A Night of Splendour on the Grassland: The Brilliant Blossoming of Culture and Unity — On the Scene at the Gala of the 2025 Xinjiang Jangar Culture and Tourism and Nadam Fair_ News_ People's Government of Hoboksar Mongol Autonomous County
Under the night sky the Hoboksar grassland in Tacheng, Xinjiang, glittered with stars, and the July evening breeze carried the scent of grass and the sound of singing. On the 23rd the gala of the 2025 Xinjiang Jangar Culture and Tourism and Nadam Fair opened here in grand style. Artists and folk performers from all over Xinjiang gathered together, using song and dance, acrobatics, chanted storytelling and other varied art forms to weave a splendid picture of ethnic unity and cultural fusion, and offering the audience a cultural feast that reached into the heart.
A Stunning Opening: Dance Sets the Grassland Night Alight
The gala opened stunningly with the majestic Dance Rhythms of Hoboksar. Dancers of the Jangar Art Troupe, dressed in gorgeously coloured and exquisitely made ethnic costumes, seemed like spirits stepping out of the depths of the grassland. To a bright, stirring rhythm they stretched their bodies like galloping horses; every leap seemed to carry a thousand years of the grassland's history and glory, their skirts whirling like flowers in full bloom, their steps ringing out like the pulse of the grassland itself. The audience's enthusiasm was kindled in an instant, cheers mingling with applause until the whole grassland was steeped in a fervent atmosphere, as if the spirit and vitality of this land over a thousand years were being released to the full in that moment.
Deep Feeling in Song: From the Grassland to the Motherland
In the solo segment, Fireworks Fill Tonight's Sky and Sawurdeng, performed by the National Class-A Performer Chahan, were classics of their kind: the first painted the joyous scene of the festival in flowing melody, while the second, rich in ethnic flavour, conveyed the boldness of the grassland's sons and daughters. The Blossoming of a Girl in Flower and Express Train of Happiness, sung by Zilaixi of the Xinjiang Song and Dance Theatre, were full of youthful vigour, her clear voice brimming with praise for a good life.
Most moving of all was the song The People Are the Country: the duet by Aku and Weng Ru was tender and powerful, and the lyric "the country is the people, the people are the country" went straight to the heart. That stirring melody and those sincere words touched everyone present, so that all in the audience felt the deep force of devotion to home and country, and the resonance surged through the whole ground like a tide. The folk-song medley — Herdsmen Sing of the Communist Party, The Swallow and other pieces — strung together the voices of the grassland's sons and daughters; from gratitude to the Party to praise of nature, each song was like a bond linking tradition with the present.
A Gathering of Many Arts: The Light of Cultural Charm in Full Bloom
The gala's highlights went far beyond song and dance. The magic act The Grapes Are Ripe by Guzaliayi Abudukelimu drew gasps of admiration as glistening "grapes" shifted unpredictably in her hands, as if bringing the fragrance of Xinjiang's fruit to the stage. The Joyful Sapayi, an acrobatic act by Aikebaier Abudureyimu, showed astonishing skill: the sapayi in his hands (a traditional Uygur instrument) beat out a cheerful rhythm as it flew about, thrilling and beautiful at once.
As the core vehicle of Jangar culture, the performance of Ode to the Hero Jangar, an excerpt of Tuuli Jangar chanting, was the focus of the whole evening. Dorji Nima, a representative inheritor of intangible cultural heritage at the autonomous-region level, was nominated as a "China Intangible Cultural Heritage Figure of the Year"; the "Dalin Taobuqi" chanting ensemble he founded has brought innovation to "Jangar chanting" and has taken part many times in exchange performances inside and outside Xinjiang. With a voice full of tension he performed the heroic epic, and together with the MD sound effects he seemed to carry the audience back to a legendary age of armour and warhorses, making the cultural calling card of the "homeland of Jangar" all the more vivid. Xigexiri and Drinking Song, performed by Huricha, lead singer of the band Hanggai, deftly fused rock with ethnic music; the vastness of the grassland showed through his rough-hewn voice, drawing rounds of cheers from the audience below the stage.
Dancing with One Heart, Painting the Silk Road Homeland Together
The group dances Shimmering Waters and Spirit of the String Dance were presented by the Ulan Muqir of Wenquan County, Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture; with a soft, graceful body language the dancers gave voice to the poetry of the grassland, every raised hand and every step expressing awe and love for nature. Saihan Sawurdeng, performed by the Jangar Art Troupe, was full of power, showing the vigour and free-spirited ease of Mongolian dance.
The closing number, the song-and-dance piece Love for the Silk Road Homeland, brought the gala to its climax. A majestic melody paired with the singers' heartfelt chorus, and the lyric "ten thousand miles of Silk Road feeling, one homeland, one family" spoke the wish of all ethnic groups to move forward hand in hand. On stage, dancers of different ethnic groups danced together, the colours of their costumes interweaving into the most beautiful of pictures — just like the fusion and symbiosis of the cultures of all ethnic groups on the land of Xinjiang.
Health and Wellness Add Colour: A Traditional Chinese Medicine Night Market Unlocks a "New Grassland Experience"
Hoboksar is at its most moving after dark. On one side, below the stage, the county health commission had brought together specialists from the Karamay Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Xinjiang-aid specialists from West China Hospital and Xinjiang-aid traditional Chinese medicine specialists working in Hoboksar County to run a night market themed on traditional Chinese medicine — an unexpected delight. At the free-clinic stalls, the visiting doctors took people's pulses and gave consultations free of charge; at the health-tea stand, clear tea brewed from wolfberry and chrysanthemum to clear heat and moisten dryness became a must-have for fairgoers. On the other side, on the Baduanjin interactive stage, professional instructors led everyone in stretching their limbs, and the figures moving in the night were a wonderful meeting of traditional health culture and modern life. Happiest of all was Axiayi Alemubieke, a villager from Jimugou in Motege Township, who earns money letting visitors ride his two ponies. He said cheerfully: "I can make several hundred yuan in a day, and on a good day even over a thousand!" The soul of this town has never been hidden in history alone; it lives in the everyday warmth of the present.
When the last note fell, the whole audience rose to applaud, and applause and cheers echoed long over the land of Sair; but the seed of unity and striving had already been sown in every heart. Just as the wind of the grassland remembers the fragrance of every flower, this great occasion will also remember that, in the summer of the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Hoboksar used a cultural feast to sound a moving movement on "forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation", so that the belief in "realising the Chinese Dream together", carried on the chanting of the epic and the laughter of every ethnic group, became a star that never sets over the grassland — and the stories and the warmth here go on still.