苏凯《石榴枝上花千朵》

My first encounter with the pomegranate was through the evocative verses of Tang Dynasty poetry. It was in Bai Juyi's poem "Untitled" that I read, "A thousand flowers bloom on the pomegranate branch, and a cup of wine fills the lotus leaf," and Li Shangyin's "Pomegranate" that described, "The branches of the pomegranate are graceful and bear abundant fruits, the peel is light and translucent, and the seeds are fresh." My understanding of the pomegranate was confined to these poetic images then.

It wasn't until one day when my father transplanted a new tree species in the open space in front of our house, joyfully announcing, "This is a pomegranate tree," that my anticipation for this fruit, richly depicted in Tang poetry, began to grow. From then on, I eagerly awaited its fruition. During breaks from my studies, I often fetched well water to nurture the tree. The following May, the tree blossomed with vibrant red flowers. As time passed, beneath the blossoms, the pomegranates began to form. The fruits had ripened by autumn, and large, red-like lanterns were hanging from the branches. Eagerly, I plucked one and gently peeled away the skin, revealing rows of neatly arranged, pearl-sized, crystal-clear red seeds. Each seed was whole, smooth, and round, with translucent flesh encasing tiny white seeds. Placing one in my mouth, I tasted a sweetness mingled with a hint of tartness, leaving a lingering fragrance on my lips and teeth.

That same year, he marked the passing of Nguyen Thi Hoa, an esteemed master of the Dan Tran (one-stringed instrument) of the Jing ethnic group, leaving his disciple Su Chunfa as the sole practitioner in the region. Besides inheriting from Nguyen Thi Hoa, Su Chunfa was initially inspired by his uncle, Su Shanhui. Faced with the imminent loss of the Dan Tran culture, he resolutely abandoned his flourishing border trade business to dedicate himself to its preservation. Determined to "revive" this unique art, he transformed his home into a teaching space. He spent tens of thousands of yuan annually purchasing and repairing Dan Trans, allowing students to learn without financial burden. Over nearly three decades of perseverance, he never considered giving up. As a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor of the Dan Tran art, Su Chunfa often reflects on his teacher's influence: "My teacher said that the Dan Tran is a treasure of our Jing people, handed down from generation to generation. We should continue to pass it on now." Today, his students have cultivated a new generation of inheritors, and his students' students actively showcase Jing culture on various stages, successfully "reviving" and popularizing the Dan Tran within and beyond Guangxi province.

Su Chunfa is not alone in his efforts to "revive" Jing culture. Su Weifang stands out as another exemplary figure. In March 2002, after retiring, Su Weifang became deeply concerned about the endangered traditional Jing script—Chữ Nôm. Driven by a sense of urgency, he travelled to concentrated and scattered Jing villages to excavate, protect, and organise various aspects of traditional Jing culture. Over a decade of hard work, he has collected, compiled, and translated over 40 books with more than 2 million words, including "Collection of Jing Ethnic Epic Poems" and "Golden Cloud Song" narrative poems. He has also rescued nearly a hundred traditional religious ancient books of the Jing people, organised cultural inheritance training classes, and revived the Jing singing festival despite being hospitalized three times due to overwork.

Moreover, there is Huang Yuying, an accomplished Jing singer who, in her youth, passed the audition for the Central Ethnic Song and Dance Troupe but gave up the opportunity to go to Beijing due to marriage. After the restoration of the Ha Festival in the Jing community, she emerged as a new generation of Ha Mei (festival dancer), guiding and nurturing numerous batches of Ha Mei under the mentorship of the older Ha Mei, Huang Chengjin. In 2016, her inherited Flower Staff Dance was entirely digitally recorded by the Ministry of Culture.

Thanks to the unwavering dedication of cultural inheritors like Su Weifang, Su Chunfa, and Huang Yuying, Jing culture has not only been "revived" over the past 20 years. Still, it has also flourished like a pomegranate tree, yielding abundant fruits. These cultural torchbearers have been recognized as national models for ethnic unity and progress.

As early as the Six Dynasties period, Pan Yue's "Ode to the Pomegranate" depicted the fruit as having "a thousand chambers sharing the same membrane, a thousand seeds as one." The pomegranate, with its intricately structured chambers, represents a harmonious and orderly coexistence. The phrase "a thousand seeds as one" implies that each seed is uniform in shape and appearance, indistinguishable from the others.

Influenced by Su Weifang, Su Chunfa, and Huang Yuying, the younger generation of cultural inheritors in the Jing ethnic area has matured into torchbearers of various intangible cultural heritages. Among them are Wu Mingzhi, the new inheritor of the Ha Festival, Wu Guilan, the inheritor of Jing folk songs, and Fan Yuying, the inheritor of Jing clothing traditions. They resemble pomegranate seeds, "a thousand chambers sharing the same membrane, a thousand seeds as one," shining like jewels on the path of ethnic cultural inheritance and dissemination. They are also akin to pomegranate flowers, not flaunting themselves in spring, not vying with other blossoms, but standing out with their vibrant red in the scorching summer, becoming the season's most splendid blooms.

The pomegranate branch bears a thousand flowers, symbolizing the nation's unity, progress, and hope. That touch of pomegranate red is known as China Red.