The traditional culture of Xinghua city, a county level city of Taizhou city, East China's Jiangsu province, can be dated back to the culture of Chu-Han, an interregnum between the Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (206 BC-220) dynasties.
Xinghua belongs to the Jianghuai dialect area. In the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a large number of immigrants from Suzhou city, now in Jiangsu province, moved into the area, bringing to the Xinghua dialect some Wu dialect – the dialect of Suzhou.
Xinghua's food belongs to Weiyang Cuisine – a traditional Chinese cuisine originating from Yangzhou city and Huai'an city, with stewing, braising, steaming, burning and frying as its specialties. The local delicacies include fried sliced snakehead fish, wine-preserved crab, stewed chicken, fried mandarin fish in vinegar and crab dumplings in soup.
A mouthwatering plate of crabs is ready to eat in Xinghua city. [Photo provided to etaizhou.gov.cn]
Xinghua has gradually formed the characteristic culture of a water town during its long history, with its rich intangible cultural heritage.
The lively folk music of the Maoshan area is performed on a stage. [Photo/WeChat ID: tztour]
In the early days of the liberation, the folk music from the Maoshan area was performed in the Zhongnanhai government compound – the leadership compound in Beijing – and the local Ge Shang Duan music, sung by people when transplanting rice seedlings, was selected for inclusion in music textbooks.
Folk artists have been handing down their art from generation to generation. Folk handicrafts such as dough figurines from the Daying area, bamboo mud boats and wheat straw weaving are still thriving.
Traditional cultural customs such as temple fairs have new meaning with the changes of time and traditional cultural activities and events such as lake boating, stilt-walking, Lianxiang dances and dragon dances are constantly incorporating new era elements.