Xie Yongliang: inheritor of the Hezhe fish-skin art

鱼皮柔共兽皮夸，五色相辉映日华。裁做衣裳为袜线，天留文锦与渔家。

The fish skin is as soft as the animal skin. Its five colors reflect those of the sunlight. People use it to make clothes and socks. It’s the brocade bestowed on fishermen.

我叫解永亮，赫哲族，

I’m Xie Yongliang, a member of the Hezhe ethnic group.

我是黑龙江省省级非物质文化遗产代表性项目，赫哲族传统服饰省级代表性传承人，

I’m a provincial-level representative inheritor of the traditional costume of the Hezhe ethnic group, a provincial-level representative project of intangible cultural heritage of Heilongjiang Province.

同时我也是佳木斯市市级非物质文化遗产代表性项目赫哲族鱼皮贴画技艺代表性传承人。

I’m also a representative inheritor of the Hezhe fish-skin art, a city-level representative project of intangible cultural heritage of Jiamusi City.

赫哲族是我国人口较少的少数民族之一，

Hezhe is one of the smallest ethnic groups in China.

平时就生活在东北三江平原上，

We live on the Sanjiang Plain in northeast China.

我的家乡就是在黑龙江沿岸的佳木斯郊区敖其湾。

My hometown is Aoqi Town in Jiamusi City along the Heilongjiang River.

我们这个民族以前是以渔猎为生的民族，

Previously we were an ethnic group that lived on fishing and hunting,

赫哲族的这个鱼皮艺术其实也是我们人类一项生存艺术，

so the Hezhe fish-skin art is actually an art of human survival.

其实也可以作为写在鱼皮上的一个史书。

It can also be regarded as history written on fish-skin.

饮食方面我们最早的祖先就在食用这个鱼，

In terms of food, the diet of our earliest ancestors included fish already.

我们叫杀生鱼、刨花鱼、炒鱼毛。

Our special dishes include sliced raw fish, pared fish fillet, and fried shredded fish.

我们用鱼皮来制作服饰，

We use fish skin to make clothes and accessories.

一套鱼皮衣，可能需要用到一百多张、甚至到200张鱼皮拼接而成，

A set of fish-skin costume is made with one hundred to two hundred sheets of fish skin,

鱼皮上面打鱼骨这种扣。

and on the fish skin, we sew buttons made from fishbones.

现在在我们国家的56个民族当中。

Among the 56 ethnic groups in our country,

也只有我们赫哲族在用鱼皮来制作民族服饰。

we’re the only one that make ethnic costumes with fish skin.

我们的赫哲族的鱼皮画，最早就称为无纸剪纸，

The Hezhe fish-skin art was initially called “paper-cut without paper”

制作工艺就类似于剪纸最早的剪纸。

Its technique was similar to that of the original paper-cutting.

后来我们从这个镂刻的鱼皮画到平贴的鱼皮画，

Later we extended from fish-skin-cutting artworks to fish-skin-pasting artworks.

从平贴又到浮雕的鱼皮画，从浮雕又到手绣工艺的，

Next we turned to the embossed fish-skin artworks, and then the embroidered fish-skin artworks.

鱼皮画的发展经历了很长的一个转变的一个过程。

The fish-skin art has undergone a long process of development and transformation.

鱼皮画现在作为旅游纪念品也好，和作为这个文化产品也好，

Now fish-skin artworks serve as tourist souvenirs and cultural products.

说它内在的就是为了表达我们对生活上的一种期盼，

But inherently, the fish-skin art represents our expectation for life

一种对吉祥平安的一种向往。

and a yearning for auspiciousness and safety.

[ Editor: SRQ ]