Wujiang culture is a deep-rooted heritage of characteristics in Wu region. Its shield and perch, silk, Southern Society and riverside village culture have important influence across the nation. Local cultural venues have been founded in Wujiang like cultural centers, museums, libraries and archives with several memorial halls built, including the memorial halls of Liu Yazi, of Wang Xichan and of Zhang Yingchun. A few specialized exhibition halls have also been established such as the Wujiang Silk Culture Exhibition Hall, the Taihu Lake Crab Culture Center and the Southern Jiangsu Wine Culture Museum.
Since the late Ming andearly Qing Dynasties, fishing songs of the Taihu Lake have been passed downfrom generation to generation around the east basin. Created by fishermen inthe past four centuries and sourced from their life and work, the fishing songsare a form of self-composed entertainment oral ...
Qiaosheng Qu is the most well-known music in Shengze, a prosperous and celebrated silk town. In the occasions of celebrating a newborn baby, a birthday or a wedding engagement, the local residents would host grand banquets with musicians playing Chinese wind and percussion instruments to cultivate a...
Guessing lantern riddles is a traditional recreational activity that enjoys a long history and is popular among local people in Pingwang. The lantern riddle of Pingwang appeared in the Republic of China (1921-1949), developed and flourished in the 1980s and 1990s. In every traditional festival, ...
Grain Full, or Xiaoman, the 8th solar term in Chinese calendar year, is an important day for agricultural activities in early summer. A book of Suzhou customs Qing Jia Lu says that “there are three symbolic startings on Grain Full, namely starting reeling devices, starting canola-pounding machines ...
Suzhou Pingtan is a term denoting storytelling and ballad singing in the Suzhou dialect. It also goes by “Shuoshu” or “Nanci”. Pingtan, with its long history, is an important part of Chinese opera arts. Flourishing in Suzhou,Jiangsu Province, Pingtan also has an enormous amount of audience in ne...
The legend of the Pearl Pagoda, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty, has long been spread in the form of ballads. Set in the Jiading reignof the Ming Dynasty, the legend is about the Pearl Pagoda and the family history of Chen Wangdao, a Tongli local titled Nanjing Investigating Censor. Covering ce...
Shield and perch culture stems from a story about a Wujiang man named Zhang Han in the Western Jin Dynasty. In the times of Emperor Jin Huidi, he took a high-ranking post, in charge of official selection for the government. During his tenure, he witnessed the passing of throne from the Emperor Sima ...
Hengshan ornamented candles in southern Jiangsu has been popular for several centuries, reputed as the most exquisite folk handicraft in southernregions of the Yangtze River. In the area bordering Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, almost every family buys a pair of ornamented candles and lights them o...
Founded in 1909, the Southern Society was highly influential as an important group committed to capitalist revolutionary culture. Liu Yazi, Gao Xu and Chen Qubing, the founders of the society, were members of the Sun Yat-Sen led Alliance for Democracy, and, at the same time, devoted followers of Sun...
Wujiang is the hometown of Fei Xiaotong, a famous socialist, anthropologist and social activist. Fei held the task of enriching people and he carried out his research for the longest time and got the most outcomes in Kaixiangong village, Qidu, which was also the starting point of his two academic tr...