Cultural Lecture: Ethnic Minorities

A teacher of history, travel, tourism and culture, Professor Liao gave the ethnic minorities lecture for the students Friday morning. Professor Liao began the lecture with a short video clip of a woman singing a song about the Zhuang group, the largest of the minority groups in China, and also the group that Professor Liao is a member of. The Zhuang zu (group) is mostly located in Guangxi province.

There are 56 ethnic groups in China, with the majority being Han Chinese, a classification that evolved during the Han dynasty. Among the 56 groups, 18 of these have a population of about one million, with Zhuang being the most populous of these. There are 15 groups with a population between one hundred thousand and one million. There are 22 groups with a population below one hundred thousand and the smallest populated group in southeastern Tibet, known as the “Luo Ba Zu”, has a population of less than three thousand people.

Although the distribution of minority groups covers the entire map of China, the heaviest populated areas are at the border regions of China and her neighboring countries. There are five autonomous regions in China, which are between central Eastern China and her neighboring countries. These regions form a large “C”. Also important about the border regions is the overlap. Where China shares a border with Korea, Koreans live, and and there are Chinese living on the Korean side. The same is true for Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc.

From the 1950s, it took forty years for the Chinese government to identify fifty-five minority groups. In the 1990s, once the government recognized that fifty of these groups and 75% of their population resided in the West, a government policy was adopted in which expansion and development were sent westward. At this point, the Han areas of China, the central and Eastern parts, were very prosperous and wealthy. The “Great Development of the West” policy hoped to bring this prosperity to the West through, “equality, mutual help and prosperity”.

From 2000 to 2005, the GDP increased by 10.2% with this new policy in place. 969 villages were given electricity by the central government. 32 million people’s drinking water problems were solved by the central government. Liao Laoshi emphasized that the policy has only helped minorities in the western part of the country.

What follows is a list of minorities as presented in the second portion of Liao Laoshi’s lecture. Han zu is the biggest ethnic group in China, and it is the most populous group of people in the world. There are Han Chinese scattered around many countries all over the world. Man zu, known as Manchu in the West, are located in the northeastern part of China, known as Dongbei. The last Qing emperor, the “last” emperor of China, was Manchurian. The dress known as a qipao in China, and known as a symbol of Chinese clothing in the West is not Han zu but actually Man zu in origin.

Mangu zu, or Mongolian, came into Chinese history in the Yuan dynasty when they ruled China. Kubla Khan is probably the most famous Mongolian and is said to have fought in battles all the way to Europe. This group practices Buddhism and had a strong horse culture at one time.

There is a Russian ethnic group along the borders of China and Russia. They are known for excellent singing and dancing. The Uigurs come from Xinjiang province and are also known for excellent singing and dancing. In Turpan you can find the most delicious honeydew and grapes in the world. Uigurs practice the Muslim faith.

The Tibetan minority, although mostly situated in Tibet, can also be found in Sichuan, Gangsu, and Yunnan provinces. They practice Buddhism, mostly live on the Tibetan plateau and also have a singing and dancing culture. At this point in the lecture, Liao Laoshi informs the students that the remaining minorities are much smaller in population and therefore it is important to the central government to work with these minorities to continue to help them flourish.

Qiang zu lives mostly in Sichuan and this group was hit the worst by the massive earthquake this year. This group has a very unique architectural style, living in castle-like structures built from stone and lacking iron or steel. Several of these structures were unaffected after the earthquake and now architects and geologists are studying the Qiang zu building method to learn from their success.

Yi zu lives mainly in the southwest of China in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. This minority has a long history, having been written about, along with the Qiang zu in ancient literature and poetry. The Gulan zu and Shui zu live primarily in Guangxi province, though few are also located in Guizhou. Little is known about them, though they are foremost agriculturalists.

Miao zu lives in Guangzi, Hunan and Guizhou provinces. This group likes to wear silver ornaments and jewelry. The women’s skirts are long and have many pleats. This group is also engaged predominantly in agriculture.

Dong zu can be found in Hunan, Guangzi and Guizhou. They also wear silver ornaments and are excellent wood carvers. They have developed a special technique for preserving fish in a special marinade because they live in the mountains and cannot go to market or barter for food very often.

Yao Zu is found in Guangzi, Guangdong and Yunnan provinces. They are also in Laos, Vietnam and Thailand as well as emigrants to Canada, France and the US. They are nicknamed the “nation that likes to go abroad”. In China, they live in the mountains, wear turban-like head coverings and there are five distinct groups within Yao zu, distinguishable from their distinctly different languages and clothing styles.

In Longshen, a terraced region of Guangxi province, live the Hongyao or “Red Yao”. The Hongyao wear red clothes that they dye themselves and the women keep their hair very long, well below the knee. Gongcheng is another area in Guangxi with a group of Yao, known as Pindi Yao, which means “Yao who live in the plains”. This group is much more difficult to distinguish as a different ethnicity. Because they live in the plains, among Han, they have adopted modern dress, Mandarin or Guangxi’s dialect, and in making these distinctions between groups, Liao Laoshi introduced one of the complex difficulties of intercultural mixing, “Hanization”.

Zhuang zu are the most populous of the 56 ethnic minorities, mostly living in Guangxi. There are the North Zhuang and the South Zhuang, who have slightly different dialects, dress and cultural dances and songs. The Heiyi Zhuang or “Black clothes Zhuang” are very famous for their traditional songs and dances. The Zhuang live by the water because they grow rice and catch fish.

Mao Nan zu lives mostly in Guangxi, but can also be found in Guizhou. They are known for their very beautiful bamboo hats, which are a token of love, given to someone’s chosen lover.

Jing zu are immigrants from Vietnam. As fishermen, their lives and work are connected to water and they have a vibrant culture of singing and dance all related to water. They are known for playing a single-stringed instrument called the Qin.

Liao Laoshi finished up his lecture with a reiteration of the central government’s policy on minorities, especially living in the autonomous regions of the country. The government is determined to raise the living standard of the West through mutual benefit. Some students were curious whether this had positive affects on cultures, which were able to thrive primarily because of lack of direct contact with the outside world. The question of Hanization re-emerged.

Liao Laoshi presented his opinion that the benefits outweighed possible costs, especially since the government, in his eyes, is very concerned about maintaining cultural diversity. He gave himself as an example of the benefits of the government’s projects. As a minority person, he lived in a very small county and received a very poor education. When he took the entrance exam for college, he was given an extra 20 points on his score, which allowed him entrance into a university. Even one point on the test can mean stepping in front of thousands of other students hoping to enter a university. Liao Laoshi’s first year in college was very difficult, but he was thankful to the government for giving him the chance and he worked hard and was able to excel in school, doing so well that he was asked to join a graduate program without having to take the entrance exam.

Liao Laoshi’s concluding remarks were a plea for an international synthesis that will hopefully lead to better understanding of the central government’s position on ethnic minorities. He emphasized that among the various players – those being the Han contingent, the central government, the minorities themselves and international onlookers – there must be a mutual respect and cooperation so that the best case scenario can become a reality, and in Liao Laoshi’s eyes, as well as the central government’s, that best case scenario revolves around mutual benefit and prosperity.