[7] Some of the earliest first-hand accounts of the Nanai people in the European languages belong to the French Jesuit geographers travelling on the Ussuri and the Amur in 1709.

[8] The latter name may be the French transcription of the reported self-name of the Nanai of the lower Amur, [xədʑən], which was also applied to the closely related Ulch people.

Fish was used as fodder for those few domestic animals they had (which made the flesh of a locally raised pig almost inedible by visitors with European tastes).

These skins were left to dry, struck repeatedly with a mallet to leave them completely smooth, and sewn together.

[15] In the past centuries, this distinct practice earned the Nanai the name "Fish-skin Tartars" (Chinese: 鱼皮鞑子; pinyin: Yúpí Dázi).

Nanai shamans, like other Tungusic peoples of the region, had characteristic clothing, consisting of a skirt and jacket; a leather belt with conical metal pendants; mittens with figures of serpents, lizards or frogs; and hats with branching horns or bear, wolf, or fox fur attached to it.

With time, these amban may be tamed and can later be worshipped; otherwise, a special ritual must be performed to chase the evil spirit away.

[18] After death, a person's soul is put into a temporary shelter made of cloth, called a lachako.

[19] The panyo is taken care of as if it is a living person; for example, it is given a bed to sleep in each night, with a pillow and blanket to match its miniature size.

The panyo has a small hole carved where the mouth of a person would be, so that a pipe may occasionally be placed there and allow the deceased to smoke.

[19] The dead’s final funerary ritual is called kasa tavori and lasts three days, during which there is much feasting and the souls of the deceased are prepared for their journey to the underworld.

On this day, the dead’s souls are moved from the panyo into large human-looking wooden figures made to be about the size of the deceased, called mugdeh.

[19] After this ceremony, the shaman leads the dog sleds on the dangerous journey to Buni, from where she must leave before sunset or else she will die.

After kasa tavori, it has previously been practiced that the living relatives could no longer visit the graves of the deceased, or even talk about them.

It is common practice in preparing a funeral rite of an infant to mark it with coal, such as drawing a bracelet around the wrist.

In the Soviet Union, a written standard of the Nanai language (based on Cyrillic) was created by Valentin Avrorin and others.

The Nanai are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China where they are known as "Hezhe" (赫哲族; Hèzhé Zú).