Quick Answer: What Defines Qinghai Culture?
Qinghai (青海, Qīnghǎi) includes highland grasslands, river valleys and cities. Its communities have different languages, livelihoods and religious traditions. The Hehuang valleys (河湟谷地, Héhuáng Gǔdì), Salar-speaking communities around Xunhua (循化, Xúnhuà), Buddhist arts in the Longwu River basin and Hua’er (花儿, huā’ér) singing give several ways to understand the province.[1][2][3][4]
- Land and work: High grasslands support pastoral livelihoods in some areas, while eastern valleys provide farmland as well as space for cities and towns.[1][5][6]
- Languages: Salar in Xunhua is Turkic. Huzhu is one place where a Mongolic language known as Mongghul is spoken.[2][7]
- Arts: Regong arts (热贡艺术, Règòng Yìshù) include painting, textile work and sculpture. Hua’er is a song tradition shared across parts of northwest China.[3][4]
Specific places make the differences easier to see. Qinghai is home to many overlapping traditions.
A scroll painter in the Longwu valley and a singer at a public gathering use different skills. Both can belong to Qinghai’s present cultural life, in a province whose communities stretch from high pastures to river towns.
Four Ways to Read Qinghai Culture
| Starting point | What to notice | What it explains |
|---|---|---|
| Hehuang valleys | Rivers, fields and towns in eastern Qinghai | How farming settlements and urban life developed in part of the province.[1] |
| Xunhua and Huzhu | Local language use in different counties | The distinction between Salar and Huzhu Mongghul, and the presence of more than one language in daily life.[2][7] |
| Longwu River basin | Painted scrolls, textile work and sculpture | How artists and communities carry on Regong traditions.[3] |
| Hua’er | Shared tunes and verses composed for a setting | How music can cross provincial and community boundaries.[4] |
From High Grasslands to the Hehuang Valleys
The high plains of Qinghai include places where Tibetan pastoralists have raised livestock. Qinghai also contains the headwaters of the Yangtze, the Yellow River and the Lancang, known downstream as the Mekong. These water systems connect the province to very different landscapes outside it.[5][6][8]
The Hehuang valleys around the Yellow and Huangshui river systems are another landscape. Their agricultural areas include fields of wheat and barley. Xining, the provincial capital, stands in this eastern part of Qinghai. A guide focused on the plateau as open pasture alone would miss this record of farms, towns and urban life.[1][8]
What Local Languages Tell Us
Xunhua is an important center of the Salar language. Linguistic studies classify it as Turkic and document contact with Chinese and Tibetan varieties. The wider history of Salar culture includes communities whose language practices have changed under different circumstances.[2]
Huzhu (互助, Hùzhù) provides another example. Huzhu Mongghul, associated with some Tu communities, belongs to the Mongolic language family. A study documents a song with both Mongghul and Chinese elements. One performance can show language contact more clearly than a list assigning a single language to each group.[7]
Regong Arts and Hua’er Singing
In the Longwu River basin, Regong arts include religious scroll painting, murals, textile appliqué and sculpture. Monks and community artists share some of the work. A Tibetan thangka is one object within that wider range. The use of cloth, pigment, wood or clay depends on the artwork and where it will be used.[3]
Hua’er uses named tune families that singers can adapt with new words. The tradition is documented in Qinghai and Gansu, among other places. The familiar tune gives performers a shared form even when the lyrics describe local work, relationships or a particular moment.[4]
FAQs About Qinghai Culture
Are All Regong Arts Thangka Paintings?
Regong includes thangka painting as well as wall painting, textile appliqué and sculpture. Artists work in several materials and make objects for different uses.[3]
Are Salar and Mongghul Related Varieties of the Same Language?
Salar is a Turkic language. Huzhu Mongghul is a Mongolic language. They have distinct linguistic histories within a region where people speak several languages.[2][7]
Is Hua’er Unique to Qinghai?
Qinghai is one home of Hua’er. The song tradition is also practiced in Gansu and elsewhere in north-central China.[4]
Sources
[1] Scientific Reports. Cultivated Land in the Hehuang Valley
[2] Arienne M. Dwyer. Salar Grammatical Sketch
[3] UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Regong Arts
[4] UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Hua’er
[5] UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Qinghai Hoh Xil
[6] Qinghai University. Qinghai Profile
[7] Qi Huimin and Burgel R. M. Levy. Bilingualism in Song: The Rabbit Song of Huzhu Mongghul
[8] Ministry of Commerce. Qinghai in the Foreign Investment Guide