Recently, in Zhan Jia Village, Jiujian Lou Township, Wusu City, Tacheng District, Xinjiang, the last "Viesk" (Kazakh, meaning small shaker) has become a tourism "net red". What is the magic of a small shaker that attracts audiences from all over the world?
Two years ago, after months of family debate, villager Gu Lati donated a small shaker that has been passed down for three generations to the folk museum of jiujian Louxiang Farming Culture Park. "Now that life is richer, every family can't use it." I put the ancestral small shaker in the Folk Museum, which can not only be kept permanently, but also let people remember that our country is a big family of national unity. Gurathi said.
For 58 years, this little shaker, filled with joy and hope, has been passed down as a "treasure" in families of all nationalities. 30 children of different nationalities and different bloodlines once enjoyed the joys of childhood in this small shaker.
According to reports, small shakers are essential baby products for many ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, and "Viesk" has been circulated in the folk for at least hundreds of years. Newborn mothers are busy with farm work and feeding livestock 40 days after giving birth, and a small "Viesk" can reduce a lot of burden.
The mother puts the baby into the shaker and on this day performs the "Besktoi" (Kazakh word for happy event on the shaker) ceremony until the baby learns to walk and does not leave the small shaker. However, shakers are not made by anyone, nor are they available at home. In the 60s and 70s of the last century, "Viesk" was difficult to find.
Zhan Jia Village is a small village 20 kilometers northeast of Wusu City, where there are 1,089 people from 345 families living in Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Hui and other ethnic groups. In the summer of 1963, Guratti's older brother Muratti fell to the ground, and his father, Toybak, carefully made this small, colorful rocker. Since then, the family's six siblings and their children have grown up on this small rocker.
Made of birch wood, this small shaker is 100 cm long, 50 cm wide and 60 cm high, with a bowed foot at the bottom to sway from side to side. There is a hole in the middle of the bed board, and there is a urinal under the board. The shaker is flanked by two wider straps and is decorated with Kazakh ornaments.
"At that time, men had to work outside, and most women were at home with their children to do housework, but when they held the children, they couldn't move their hands to do housework. Therefore, whoever needed a shaker would come to my house to borrow it, and my father would generously send it. In this way, your family for a year, my family for a year, 58 years this small shaker accompanied 4 ethnic groups and 30 children in infancy. Among them, there are 15 Han Chinese, 6 Kazakhs, 4 Uyghurs, and 5 Hui. After each child is finished, his father will engrave a mark on the armrest of the shaker. Gurathi said.
In early 1979, Gurathi's younger brother, Hailati, was less than a year old when the twin son of Han villager Wang Juzhen, Zhou Haiyang Brothers, was born. "My father said that the twins needed a small shaker even more, so my brother was taken out of the small shaker by my father, and the small shaker was sent to Wang Guzhen's family, becoming the 'baby' of the Twins of the Wang family." Guratti recalled. The twins had a small shaker, and her mother, Wang Guzhen, saved a lot of trouble. Helati and the Zhou Haiyang brothers are similar in age and have used the same shaker, and the three of them have grown up to become close and good friends.
One summer, 10-year-old Helati came to Zhou Haiyang's house as usual. Wang Juzhen recalled: "Seeing him wearing a pair of rubber shoes on a hot day, the shoes are not breathable, and the child's feet are peeling off piece by piece, which is painful. So Wang Guzhen took out a brand new pair of cloth shoes from the cupboard and gave them to Helati. Helati put on the cloth shoes, felt the comfort of the long absence, and immediately recognized Wang Guzhen as a dry mother. Every year in the winter free time, Wang Juzhen will make two more pairs of cloth shoes for Hellati, a total of 20 pairs.
The 30 children who grew up on the same small rocker gradually deepened their feelings: whoever had a naan would beat a few more and send them to their brothers or sisters; whoever had something delicious would not forget to ask everyone to come to the house to share the food... In their simple cognition, sleeping in a bed is a family.
And the memories of children of all ethnic groups eating together, playing together, and growing up together in childhood also profoundly affect them, and the feelings of brotherhood and heart-to-heart connection in childhood are transformed into conscious actions to practice and maintain national unity: when inflammatory remarks are discovered, they take the initiative to stand up and resist; in the face of things that undermine national unity, they take the initiative to stop it... They interpreted with practical actions that "the Han nationality is inseparable from the minority nationalities, the ethnic minorities are inseparable from the Han nationality, and the ethnic minorities are inseparable from each other."
Photograph: Zhang Lifeng