Dancing to their own tune
By Mu Qian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-17 10:05
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The Qiang ethnic group was hard hit by the Sichuan earthquake but is now promoting its culture to lead a revival in its fortunes, Mu Qian reports
Traditional folk songs accompanied by digital music, rituals and dances by 120 colorfully dressed performers, comprise the show Soul of Qiang, which premiered earlier this month.
The song and dance show is intended to benefit earthquake-hit Maoxian county of Sichuan province in the same way that Kunming's Dynamic Yunnan and Chengdu's Jinsha have done. These large-scale shows focused attention on these areas and encouraged tourists to visit.
After its debut at the National Display of Minority Intangible Cultural Heritage in Beijing, the show will tour cities around the country, before settling in Maoxian at the Qiang Culture Industrial Park, to be completed by the end of this year.
"We hope tourists who go to Jiuzhaigou to appreciate its world-class natural beauty will also stay in Maoxian to experience unique Qiang culture," says Gao Jiajun, governor of the county.
The Qiang, who live mostly in the mountains of western Sichuan, are one of the least known of the 56 ethnic groups of China, but one of the most ancient peoples in Chinese history.
The Qiang have drawn much attention in recent years because their main bases are in Maoxian, Wenchuan and Beichuan - the worst hit areas of the May 12 earthquake of 2008.
The Qiang population numbered 306,072 in 2000, according to a national census conducted that year. Although the government did not publicize the ethnic identities of the earthquake victims, experts estimate that according to the percentage of Qiang people in the earthquake-hit areas, about 8 to 10 percent of the total Qiang population died in the calamity.
"The earthquake was also a crushing blow to Qiang culture. Traditional buildings toppled down, cultural relics were destroyed, and some masters of Qiang intangible cultural heritage died," says Gao, who lost two brothers-in-law in the earthquake.
Qiang culture was at risk before the quake, however. For instance, Gao is a Qiang man but cannot speak the language. He says that only one fourth of Qiang people in Maoxian can still speak the language.
"Many of the young performers in our group do not understand the lyrics of the songs that they sing in the show," says 71-year-old He Huakui, the eldest performer in Soul of Qiang. "For them, it is almost like singing foreign songs."
Without a written language, the Qiang mainly pass on their culture orally. He is the only person in his home village who knows the many traditional folk songs and the procedures of rituals.
"With the changing of social environment, Qiang culture has been declining since the second half of the 20th century, but this seems to be inevitable in the process of modernization," says Wang Mingke, a research fellow with Academia Sinica of Taiwan, who specializes in the study of the Qiang people.
Wang, who has been to Sichuan more than 20 times since 1994 to do field research among the Qiang people and has published several books on the ethnic group, says the decline of Qiang culture has accelerated since the 1990s.
Shibi, or masters of religious ceremonies, are the most knowledgeable people in terms of traditional Qiang culture. Some shibi died in the earthquake and those that remain are all very old.
In 2009, the Qiang New Year festival was put on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, by UNESCO, because "participation in the festival has declined in recent years due to migration, declining interest in Qiang heritage among the young and the impact of outside cultures, but the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that destroyed many of the Qiang villages and devastated the region put the New Year festival at grave risk".
In response, in July 2008, an on-line museum about Qiang culture (http: //www.qiang.ihchina.cn) was launched by China Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation Center. In September 2008, A Reader of Qiang Culture for Students was compiled by a group of experts and released by the Zhonghua Book Company. In May last year, a four-volume Collection of the Qiang Oral Heritage was published.
The central government has ratified a budget of 702 million yuan ($102.8 million) for the reconstruction of culture and sports in Maoxian, where a "Qiang Town" is being built, including a museum, culture center and Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage.
"We tried to promote Qiang culture in the past, but as a poverty-stricken county, we were unable to do much," says Gao. "Now with support from the central government and various social sectors, we have a precious opportunity."
In the new "Qiang Town", locals will get jobs performing Qiang folk art and crafts like embroidery and silverware making. Soul of Qiang, which employs more than 100 farmer-turned performers, will also be staged in a 1,500-seat theater every night.
According to Gao, tourism will generate at least one third of the county's revenue in the future. Located half way on the road from Sichuan's capital city Chengdu, to Jiuzhaigou National Park, Maoxian is trying to attract more tourists to stay longer.
Wang cautions, however, that the development of tourism will only benefit some local people and have a limited impact in terms of saving Qiang culture. He suggests that apart from selling local products and catering to tourists, Qiang people can contribute more to the nation.
Wang says the Qiang live in a geologically unstable area near the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers that is vital for the environment of China.
"Using their traditional knowledge of the local biology, the Qiang can play an important role in China's environmental protection. I hope the central government will allocate funds to let Qiang people take the work of guarding western Sichuan's forests."
