Who's That Knocking at the Door?

A fortuitous gift lay on my office chair this week- the May 2008 special issue of National Geographic. Colleagues, aware of my MALS course and tired (I feel certain) of hearing me reference China regularly, left this month’s copy for my perusal. China- Inside the Dragon, cover to cover, is a fascinating portrayal of the complexities of our Eastern neighbor. Page after page of National Geographic’s outstanding photography unfolds providing a visual backdrop to so many of our readings. The photos of the dazzling urban areas such as Shanghai give testament to China’s rising economic star. Several pages later though are reminders of those who are less enchanted by modernization, but who are, all the same, impacted by what goes on in the big city as they struggle to maintain their ethnic identities and traditions. One ethnic minority, the Dong, goes quietly about its everyday business as modernization encroaches upon its village, while another minority group, the Tibetans, have taken on the Chinese government in their bid to retain their centuries’ old religious beliefs.


Novelist Amy Tan’s article, Village on the Edge of Time, visits the mountainous region of Dimen in South China, home to the Dong. Five clans, totaling 2,372, populate this poor, remote village in Guizhou where most villagers harvest, plow and plant rice fields and bring in less than $100 annually. Their presence of more than a thousand years in the area has given rise to preserving their history through song. Every aspect of life, from manners to chores, is recorded in songs that are passed from generation to generation. Tan’s depiction of this distinctive culture portrays an ethnic minority that cannot escape the modernization that flourishes beyond its borders. Television came to the region seven years ago and by 2006 cell phones were able to reach remote areas. By 2007, almost the entire village owned phones, primarily to stay in touch with the 1200 working age youth that have left to work elsewhere. It is now a village of very old, raising very young. Women in their 70’s strap their grandchildren onto their backs as they hike three miles up the mountains to tend their fields. Tan details the lives of the za, elderly women who teach the younger generation the songs of the clan, and the council of eleven elders who oversee the social welfare and civil conduct according to the Dong code of conduct. Feng Shui masters treat maladies with herbs and drive unhappy ancestoral ghosts from individuals who experience their wrath. While urban life slowly seeps into the village, the Dong continue to quietly farm and sing of the past. To read Tan’s article and view both a narrated slide show and video, go to: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/guizhou/amy-tan-text

Tibetans, on the other hand, are standing four square opposed to China’s imposition of modernity and seek to regain their sovereignty and maintain the practice of their religious beliefs. Tibetan protests and clashes with the Chinese army have filled the news for the last month. Like the Dong, Tibetans reside in a remote mountainous region that geographically has kept them on the margins of economic development. China’s push westward with its plan of economic reform though has put the Tibetans and the Chinese at loggerheads. Roads, an airport and now the super rail system have opened Tibet to an eastern onslaught of Chinese visitors and residents. Chinese residents have constructed businesses everywhere, changing the landscape dramatically and furthering the resentment that most Tibetans feel with regard to the Chinese. Nevertheless, there are those Tibetans who accede that the Chinese presence has brought schools and hospitals to the area, something the Tibetan government could not provide. Lewis Simon’s article, Moving Forward, Holding On, displays the animosity each group feels toward the other and the underlying distrust that is mounting as Tibetans fear China’s real motive is to exploit the vast natural resources it commands. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/tibetans/simons-text/1

China has produced staggering results in the eastern region, but the question remains whether it can produce economic miracles in the countryside without destroying what was once the backbone of Mao’s social system.