Huaihua Daily launches a series of articles titled Blessed Huaihua, A Concise Cultural History today to trace the roots of Huaihua’s culture since the pre-Qin era.
Huaihua, a blessed land, has a long history. The diligent and ingenious people of the Five Streams have nurtured diverse cultural forms that have become an important part of China’s splendid traditional civilization. This series centers on core cultural domains, including Gaomiao culture, agrarian culture, Nuo (wizard) culture, Qu Yuan culture, dragon boat culture, academy culture, commercial culture, culinary culture, revolutionary culture and peace culture, tracing the origins of civilization while recording local customs and folk practices.
In the chapter introducing the Gaomiao culture, detailed descriptions of hallmark artifacts such as white pottery and its motifs, combined with expert analysis, clearly explain the origin of the saying “the phoenix rises at Gaomiao” and how Gaomiao culture propelled the course of Chinese civilization, affirming Huaihua’s status as an important cradle of Chinese civilization. The agrarian culture section, with the birthplace of the hybrid rice as its focal point, links rice‑farming relics at the Gaomiao site, Anjiang Agricultural School, terraced fields and other locales with regional products such as Xinhuang Dong red rice and Chenxi rice‑flower fish, portraying Huaihua’s achievements in agricultural civilization from multiple angles. The chapter on the Nuo culture concentrates on ancient shamanistic and masked ritual phenomena in Huitong and Xinhuang, with a particular focus on Nuo items listed as intangible cultural heritages, highlighting their far‑reaching influence on the spread of Chinese civilization.
The creators probe the connections between Qu Yuan culture and Huaihua, interpreting the poet’s composition of The Songs of Chu during his exile in Xupu and its contributions to Chinese poetry and world culture. The series recounts the fervor surrounding Huaihua’s dragon boat traditions, interpreting dragon boats as local people’s inheritance of the Panhu legend and a tribute to Qu Yuan’s patriotism. Tracing the history of the Book Collection at Eryu Mountain and Longxing Lecture Temple, the narrative explains the significance of Huaihua’s academy culture in spreading Huxiang culture. By assembling remnants of the Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town, the Yuanshui post road and the Beijing-Kunming ancient post road, the series restores Huaihua’s commercial prosperity as a key node on inland waterways. Relying on the Zhijiang Surrender Memorial Hall and the Xiangxi Battle sites, the series also presents Huaihua’s peace culture. Focusing on revolutionary sites such as the Tongdao Red Army Long March Transfer Memorial Hall and the former residence of Xiang Jingyu (one of the earliest female members of the CPC and a pioneer of the women’s movement of China), it carries forward the spirit of the revolution. Starting from the bamboo slips of the Han tomb in Yuanling that preserve the culinary manuscript Shifang, and linking to intangible culinary heritages, the series unveils Huaihua’s long‑standing gastronomic culture. It also reviews a millennium of song and ballad traditions, allowing readers to hear the heavenly sounds that have been passed down for generations.
The launch of the new series is based on extensive interviews, rigorous historical collation and experts’ authoritative interpretation, systematically weaving together Huaihua’s cultural threads. Rendered in a prose tone, the series paints a vivid, multifaceted picture of Huaihua, polishing Huaihua’s cultural and tourism brand and enabling more people to appreciate the unique charm of its cultural heritage.
(Translated by Yang Hong)