mission
the author with a Gejia woman, Kaili, Guizhou, 2004
Guizhou Province and its surrounding area comprise a part of China rich in varied local culture and ethnic diversity. Within Guizhou Province there are more than fifteen ethnic groups with different languages, customs, dress, architecture and beliefs. Due to extremely mountainous terrain and isolation, many parts of southwest China remain a place to see and experience things different from other areas of the country.
The world views and spiritual ideas of the people in southwest Chinese villages are intimately tied to a strong sense of place. Their worship of ancestors and veneration of ancient trees and other natural wonders are manifestations of the priority they place on fostering the benevolent forces of nature, heaven and ancestors, to bless them with the things necessary for survival in a harsh environment. They also must work to placate the malevolent forces that can have a devastating effect on their lives. One spring I stood on top of a mountain in Taijiang County overlooking a beautiful village's rice terraces. My Miao friend pointed out that only about one half of the rice terraces had filled with water and then he said, "Within the next month it should rain enough to fill them all. If not, we starve."
On typical days, villagers climb mountains to work in the fields, collect firewood, or take their cows and water buffalo to graze. Many evenings people return home bearing heavy loads, only when it is too dark to continue working. For most of the year, when land can be farmed productively, people live an arduous life. It is only on important festival days and during the slack agricultural season that people can relax and spend time on other pursuits. The vast majority of villagers are subsistence farmers, although money now usually comes from economic migrants who have left their villages to work in China's boomtowns. Most of these migrants can only see their loved ones once a year. Nearly every family in rural areas has members working in the cities. People sacrifice enormously to pay annual school fees of twenty or thirty US for their children, with the hope of giving them a better and easier future life.
Rural villages and landscapes are often dramatically beautiful and unspoiled, thus easy for an outsider to idealize, but they are no Shangri La. Villagers do not live a romantic life untouched by the modern world, it is ever present. This phenomenon is most apparent in the number of satellite television dishes dotting village rooftops. People's values and way of life are changing and most young people have limited interest in traditional things they see as old fashioned. At the same time tradition is a resilient force in more isolated areas, especially among older people.
Today the majority of people wear manufactured western style clothing, yet one can still see individuals wearing traditional clothing that identifies them quite clearly to a particular locale and ethnic group, especially older women in rural areas. Men today seldom wear traditional clothing, except in the Dong area of southeastern Guizhou. The finest traditional outfits are visible on market days and during major events like weddings, festivals and funerals, when everyone wants to look their best. Towns have scores of anonymous concrete buildings and an explosion in the number of cars, bars, discos and other modern conveniences, as well as pollution. I have not included much about those aspects of life in Southwest China on this website, not out of a desire to romanticize, but because they are identical to many other places and therefore less interesting to me.
A keen awareness of the difficult living circumstances many people in the mountains of southwest China face allows me to appreciate the beauty and dignity of their way of life, artistic sensibility, spirituality and integrity all the more. This website is a monument to southwest China's rural people, the places their ancestors established, their culture and way of life.
Special thanks to the countless people who have welcomed me into their homes and provided great company, conversation, food and shelter, most of them having no real idea who I was or where I came from. This website is an effort to give the reader a sense of one small part of this amazing place and the people who make it so.
Steven Frost
sqfrost@gmail.com