Tour introduces Xi’an to ethnic Mongolian culture
With strings of coral beads, silver plates patterned with flowers and embroidery kits scattered on the table, Bato Checheg demonstrates the art of making traditional Mongolian ethnic headwear, a skill she learned from her mother about 25 years ago.
Despite the crowds surrounding her, she cannot help murmuring a Mongolian folk song from her hometown, Ordos Otog Banner, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Titled Riding
Home, the song depicts the way Mongolian ethnic people welcome guests to their home on the grasslands.
“I sing the song when I work on the headwear. It’s an old habit,” says the 54-year-old Bato Checheg, in her blue and red traditional Mongolian robe.
The whole set of the headwear weighs more than ten kilograms.
“I learned the patterns and embroidery techniques from my mother and my mother learned these from her mother. It’s our family knowledge of culture,” she adds.
Bato Checheg has been recognized as an intangible cultural heritage inheritor and her craft was added to the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Inner Mongolia autonomous region in 2007.
Along with the five other intangible cultural inheritors from Ordos city, she traveled to Xi’an recently to showcase her skills and conduct workshops with students from primary and middle schools around Xi’an.
As part of the ongoing Ordos Culture Nationwide Tour 2018 Xi’an Week, which takes place in the Shaanxi provincial capital until June 3, the intangible cultural heritage event will include inheritors showcasing their skills in silver bowl making, horsewhip making and wood carving.
Ordos Cultural Week, first launched in 2016 by the Ordos government, has toured Shenzhen in southern China’s Guangdong province and Shanghai, according to Su Cuifang, head of the Publicity Department of Ordos.
“It’s a rare opportunity for people living in urban areas to see Mongolian culture,” Su says. “We bring a series of events, like workshops, live concerts, performances and exhibitions that offer the audience a glimpse of the unique Mongolian ethnic culture.”
During the Ordos Cultural Week in Xi’an, an exhibition titled Eternal Divine Oil Lamp Lighting for Eight Hundred Years — The Ordos Mongolian History and Culture of Genghis Khan, will be held at the Xi’an Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts.
According to Dou Zhibin, director of the Ordos Museum, which is holding the exhibition, 168 items from the 13th century are on display, showing the essence of Mongolian culture in Ordos left by Genghis Khan.
Dou says that the Mongolians living in Ordos pass their unique culture from generation to generation, including the worship of Genghis Khan.
He also notes that Ordos is where Mongolian traditional etiquette is best preserved.
Festivities for the cultural week kicked off with a concert performance by the Uxin Matouqin Symphony Orchestra from Uxin Banner at Xi’an Concert Hall under the baton of conductor Chagan — who is a renowned composer from Ordos.
Formed in 2010, the orchestra is the only symphony orchestra in China which features morin khuur (horse-head fiddle) players and vocal performers who use the traditional khoomei (throat-singing) technique.
Clad in long colorful robes and leather boots, the Mongolian musicians performed 11 repertories including Shan Dan Dan Hua Kai Hong Yan Yan (Red Morningstar Lilies are in Blossom), a rearrangement — based on the well-known folk song with the same title from Northwest China — by Chagan for the morin khuur to showcase the versatility of the instrument.
I learned the patterns and embroidery techniques from my mother and my mother learned these from her mother.
Bato Checheg, an intangible cultural heritage inheritor
According to Chagan, who is now based in Beijing and has composed music for more than 40 films and TV series, since he became the conductor of the orchestra in 2010 he has found the job challenging, as the morin
khuur has never before been used as a main instrument for a symphony orchestra.
“The morin khuur is magical, with a profound history which deserves to be known by more people. Though it has just two strings, it can produce a wide range of sounds,” explains Chagan, adding that more than 10,000 people from Uxin Banner’s 130,000 residents play the morin khuur, which has helped in maintaining the instrument’s popularity among the younger generation.
In 2014, the orchestra made its debut at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and in the same year, it performed more than 20 shows across Inner Mongolia.
In March, the orchestra was in Nice as part of the 2018 China-EU Tourism Year and for the Happy Chinese New Year events organized by China’s Ministry of Culture.
Ordos Culture on Nationwide Tour 2018 also staged an original dance drama production, titled Senjidema, by the Ordos Folk Singing and Dancing Troupe, on May 29 at the Shaanxi Opera House, while the Ordos Folk Singing and Dancing Troupe held a gala at the same venue, featuring traditional Mongolian dance and music, the following evening.