Farewell to 'nests'
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Clockwise from top Liang Yanhua (third left) and family members sit around a stove in the house. With the money his three sons make as migrant workers, the family will be able to build a new house by the end of the year, Liang says. Madu community preserves many of the Dark Cloth Zhuang customs, such as wood structure buildings. Liang Jinwen, Huang Xiaomei and their 3-year-old son pose for a picture. Huang worked in Guangdong province for three years before their marriage. Women chat while leaning on the landing of their traditional house. The traditional houses of the Dark Cloth Zhuang people have a three-story wood structure. Women volunteers help a villager transport stone materials for house building. Photos by Huo Yan / China Daily |
Dark Cloth Zhuang people are transforming their lives and traditional culture. Huang Zhaohua and Huo Yan report in Napo, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
Dark Cloth Zhuang people favor black clothes and largely live their lives according to ancient customs, but are now saying farewell to their traditional "nests" made of wood.
Dark Cloth Zhuang people account for 33 percent of the Zhuang ethnic group. They inhabit mountainous areas in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, bordering Vietnam.
China Daily photographer Huo Yan visited Napo county, home to more than 51,800 Dark Cloth Zhuang people, three times - in February, April and May - to record their unique customs, traditional crafts, lives, as well as the changes that are happening in their daily lives.
Dark Cloth Zhuang communities are characterized by their three-story houses constructed out of wood. The first floor is used as a pigpen and toilet. Supported by stone pillars, the shelters above are made of boards and woven branches. Experts say this style of housing dates back to "nest building" in the New Stone Age.
Today, restless youths leave the Dark Cloth Zhuang villages in search of wealth and return to make changes.
"Our living habits have gradually changed," says Liang Wenbin, a villager in the Nongwentun community, Napo county. "Our houses are now just like those in the cities."
Liang's more-than-80-year-old house is one of the last built in the traditional style in the village, as those returning from the cities build with stone and brick instead.
Ma Guangde, from Banlaotun community, says his family is pleased not to have to deal with the smells from the ground floor while cooking on the second anymore, after moving into a new stone and brick house.
Dark Cloth Zhuang people live in centralized communities. But nowadays, as youths move out to plains areas, mainly old people and children remain, a common pattern in rural areas these days.
(China Daily 09/10/2011 page6)
