My China Project

My China Project

For my AACE class presentation on China, I chose to study (and later present) the many ethnic groups of the Yunnan Province. My information was extremely abundant, so to lighten the load for myself, I focused on just three out of the over twenty ethnic minorities. I focused on the particular following three, because of the contact our class will have with them when we travel to China in April.

The three ethnic groups I selected based on that idea were the Yi, the Bai, and the Naxi. I focused on such things like; religion and beliefs, customs and traditions, dress, accomplishments, and festivals usually associated with each culture.

I also included an article I found over the internet from the China Daily newspaper, about a newly developed gene bank at the Yunnan University, where they have collected DNA from men who are a "pure" members of the different ethnic groups that inhabit the Yunnan province. I also touched base on the Cultural Revolution, because of the possibility of it being a contributing factor to why Yunnan Province is so diverse in its culture.

I found out many intersting things about each and every culture that I studied. For example, I had absolutrly no idea that the Yi are the biggest ethnic group population in the Yunnan Province. I also had no idea that the Naxi are the creators of the Dongba religion and script. the following are some more facts about each ethnic group that I studied.

-Their language belongs to the Tibetan-Myanmese language group of the Chinese Tibetan Langage Family.

-They have a syllabic script called "The Old Yi Language", that was formed in the thirteenth century. It contains 10,000 words , 1,000 being for everyday use.

-The Yi's clothing comes in great variety and is different in different regions.

-They generally consider beardless men to be handsome.

-The Yi family is usually in the form of a clan with a "Suyi" (head man) and "Degu" elders gifted with silver tongues).

-The last one or two syllables of the Father's name go into or are added to the son's.

-They are one of the biggest ethnic groups in the Yunnan province, however their population is not as high as the Yi culture,.

-Bais worship the color white, and white clothing is considered as noble.

-Their architecture is harmonious and elegant in design.

-They are most known as living in Dali, that has become a famous tourist attraction and holds historical importance in China.

-Women wear their hair in a chaplet hair-style with a red ribbon fastening around to the scarf, along with a elegantly embroidered apron.

-They celebrate the "Third Month Fair", "Rao Santing", "Yu Tan Hui", and the "Torch Festival".

-They also find building houses a great joy. Friends and family come around to give congradsulations to the family building the house.