A Study On The Hezhe Traditional Culture And Sustainable Development Of The Aboriginal Cultural Tourism

The Hezhe minority is one of ' the ethnic minorities of less-population", had only about 4,640 remaining members according to the vital statistics in 2007. With a long history and unique culture, the great majority of Hezhe have inhabited in Heilongjiang Province of China for thousands of years. As the aboriginal inhabitants, they have lived and developed along the middle and lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, the drainage basins of the Songhua River and Wusuli River from generation to generation, have created the special fishing and hunting culture by diligence and wisdom while adapting themselves to both the natural and human environments. Traditionally, the Hezhen people bonded with a patrilineal clan organization, believed in Shaman religion, lived in fishing and hunting plus collecting, wore fish skin in summer and animals' skin in winter, ate meat of fish and animals and edible wild herbs, lived in Diyinzi (a simple half-underground shanty) and Majiazi (a simple shack); they took birch bark boat, canoe and sleigh as vehicle; they traded minks and other quarries for their daily necessaries. The Hezhen had its own language and very prosperous folklores and ballads, but no letter. The aboriginals, which had ever been close to the brink of extinction under Japanese invaders' brutal rule before the liberation, had a new lease of life after the founding of new China, then embarked on the road to prosperity, and have been living a prosperous life since then.Since the reform and opening up, their traditional economy of fishing and hunting has been transformed into the economy based mainly on farming and a variety of economic models co-exist; with the influence of the mainstream culture and the impact of modernization, the traditional culture has changed dramatically in different forms and degrees, and as a result, they are faced with a dual challenge of economic restructuring and cultural transformation. The aboriginal cultural tourism, which was developed by Hezhe at the end of last century, is a beneficial and positive try in the transformation. Similar to the development of tourism in other minority regions, with the social and economic progress stimulated by tourism, the Hezhe people are faced with the question how to protect the endangered traditional culture and heritage, to make it pass and progress, meanwhile to promote the sustainable development of tourism.Taking the aboriginal cultural tourism in Tongjiang, a main region of Hezhe as an example, this paper uses the theories of ethnology, cultural anthropology to exam and to analyze the traditional culture, and reveals the changes in the traditional culture in the vertical and horizontal perspectives of history. Guided by the modern ideas and concepts such as respect for 'ownership of culture', 'community involvement' and 'sustainable development', as well as with the infiltration of many interdisciplinary methods, it exams and analyses the actualities of tourism development and its impacts on the traditional culture, then theoretically reviews the issues of 'the sustainable development of aboriginal cultural tourism' and strategies, and develop a new meaning and content of them respectively, in order to explore a practical path of protection of the fine culture and heritage as well as sustainable development of the aboriginal cultural tourism.The writer firmly holds that aboriginal cultural tourism should be developed based on both the protection and development of the fine traditional culture and the sustainable development of tourism; the development of tourism could not actually be sustainable without the protection of the aboriginal culture, and in return, the sustainable development of tourism can feed the need for the protection and development of the aboriginal culture; it needs a complete of all-around practical strategies suitable to the region to maintain the protection and development of the culture and to keep the aboriginal cultural tourism sustainable as well. The integrated strategies should involve legislating the realization and protection of the minority people's ownership of the culture and benefit right of resources in aboriginal cultural tourism, establishing and implementing a mechanism of 'community involvement in tourism', and other necessary measures, with a view to realize the positive interaction of protection and development of the fine culture and the sustainable development of aboriginal cultural tourism in a virtuous circle.