Currently, only 5 Imakan artists are left who can sing certain topics

Imakan artist Ge Yuxia (center) is rapping "Hildaru Morigen"

UNESCO announced on November 23 that the sixth meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Bali, Indonesia, decided to include Imakan, the unique rap art of the Hezhe people submitted by China, in the "Intangible Cultural Heritage List" in urgent need of protection.

Imakan is a unique rap art of the Hezhe people in northeastern China.

The performance form is a combination of rap and narration by one person without musical instrument accompaniment.

It uses leaf rhyme and prose language, uses different singing methods to express characters and plots, and tells the story of tribal battles, life and folk customs, and the stories of Hezhe heroes conquering demons and fighting invaders.

This unique art form has played a key role in inheriting the Hezhe language, beliefs, folk customs and habits.

Surveys show that in the 1980s, there were more than 20 master figures among Imakan artists, but currently only 5 Imakan artists can perform certain articles.

This art is on the verge of extinction.

The reporter interviewed Ge Yuxia, an Imakan artist from Raohe County, Heilongjiang Province.

According to Ge Yuxia, her father Ge Desheng, who was known as the "Hezhe Imakan Rapper", would sing more than 10 Imakan songs when he was alive.

However, after the 1990s, with the death of a group of old artists such as Ge Desheng, there are not many artists who can sing Imakan in areas inhabited by the Hezhe ethnic group such as Raohe and Tongjiang.

Ge Yuxia introduced that Imakan is a folk skill passed down by word of mouth and is mainly passed down in three ways: one is inheritance from the clan, the other is inheritance from the family, and the third is inheritance from the apprentice.

Ge Yuxia began to learn Imakan from her father after graduating from high school in 1977, but now she can only rap a dozen paragraphs in the title "Hildaru Morrigen"("Morrigen" means hero).

In the late 1970s, relevant departments of Heilongjiang Province recorded and recorded all Imakan songs sung by Ge Desheng.

After Ge Desheng passed away, Ge Yuxia followed her father's tapes to study.

Now, as a inheritor of "intangible cultural heritage", she teaches more than 20 students every Thursday to learn Imakan and Hezhe shaman dances, and hopes to pass on the intangible cultural heritage of the Hezhe people.