Preservation and Development of Immigrant Islands and Ethnic Boundaries: A Case Study of the Village of She Immigrants to Jiangxi Province from the Region of the Xin'an River and Fuchun River

Abstract

One day in July 2002, we went to Yangdu village in Luoping township of Wuning county on a research and study tour for the comprehensive agricultural development program. We found that we could not understand the villagers as they were speaking among themselves. It was neither the dialect spoken in northern Jiangxi province nor Mandarin. In answer to our inquiry, they told us it was “the language of the She people.” This aroused my curiosity. Further investigation revealed that this village is a settlement of immigrants from Zhejiang province. Not only have the villagers preserved the language and customs of the She, but they have also maintained close connections with other immigrants of the She ethnic group from their hometown. Not only can the second generation of these immigrants speak the She language, but their wives married from the Han ethnic group and the Han people scattered in the village can also speak the She language. This set me thinking. After living for so long on an “island of immigrants” encircled by the Han, why