The Xibe ethnic minority, with a population of 172,847 (as of 1990), is widely distributed over northern China from the Ili area in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the west to the northeast provinces of Jilin, Liaoning, and Heilongjiang.    

The Xibe people have their own language and characters which belongs to the Manchu-Tungusic Austronesian of the Altaic Phylum. A growing number of Xibe people came to learn the Manchu and Chinese languages. In 1947, certain Xibe intellectuals reformed the Manchu language by dropping some phonetic symbols and adding new letters of the Xibe language. This Xibe script has been used as an official language by the organs of power in the autonomous areas. Nowadays, the Chinese language is more widely used among the Xibes.

The Xibes believe they are the descendants of the ancient Xianbei people -- a nomadic tribe lived along the Greater Xing-an Mountain area. In the 4th century, the majority of the Xianbei tribe moved southward to the Yellow River valley and set up their kingdom, which gradually mixed with the Han people there. The rest Xianbei still living in the reaches of the Nenjiang and Songhuajiang rivers became the ancestors of today's Xibe people.

The Xibes for generations lived on fishing and hunting. With a developing economy, they have turned to agriculture, stockbreeding and trade. In the past they believed in Shamanism and Lamaism, which are now fading away.

The traditional festival of the Xibe ethnic minority is the April 18th Festival. April 18 on the lunar calendar is the festival of the Xibes, who would make flour or bean sauce on this day to mark the successful conclusion of their ancestors' westward move.

This article was posted on 2007-08-22
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