Thousands of folk stories of ancient migratory fishermen are preserved at Liaodong Bay. Most of these stories are fairytales, folklore and fishermen’s songs.

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Folk stories of ancient migratory fishermen or “fishing geese” are a centuries-old genre of oral folk literature that revolve around the lives of ancient fishermen in the estuary of the Liaohe River, Liaoning Province. Most of these stories are fairytales, folklore and fishermen’s songs, which were created and inherited by local groups of fishermen. Liu Zeting is a modern fisherman and the most representative storyteller and inheritor of fishermen folk stories.

In 2006, when folk stories of ancient migratory fishermen were included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage, Liu was granted the title of Liaoning provincial folk artist. In 2009, he was appointed as the national representative inheritor of folk stories of ancient migratory fishermen.

Liu was born into a family of migratory fishermen in 1944. Over the years, he discovered, collected and recorded nearly a thousand fairy stories and legends about ancient fishermen’s lives and has become a renowned storyteller around the estuary of the Liaohe River. Since he was young, Liu has focused on collecting and protecting fishermen’s folk stories and made a great contribution.

Liu said that he learned how to catch fish on the sea at a very young age. When he was 10, he moved to the estuary of the Liaohe River with his parents. At that time, he heard a number of folk stories about ancient migratory fishermen from his family members and other old fishermen. These unforgettable stories influenced him and motivated him to preserve this culture when he grew up.

With the rapid development of society, migratory fishermen have become rarer. In order to preserve the memories of “fishing geese,” Liu began to recall the folk stories he heard in childhood and attempted to probe into studying, collecting and recording oral stories about local migratory fishermen, organizing manuscripts with millions of characters and more than 500 stories. Over the years, he has published the books Legends of Fishermen, History of Scenery and Folklore at Fishermen’s Home and Legends of Liaodong Bay, and 65 of the stories he collected were enrolled in Liaoning Province’s volume Collections of Chinese Folk Literature. In 2006, following Liu’s proposal, the local cultural department established a cultural heritage museum of ancient migratory fishermen. This museum has become a landmark and base for preserving and showcasing Chinese maritime culture.

Now, Liu is nearly 70, but he still uses his pension to search for, collect and study fishermen’s stories and works as a volunteer in the museum to tell stories to students every winter and summer holidays.