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Romantic festival on the beach
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LIVING in areas close to the ocean, it is hardly surprising that the Jing ethnic group has developed a culture based around fishing.
With a population of 28,199, the Jing mainly live in the vicinity of Dongxing, a city that comes under the authority of Fangchenggang City in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Most of the Jing live on the Wutou, Shanxi and Wanwei islands, although some have made their homes in hamlets along the seaboard nearby.
The Jing were once called the Yue, indicating their close relationship with the Yue people who are the majority ethnic group in Vietnam.
The ancestors of the Jing migrated from Haiphong in Vietnam to China about 500 years ago. They were renamed Jing in 1958.
Jing people have their own language, which is similar to Vietnamese, and most can speak Cantonese. The Jing had a script called Zinan, that was widely used in song and religious books.
But most Jing people today use Chinese script as written language.
Living by the sea, the Jing people have made a living by fishing for generations. Today, many Jing people have developed fish and shellfish farms in coastal marshes and seafood processing.
Traditionally they believe in polytheism — especially gods related with the seas and fishery.
Staple foods include rice, maize, sweet potato and taro, with sticky rice and sweet congee favorites on festivals. Fish, shrimps, crabs and molluscs are among the common ingredients in Jing cooking. Nian zhi — a traditional fish sauce — is a common accompaniment.
Jing families usually make their home-made sauce between March and June. Straw and sand bags are placed at the bottom of a large jar as a filter. Salted small fish are layered on top.
It is then sealed, though with a small hole made at the bottom of the jar fitted with a plug and drainage pipe.
The sauce is first collected after a week, when it is thick, aromatic and orange-colored. This first batch is called tou lou zhi — virgin sauce.
After collecting the sauce, cold salt water is poured into the vessel, and sauce collected again in the following days. This is called er lou zhi — second-level sauce.
This is repeated to produce san lou zhi, third-level sauce.
Feng chui mi yi — wind blown rice cake — or air-dried rice, is another specialty of Jing cuisine. It is usually a rice cake of 40-70 centimeters in diameter. It gets its name from its delicate, crisp texture, as a gust of wind is likely to make the cake disintegrate and blow away.
After being steamed, the cake is covered with sesame and sun-dried. It is then baked over charcoal to get the crispness.
Jing men traditionally wear long, narrow-sleeved jackets reaching down to the knees, with their chests uncovered. Their trousers are usually long and loose, decorated with a band around the waists.
Women wear tight-fitting, collarless short blouses buttoned up the front, plus a diamond-shaped top apron and broad trousers. On formal occasions, they will dress up in a long, white gown with narrow sleeves.
Jing women traditionally wear cone-shape straw hats and comb their hair into pigtails which are coiled up on the head with black cloth.
While young Jing people make their own choices on dating, traditionally they still need their parents’ approval for marrying.
In the past, Jing people only married within their ethnic group, though nowadays there are more marriages to partners from other ethnic groups.
The Jing have their own traditions for expressing their love. On the Changha Festival — singing festival — young people will go to the beach at night in small groups and, beneath the moonlight, sing love songs to the object of their affections.
If a young man finds his special lady, he will kick white sand gently onto the girl, or tear up leaves into small pieces and sprinkle them on her.
If she accepts him, she will gently kick sand or sprinkle leaves on him in return.
Changha Festival is the biggest traditional festival for the Jing, though the date varies from place to place.
In Wutou and Wanwei, it is held on 10th day of the sixth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. The festival falls on the 10th day of the eighth month for people on the Shanxi island, and 25th day of the first month for those at Hongkan Village.
It is usually celebrated for three days, during which the Jing will wear traditional dress and gather at a Ha Pavilion to receive gods, offer sacrifices to their ancestors and sing songs.
There are several main roles in Changha: Ha Ge, a male singer and Ha Mei, two female singers. Ha Ge plays a plucked musical instrument and Ha Mei beat bamboo clappers to accompany the melody. They take turns to sing songs.
They is a feast in the evening, when revellers drink and enjoy singing — often romantic numbers — and dancing.
Accompanying this is the Jing fiddle, which has a single 80 centimeter-long string.
It produces graceful and pleasant sound and is a symbol of Jing culture.
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