The phrase Hezhe ethnic group often leads readers to a single striking image: clothing made from fish skin. That image is important, but it is only one doorway into a much larger living culture. The Hezhe story also includes river travel, seasonal knowledge, oral literature, language preservation, music, communal festivals, modern education, tourism, art, and ordinary contemporary life.
This guide explains who the Hezhe are, where they live, why the rivers matter, how fish-skin craft is made, and what Yimakan storytelling preserves. It also answers common search questions about the Hezhen ethnic group, the Nanai of the Amur region, China's ethnic-group categories, and the size of the Han population.
What Is the Hezhe Ethnic Group?
The Hezhe, written 赫哲族 in Chinese and sometimes romanized as Hezhen, are an Indigenous people of the lower Heilongjiang-Amur and Ussuri river region. In China, they are recognized as one of the country's 56 ethnic groups. Official Chinese sources place their principal communities in Heilongjiang, especially around Tongjiang, Fuyuan, Raohe, and Jiamusi.
The 2020 population figure most often cited from the China Statistical Yearbook 2021 is 5,373 people in China, including 3,805 in Heilongjiang. The number is small, but population size should not be confused with cultural importance. Hezhe traditions hold a distinctive record of how communities adapted to a northern river environment and transformed fish, wood, bark, animal skin, and oral knowledge into practical and artistic forms.
| Topic | Key Point | Important Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Northeastern Heilongjiang near the Heilongjiang-Amur, Songhua, and Ussuri rivers | Hezhe people also live in cities and outside traditional settlements. |
| Population | 5,373 in China in the 2020 statistical figure | Census totals use official categories and a defined geographic scope. |
| Related people | Closely related historically and linguistically to the Nanai in Russia | The Amur basin is home to several Indigenous peoples, not only Nanai or Hezhe. |
| Language | Hezhe, generally classified within the Tungusic language family | Chinese is widely used, and Hezhe is severely endangered. |
| Signature heritage | Fishing culture, fish-skin craft, Yimakan storytelling | These traditions do not define every Hezhe person's occupation or lifestyle today. |
Where Do the Hezhe People Live?
The historic Hezhe homeland lies across the Sanjiang Plain, where the Heilongjiang, Songhua, and Ussuri river systems shape wetlands, islands, forests, floodplains, and fishing grounds. Well-known settlements include Jiejinkou and Bacha in Tongjiang and Sipai in Raohe. Hezhe communities are also associated with Aoqi near Jiamusi and villages around Fuyuan.
This environment influenced food, transport, seasonal labor, clothing, stories, and ritual memory. Rivers were not simply scenery. They were routes, food sources, calendars, and repositories of knowledge. Families learned when fish moved, where water rose, how ice changed, which boats suited particular conditions, and how to preserve a catch through a long winter.
Modern Hezhe life is far more diverse than a romantic image of isolated fishing villages. People work in public services, education, agriculture, cultural institutions, tourism, design, commerce, and many other fields. Some continue to fish; others engage with river heritage through festivals, museums, craft workshops, research, or family memory. A responsible description should show continuity without pretending that a community has remained frozen in the past.
Hezhe, Hezhen, and Nanai: What Do the Names Mean?
Hezhe is the standard English spelling based on modern Mandarin pinyin. Hezhen appears in older English-language writing, search results, and alternative transliterations. Both usually refer to the same officially recognized ethnic group in China.
Historical self-designations varied by locality. Chinese ethnographic sources record forms such as Nanai, Nabei, and Nanio, with elements interpreted as referring to local people or people of the land. The name Hezhe developed from older forms written with different Chinese characters and spellings. This variation reflects a wide river region in which communities did not always use one uniform label.
Across the border in the Russian Far East, the closely related people are generally called Nanai. Scholars often discuss the Nanai and Hezhe together because of shared linguistic, historical, and material-cultural connections. It is still better to use the names people and institutions use in their present national and community contexts rather than treating every Lower Amur group as interchangeable.
Historical Background of the Hezhe People
Hezhe history belongs to the larger history of the peoples of northeast Asia. Chinese historical narratives connect their ancestors with populations described in different periods as Sushen, Yilou, Wuji, Mohe, and Jurchen. These labels came from changing states and historical records; they should not be read as a simple unbroken list of identical modern ethnic groups.
By the Ming and Qing periods, communities in the lower Songhua, Heilongjiang, and Ussuri regions were increasingly distinguished from other Jurchen-related groups. The modern Hezhe identity formed through long processes of movement, intermarriage, political administration, trade, conflict, and local identification. Official historical accounts note that the term Hezhe was recorded during the Kangxi reign and became more widely known through twentieth-century ethnography.
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought severe disruption. New borders divided related river communities between China and Russia. Warfare, disease, forced movement, exploitation, and political upheaval caused devastating population losses. Chinese sources report that only a little more than 300 Hezhe people remained in China around the end of the Second World War. Later census figures show demographic recovery, but memories of near disappearance remain part of modern cultural preservation efforts.
History is therefore not only a tale of an ancient "fish-skin tribe." It is also a story of resilience, border change, rebuilding, education, and people deciding how to carry inherited knowledge into new social conditions.
Hezhe Language and Cultural Transmission
The Hezhe language is generally classified in the Tungusic branch of the broader Tungusic or Manchu-Tungusic language family. Older Chinese references sometimes place it in a Manchu branch, while contemporary linguistic classifications may describe a Nanai-related subgroup. These differences are scholarly classification choices, not evidence that the community lacks its own identity.
Hezhe historically had no widely used traditional writing system of its own. Knowledge passed through speech, performance, apprenticeship, and daily practice. Chinese is now the dominant language for most Hezhe people, and fluent speakers of Hezhe are few. This makes recordings, dictionaries, school programs, community teaching, and the participation of younger speakers especially important.
Language preservation is closely tied to cultural context. A word for a fishing tool, river condition, kinship role, or performance formula carries knowledge that a direct translation may not fully preserve. Revitalization is therefore not only about memorizing vocabulary. It also involves restoring occasions in which the language is meaningful and heard.
Fishing, Food, Boats, and Seasonal Knowledge
Fishing was historically central to Hezhe subsistence. Rivers supplied salmon, sturgeon, carp, pike, and other cold-water fish. Fish could be eaten fresh, dried, frozen, smoked, or preserved, while skins and other parts were used whenever practical. Nets, hooks, spears, traps, boats, and knowledge of currents formed an interconnected technical system.
Popular descriptions often mention raw-fish dishes. Such foods belong to particular preparation traditions, not a single everyday rule for all Hezhe people. Modern food-safety guidance still matters: raw freshwater fish can carry parasites, and historical custom should not be treated as medical permission to eat unsafe fish. Contemporary Hezhe diets are varied and share much with broader northeastern Chinese cuisine.
The deeper lesson is efficient adaptation. A large fish could provide food, skin, and useful material. Boats allowed movement through wetlands and channels. Seasonal observation reduced risk. This practical intelligence is one reason fish remains such a strong cultural image even when daily occupations change.
How Is Hezhe Fish-Skin Craft Made?
Hezhe fish-skin craft transforms the skin of large northern fish into a flexible material for clothing, footwear, bags, ornaments, and pictures. The technique is labor intensive. Fish are skinned carefully so that useful panels remain intact. The skins are cleaned, dried away from harsh sun, softened, pressed, cut, joined, and decorated.
Traditional softening could involve repeated working with a toothed wooden tool and cornmeal, which helped remove oil and loosen scales. Large garments required many skins selected and joined according to thickness, direction, color, and natural scale pattern. Makers then used stitching, edging, applique, dye, or embroidered motifs to create both strength and visual rhythm.
| Stage | Purpose | Skill Involved |
|---|---|---|
| Skinning | Remove broad panels without unnecessary tears | Working around fins, belly, and natural weak points |
| Cleaning and drying | Reduce moisture, odor, and decay | Controlling time, ventilation, and exposure |
| Softening | Make rigid skin flexible enough to fold and sew | Repeated manual working, often with a specialized wooden tool |
| Cutting and matching | Build larger surfaces from many skins | Reading thickness, grain, color, and scale direction |
| Sewing and decoration | Create a durable garment or artwork | Fine joining, applique, edging, pattern placement, and finishing |
Hezhe fish-skin making was included in China's first national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006. Today, inheritors create museum reconstructions, contemporary garments, relief pictures, jewelry-like ornaments, and cultural souvenirs. Innovation can help the craft remain economically and socially visible, but good interpretation should identify the maker, distinguish traditional technique from modern adaptation, and avoid presenting cultural objects as anonymous "tribal" decoration.
What Is Hezhe Yimakan Storytelling?
Yimakan is a major Hezhe oral storytelling tradition. A performer narrates long stories through alternating spoken and sung passages, traditionally without instrumental accompaniment. Stories may follow heroic figures often called mergen, tracing journeys, conflicts, family relations, alliances, and the restoration of social order.
Yimakan is sometimes called an epic tradition, but performance matters as much as plot. The teller shapes rhythm, voice, formulaic expression, character, and audience attention. A performance can carry language, genealogy, moral ideas, historical memory, place names, and an understanding of the river landscape.
China listed Hezhe Yimakan as national intangible cultural heritage in 2006. UNESCO placed it on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2011 because of the very small number of proficient bearers and the endangered language environment. In 2025, UNESCO transferred the element to the Representative List after reviewing safeguarding progress; the related safeguarding approach was also recognized among good safeguarding practices. The change did not mean preservation work was finished. It reflected years of documentation, transmission, training, and community participation.
Urigong, Community Performance, and Hezhe Life Today
Urigong, also written Urgun or Wurigong in English sources, is a prominent Hezhe cultural gathering. It brings together singing, dancing, storytelling, craft display, sports, food, and community exchange. Public festivals give people a place to perform identity and teach visitors, but they are not the whole of culture. Family memory, language use, fishing knowledge, school programs, village workshops, and daily choices are equally important.
Contemporary Hezhe artists and inheritors increasingly use exhibitions, short video, product design, school classes, and cross-border exchanges. Fish-skin pictures may depict historical scenes or modern subjects. Young people can learn a craft from elders while also applying design education and new tools. Such work is not automatically less authentic because it is contemporary. Living heritage has always changed; the key questions are who controls the change, whether knowledge is transmitted, and whether makers receive recognition.
How to Learn About Hezhe Culture Respectfully
- Use Hezhe for the officially recognized group in China and Nanai when discussing the related people in Russia, unless a source explains another community preference.
- Do not assume every person follows the same occupation, religion, clothing style, or language practice.
- Describe fish-skin garments as skilled material culture, not as a curiosity.
- Credit named artists, performers, inheritors, museums, and communities whenever possible.
- Separate documented history from romantic claims about an unchanged ancient tribe.
- Treat cultural continuity and modern life as compatible, not as opposites.
River and Fish Motifs Inspired by the Hezhe Story
These products are not presented as Hezhe artifacts or reproductions of Hezhe heritage. They are contemporary Chinese accessories selected only because their fish and water imagery connects gently with the river theme of this article. All three are different from the products used in the earlier recommendations checked for this series.
Fish Jump Hollow Pendant
An openwork silver fish captures movement and water in a compact form, making it an understated choice for readers drawn to river imagery.
View Fish Pendant
Fish and Lotus Pod Bracelet
The paired aquatic motifs create a calm nature theme while keeping the piece suitable for everyday wear.
View Fish Bracelet
Handcrafted Goldfish Tassel Earrings
Goldfish, pearl details, and long tassels turn an aquatic subject into a more expressive New Chinese style accessory.
View Goldfish EarringsFrequently Asked Questions
What is the Hezhe ethnic group?
The Hezhe are one of China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups. Their historic communities are concentrated in Heilongjiang near the Heilongjiang-Amur, Songhua, and Ussuri rivers. They are known for fishing traditions, fish-skin craft, and Yimakan oral storytelling, while modern Hezhe livelihoods are diverse.
Is Hezhen the same as Hezhe?
Usually, yes. Hezhe is the standard Mandarin-pinyin spelling used today, while Hezhen is an older or alternative romanization that still appears in English searches and publications.
Are the Hezhe and Nanai the same people?
They are closely related historically, culturally, and linguistically. Hezhe is the official name used in China, while Nanai is generally used for the related Indigenous people in the Russian Far East. Present national histories and community identities should still be respected.
What are people from the Amur region called?
There is no single ethnic name for everyone from the Amur region. The basin includes Russians, Chinese, and Indigenous peoples such as the Nanai, Hezhe, Ulchi, Nivkh, Udege, Oroch, and others. Nanai is appropriate for a specific people, not a universal demonym for all Amur residents.
What are the ethnic group categories in China?
China officially recognizes 56 ethnic groups: the Han majority and 55 minority ethnic groups. These are state census and administrative categories. Individual communities may also have local identities, languages, and subgroup names that are more detailed than the national list.
What are the six ethnic groups?
There is no standard list of only six ethnic groups in China. China officially recognizes 56. A reference to "six ethnic groups" usually belongs to a particular country, region, textbook, survey, or historical classification and needs that context before it can be answered accurately.
What are the top three ethnic groups in China by population?
Using 2020 census-related totals, the three largest recognized groups are Han, Zhuang, and Uyghur. If the question means minority groups only, the three largest are Zhuang, Uyghur, and Hui.
Are 90% of Chinese people Han?
Approximately. China's Seventh National Population Census reported 1.28631 billion Han people, or 91.11% of the population in its mainland census scope, and 8.89% belonging to minority ethnic groups.
What is the smallest ethnic group in China?
The answer depends on scope. In the mainland 2020 census table, the enumerated Gaoshan population was 3,479, followed by Tatar at 3,544 and Lhoba at 4,237. Many general descriptions call the Lhoba one of China's smallest groups because the broader Gaoshan population is associated with Taiwan and census coverage differs. The Hezhe figure was 5,373.
Are Naxi people Tibetan?
No. The Naxi are a separate officially recognized ethnic group in China, concentrated mainly in Yunnan and Sichuan. Naxi and Tibetan communities have long interacted, and their languages are discussed within the wider Sino-Tibetan linguistic field, but the Naxi are not classified as Tibetan.
Which country has the most ethnic groups?
There is no universally accepted winner because countries and researchers define, combine, and count ethnic groups differently. Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are often described as exceptionally diverse, but language counts, self-identification, census categories, and legal recognition do not produce one directly comparable global ranking.
Is Hezhe fish-skin craft still practiced?
Yes. The craft is taught and demonstrated by recognized inheritors and community workshops. Contemporary makers produce reconstructed clothing, fish-skin pictures, ornaments, and modern designs while documenting older processes.
What is Yimakan?
Yimakan is a Hezhe oral narrative tradition performed through alternating speech and song, usually without instruments. It preserves language, heroic stories, social memory, and knowledge of place.
Conclusion
The Hezhe ethnic group cannot be reduced to one craft, one costume, or one historical label. Their culture developed through a deep relationship with the rivers of northeast Asia, but it also survived borders, demographic crisis, language shift, and rapid economic change.
Fish-skin making shows how practical knowledge can become art. Yimakan shows how a voice can carry history without a written book. Modern festivals, classrooms, workshops, and cross-border exchanges show that heritage remains alive when people have the authority and opportunity to reinterpret it. Learning the names, contexts, and distinctions carefully is the best beginning for understanding the Hezhe as a contemporary people rather than an image from the past.
References
- National Ethnic Affairs Commission of China: Overview of the Hezhe Ethnic Group
- National Ethnic Affairs Commission of China: Historical Development of the Hezhe People
- National Ethnic Affairs Commission of China: Hezhe Customs
- China Intangible Cultural Heritage: Hezhe Fish-Skin Making Technique
- UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage: Hezhen Yimakan Storytelling
- National Bureau of Statistics of China: Main Data of the Seventh National Population Census
- Heilongjiang Provincial Government: Hezhe Ethnic Group Profile and 2020 Population
- National Ethnic Affairs Commission of China: Overview of the Naxi Ethnic Group
- Heritage: Dye Plants Used by Indigenous Peoples of the Amur River Basin on Fish-Skin Artefacts
- Baijiahao: Hezhe Fish-Skin Craft, From Ancient Community to Contemporary Cultural Transmission (image source)
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