Imakan: The Hezhen Oral Art That Carries Memory

Imakan is a Hezhen oral tradition told in Hezhen language through a combination of prose and verse. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism describes its stories as carrying community history, heroic narratives, fishing and hunting life, ritual customs and moral codes. They have served several purposes at once: recording the past, teaching younger generations and providing entertainment. A local planning document from Jiejinkou describes performance as chiefly spoken, with singing in a supporting role and pieces in different lengths. Imakan is not simply a song or a fixed text, but a narrative art whose spoken and sung passages can carry a story across an evening or in a shorter telling.

A 2026 People’s Daily report from Jiejinkou follows Wu Baochen, a Hezhen bearer of the national intangible heritage project, and Li Dingren, who worked with him on safeguarding. Wu told the reporter that Imakan is a principal means of transmitting the Hezhen language, which has no writing system. After retiring, he committed himself to passing the tradition on. The report describes how the local protection centre recorded audio and video, organized oral-history materials and built archives at provincial, municipal, county and township levels. It also says the centre compiled more than forty books related to Imakan. These are specific forms of documentation; they do not replace the living work of learning and telling.

The same report describes Wu and his students appearing at performances, with Li introducing the art to audiences. One livestream following a performance in Wuhan drew more than 70,000 online viewers, according to the article. Public stages can make an oral tradition visible, while archives and teaching support continuity away from the stage. Jiejinkou’s tourism materials also list oral storytelling among the Hezhen cultural forms presented at the cultural village, linking the art to a specific place without reducing it to a visitor show.

In December 2025, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee transferred Hezhen Imakan from the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding to the Representative List. The committee also selected the Imakan safeguarding programme for its Register of Good Safeguarding Practices. China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism says community-centred cooperation helped increase intergenerational vitality and visibility, while encouraging continued community participation. The change recognizes safeguarding progress; it does not mean the work is finished. At Jiejinkou, Imakan is best understood through both its form—a voice moving between prose and verse—and the patient networks of bearers, students, researchers and local institutions that keep it in use.