so the entire ritual sequence is usually completed within one day, running from the afternoon welcoming of the bride until late at night. The Tu, Tibetan, and Han cultures have long interacted in this region, so the costumes, forms of address, songs, and dances at weddings present a mixed appearance, a direct reflection of the multi-ethnic settlement pattern in wedding customs.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Tu wedding customs circulating in the Huzhu Tu area have a long history. The Tu wedding customs were gradually formed and developed by the Tu people through their struggle with nature and long practice of production and daily life; they are completed through singing and dancing, and are the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Tu working people. The wedding customs are divided into several steps: the first is matchmaking, the second betrothal, the third the discussion of gifts, and the fourth the wedding ceremony. The day before the wedding is the day the bride leaves her family; the bride's side must feast relatives and friends, while the groom's side that afternoon sends two nashijin (that is, the men who fetch the bride) who can sing and dance and are eloquent, bringing the betrothal gifts and the clothing and jewelry the bride will wear, and leading a white ewe (a symbol of purity and wealth) to the bride's home to fetch her. At this point the bride's family deliberately refuses to open the door for the nashijin, and the agu (young women) sing melodious hua'er songs, asking the nashijin to respond in song; they also splash water on the nashijin from above the door as a sign of good fortune. Only when the young women have no more songs to answer with, or when the groom's party runs out of replies, does the bride's family finally open the door and invite the nashijin into the house. The groom then presents a hada to his parents-in-law and worships the deities and the Buddha; when the rites are finished, they sit on the kang to drink tea and eat. At this moment the young women crowd at the window singing wedding songs, the atmosphere warm and joyful; immediately after, they rush into the room and pull the groom's party out to the courtyard or the threshing ground to dance the anzhao dance. The whole wedding continues until late at night; the kinds of song and dance involved number nearly twenty, and a single Tu wedding is a magnificent song-and-dance festival. The Huzhu Tu wedding has the characteristic of accommodating Tu, Tibetan, and Han cultures.
The matchmakers' song contest at the gate
On the afternoon before the wedding two na-shijin arrive with betrothal gifts, the bride's clothes and a white ewe.
The closed door and the splash of water
The bride's family keeps the door shut, answers with flower songs and splashes water from above.
Offering the khata and worship
The groom offers a khata to the parents, worships, then tea and a meal are served indoors.
Wedding songs at the window
Girls crowd at the window and sing wedding songs in succession, heating up the night.
Dancing the Anzhao in the courtyard
The dancers pull the wedding party out to the courtyard or threshing floor to dance the Anzhao.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The transmission of the Tu wedding relies on the river-valley and plain-plateau areas within the county. Families holding a wedding must invite well-singing women of the agu generation from their own or neighboring villages to help; when a song contest cannot be kept up, helpers must be borrowed temporarily from outside villages to rescue the situation, so marriages between villages often exchange helpers. The vocal styles and dance steps differ from place to place: the melodies, drumbeats, and bodily movements of the anzhao dance in river-valley, plain, and mountain villages each have their own emphases, so beneath the same ritual sequence multiple ways of singing coexist. In recent years the county cultural center has transmitted the customs by holding Tu wedding ceremony performances and presiding over weddings; the representative inheritor Dong Siming leads young juniors in learning the whole ritual sequence and the wedding songs, turning a wedding from a private matter of one household into a public activity the whole village can watch and learn. Although the wedding song repertoire differs from place to place, the scale of a single performance is considerable: the common sung pieces alone number nearly twenty, and strung together they form a whole night of song-and-dance festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The content and melodies of the Tu wedding songs are beautiful and rich in meaning, encompassing astronomy, geography, history, religion, mythology, and life rituals, with a strong cultural color; they are the most prominent form of expression of traditional Tu culture, embodying the Tu people's spirit, beliefs, and values, touching every aspect of Tu clothing, food, housing, and transport, and possessing strong local and unique ethnic characteristics. They are an important carrier of Tu folk literature and folk art, and are of important academic value for the study of Tu culture, history, and folk customs. Dong Siming (record of the associated inheritor's official file): Male, Tu ethnicity, born in September 1963, from Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province. Influenced by his environment and family, he could sing and dance from childhood and enjoyed studying the procedures of the Tu wedding ceremony and the folkloric knowledge related to Tu weddings. In recent years he has taught young juniors about Tu wedding customs and the essence of the ethnic culture behind them by holding Tu wedding ceremony performances and presiding over Tu weddings. He is a representative inheritor of the Tu wedding, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the fourth batch. Through family transmission, he became a second-generation inheritor of the Tu wedding.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Dong Siming 04-1968
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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