Abstract Apart from their mother tongue, most Ersu people can speak their two neighboring languages, Mandarin and the Nuosu Yi language, fluently. Therefore, the Ersu people have three languages. In the beginning of the 1980s, two ethnic identities among the Ersu people emerged. Some of them recognize themselves as being of Tibetan nationality, while others requested to be recognized as a distinct minzu (nationality or ethnic group). The writing system used by the Ersu people played an essential role in the dispute. The Tibetan canons used by the religious practitioners of the Ersu people, Shuvuer, strengthened the Ersu people’s identification with the Tibetans, while the Shaaba hieroglyph used by another type of religious practitioners of the Ersu people, Shaaba, stressed the uniqueness of the Ersu culture. Focusing on the use of the two writing systems of the Ersu people, this paper offers an analysis of this kind of ethnic dispute which is based on “subjective identification” and “imagined communities” from the perspective of reconstructionist ethnic theory in anthropology.
{"title":"Three Tongues and Two Identities: A Case Study of Ersu Ethnic Identities in Sichuan, China / 三种语言和两种认同 中国四川藏族尔苏人族群认同的个案研究","authors":"Wu Da","doi":"10.1515/CDC-2015-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CDC-2015-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Apart from their mother tongue, most Ersu people can speak their two neighboring languages, Mandarin and the Nuosu Yi language, fluently. Therefore, the Ersu people have three languages. In the beginning of the 1980s, two ethnic identities among the Ersu people emerged. Some of them recognize themselves as being of Tibetan nationality, while others requested to be recognized as a distinct minzu (nationality or ethnic group). The writing system used by the Ersu people played an essential role in the dispute. The Tibetan canons used by the religious practitioners of the Ersu people, Shuvuer, strengthened the Ersu people’s identification with the Tibetans, while the Shaaba hieroglyph used by another type of religious practitioners of the Ersu people, Shaaba, stressed the uniqueness of the Ersu culture. Focusing on the use of the two writing systems of the Ersu people, this paper offers an analysis of this kind of ethnic dispute which is based on “subjective identification” and “imagined communities” from the perspective of reconstructionist ethnic theory in anthropology.","PeriodicalId":285588,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Diversity in China","volume":"205 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133224392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper examines the historical formation and contemporary flourishing of certain temple and trust networks that emerged from the Xinghua area along the coast of Fujian province in the late 19th century, and spread across Southeast Asia over the last 150 years. This article examines three out of at least eight different networks that spread from this region to Southeast Asia (Fujiangsheng, Putianshi difangzhi, 2001). These are the 1) Spirit medium Altar Association networks; 2) extended lineage networks; and 3) Buddhist master-disciple networks. These ritual “trust networks” were constructed from cosmopolitical ritual technologies that were transportable, like the portable altar of a Daoist priest, the incense ash of a local god’s temple, methods of collective spirit medium training, or rites conducted before the spirit tablet of an ancestor or a master monk. This paper shows how these ritual methods were employed in a great variety of different political and multi-ethnic settings around Southeast Asia. These networks had a powerful impact on their founding villages and local cultures as well. Rather than simply preserving traditional forms, these networks engaged in continuous ritual revolution, constantly negotiating the forces of modernity within evolving ritual contexts.
{"title":"Ritual revolutions: Temple and Trust networks linking Putian and Southeast Asia / 仪式革命： 联结莆田与 东南亚的寺庙与信任网 络","authors":"K. Dean","doi":"10.1515/CDC-2015-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CDC-2015-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper examines the historical formation and contemporary flourishing of certain temple and trust networks that emerged from the Xinghua area along the coast of Fujian province in the late 19th century, and spread across Southeast Asia over the last 150 years. This article examines three out of at least eight different networks that spread from this region to Southeast Asia (Fujiangsheng, Putianshi difangzhi, 2001). These are the 1) Spirit medium Altar Association networks; 2) extended lineage networks; and 3) Buddhist master-disciple networks. These ritual “trust networks” were constructed from cosmopolitical ritual technologies that were transportable, like the portable altar of a Daoist priest, the incense ash of a local god’s temple, methods of collective spirit medium training, or rites conducted before the spirit tablet of an ancestor or a master monk. This paper shows how these ritual methods were employed in a great variety of different political and multi-ethnic settings around Southeast Asia. These networks had a powerful impact on their founding villages and local cultures as well. Rather than simply preserving traditional forms, these networks engaged in continuous ritual revolution, constantly negotiating the forces of modernity within evolving ritual contexts.","PeriodicalId":285588,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Diversity in China","volume":"628 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123339795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Based on archival studies, this paper analyses an “ethnic symposium” organized by the party committee of the Dali Prefecture in 1956. The author argues that determining the Bai as the ethnonym is a process of “name standardization”. It was neither the decision of the state power, nor was it led by the scholar’s opinion, but by the local elites’ deliberate complicity with the state project. It could be thus called a process of “creating a common fate” under the combined principles of the discourse of “liberation-cum-backwardness”, historical evidence, anti-discrimination, legibility to the ordinary member, conformity to the communist value, etc. It defamiliarizes the everyday knowledge of the people and creates a liminal stage in which a shared fate could be felt. Therefore, this paper is not intended to deconstruct the ethnic identity, but attempts to provide the empirical analysis on a sociological issue of knowledge through contextualizing the usage and implication of the word “minzu” (ethnicity, nation).
{"title":"Creating a Common Fate: The Negotiation Meeting of the Bai’s Ethnonym / 制造共同命运:以“白族”族称的协商座谈会为例","authors":"Liang Yongjia","doi":"10.1515/CDC-2015-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CDC-2015-0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Based on archival studies, this paper analyses an “ethnic symposium” organized by the party committee of the Dali Prefecture in 1956. The author argues that determining the Bai as the ethnonym is a process of “name standardization”. It was neither the decision of the state power, nor was it led by the scholar’s opinion, but by the local elites’ deliberate complicity with the state project. It could be thus called a process of “creating a common fate” under the combined principles of the discourse of “liberation-cum-backwardness”, historical evidence, anti-discrimination, legibility to the ordinary member, conformity to the communist value, etc. It defamiliarizes the everyday knowledge of the people and creates a liminal stage in which a shared fate could be felt. Therefore, this paper is not intended to deconstruct the ethnic identity, but attempts to provide the empirical analysis on a sociological issue of knowledge through contextualizing the usage and implication of the word “minzu” (ethnicity, nation).","PeriodicalId":285588,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Diversity in China","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114483751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract There are two dominant perceptions on the relationship between Christianity and rural society and culture in China. One is more concerned about the authenticity of Christianity from the church’s perspective, while the other talks about ‘cultural security’ from the view of the local tradition of China. These seemingly contradictory views are in fact based on the same historical model known as impact response. It is a welldeveloped model in that it could explain the “mission church” (church in China), while it seems less or less likely to help us grasp the nature and reality of the “local church” (China’s Church). Hence, this article deals with the following questions, taking Huanan church (South China Church, or SCC) as a case study. Is it plausible for us to consider this kind of local church and its believers as a sort of Christian faith tradition de facto? In light of the assumption, how do we understand the diversified symbolic representations and even inventions? Furthermore, how do we understand the continuity and discontinuity of tradition, if we consider the faith tradition as a cultural tradition?
{"title":"Symbolic Representation of Rural Christianity and the Inventiveness of Faith Traditions / 乡村基督教的象征表现与信仰传统的发明性","authors":"Huang Jianbo","doi":"10.1515/CDC-2015-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CDC-2015-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract There are two dominant perceptions on the relationship between Christianity and rural society and culture in China. One is more concerned about the authenticity of Christianity from the church’s perspective, while the other talks about ‘cultural security’ from the view of the local tradition of China. These seemingly contradictory views are in fact based on the same historical model known as impact response. It is a welldeveloped model in that it could explain the “mission church” (church in China), while it seems less or less likely to help us grasp the nature and reality of the “local church” (China’s Church). Hence, this article deals with the following questions, taking Huanan church (South China Church, or SCC) as a case study. Is it plausible for us to consider this kind of local church and its believers as a sort of Christian faith tradition de facto? In light of the assumption, how do we understand the diversified symbolic representations and even inventions? Furthermore, how do we understand the continuity and discontinuity of tradition, if we consider the faith tradition as a cultural tradition?","PeriodicalId":285588,"journal":{"name":"Cultural Diversity in China","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126443509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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