8 | Thursday, March 21, 2019 HONG KONG EDITION | DAILY CHINA Learning about ethnic groups a passion passed down in family Father’s devotion to capturing good photos saw him invest savings in craft

By TIAN XUEFEI 1.2 million words in 22 photograph­ and ZHOU HUIYING in Harbin ic diaries. “Before I started, I spent eight hotographer Zhan Rencai is months looking up information, preparing to take his 5­year­ including the distribution, loca­ old daughter to visit the She tions, cultural and local customs, ethnic group in the provin­ and historical changes of ethnic Pces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang in April. groups,” he said. He hopes she will eventually be “Therefore, I focused my photog­ able to see all the country’s ethnic raphy on ethnic dwellings that can groups, matching his own achieve­ represent their customs, migration ment in the first decade of this cen­ and integration well. tury. “From the dwellings, we can find “With the rapid development of evidence of caves, tents, houses and society, some formerly isolated eth­ other forms during the process of nic group settlements have had human development. They can even opportunities to communicate with tell the historical changes of a the outside world,” the 57­year­old, nation, as well as the balance from Mudanjiang, in northeastern between man and nature.” China’s Heilongjiang province, said. During the project, he visited “It is a good chance for them to learn more than 500 ethnic villages in 50 more about modern civilization, but regions. it can also be a challenge for them to “Even in the same ethnic group, preserve original ethnic characteris­ residents in different regions have tics. different characteristics in dwell­ “I want to understand their daily ings and lifestyles,” he said. lives in various ethnic dwellings “For example, in the pastures of through my photographs.” the Tibet autonomous region, Tibet­ From 2003 to 2009, Zhan traveled an residents usually choose to live in around the country, taking more tents, while in the farming areas, than 40,000 photographs of ethnic residents choose dwellings made of groups’ daily lives. earth, stones and wood.” In April last year, he decided to The long journeys also brought Traditional dwellings dominate a village of the Miao ethnic group in Leishan county, Guizhou province. PHOTOS BY ZHAN RENCAI / FOR CHINA DAILY donate all his precious negatives to him lots of unforgettable difficul­ the Museum of Ethnic Cultures at ties, such as the lack of food in the Minzu University of China, in Bei­ mountains, poor road conditions jing. and walking dozens of kilometers After five years of service in the on mountain roads to get to remote military, Zhan began working in the villages, especially when he had to publicity department of the railway carry 20 kilograms of photographic bureau in Mudanjiang in 1990, equipment. devoting himself to photography. “However, the hardest part for me During the decade of rapid devel­ was communicating well with local opment in the 1990s, Zhan took a residents,” he said. “I was often series of photographs recording the rejected by my interviewees for vari­ great changes in the railway system ous reasons.” and outstanding railway staff. But he worked hard to win their To improve the quality of his pho­ trust. tography, Zhan spent 120,000 yuan “In 2005, for instance, I came buying a camera set in 1998. across a funeral ceremony in a vil­ “That was almost all my savings, lage of the ethnic Zhuang people in with which I had originally planned Napo county (in southern China’s to buy a new apartment,” he said. “At Zhuang autonomous that time, the money could have region),” Zhan said. bought a 200­square­meter apart­ “Before that, I had shot several ment in Mudanjiang.” wedding ceremonies of different In 2003, he was tasked with tak­ ethnic groups, but it was my first ing a set of photographs featuring time experiencing a funeral ceremo­ Zhan with a couple from the Bai ethnic group in Dali, Yunnan pro­ Zhan with a couple from the Tatar ethnic group and their grandchild China’s railways to welcome the Bei­ ny. To grasp the unique opportunity, vince, in 2004. in Qitai, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, in 2006. jing Olympic Games in 2008. I tried my very best to ask for the During that project, Zhan came family’s permission.” up with the idea of simultaneously He helped them with chores such of Zhuang funerary customs. kept for about 100 years with good understand why I decided to donate of visiting all the ethnic groups photographing ethnic groups. as splitting firewood and carrying To retain the most realistic imag­ preservation.” all the negatives,” Zhan said. before my daughter goes to college, With the privilege of free train water, which made the family and es, Zhan insisted on recording them Buying film and printing photo­ “They advised me to leave them to just like what I did before. It will be travel as a railway employee, Zhan the villagers treat him as a family on film. graphs became his biggest expenses. my daughter, but I believed the films the most precious treasure for her traveled more than 300,000 kilome­ member. “Compared with digital photo­ He sold his apartment in Mudan­ could be of huge value to the muse­ growth.” ters in a seven­year period for the They allowed him to shoot the graphs, negatives can’t be modified jiang in 2005 and spent 800,000 um, which is a great platform to project. three­day funeral ceremony and at all,” he said. yuan during the seven­year project. present China’s ethnic groups. Contact the writers at He recorded his entire journey in the villagers introduced him to lots “Furthermore, the film can be “Almost all my friends couldn’t “I hope we can finish the journey [email protected] Stinky maker preserves pungent snack tradition

Stinky tofu, a strong­smelling “Within a few hours, the curds son, the stinky tofu is made into a form of , might will be firm enough to be cut into tofu feast, which includes a wide be one of the most divisive Chinese squares of fresh tofu,” Li said. variety of tofu dishes such as stewed foods. Our village has built a It takes even more effort to “stink fish with tofu, and crab roe with Sold at roadside stands across tofu museum and up” fresh tofu. “Fermenting the tofu tofu. The restaurant has attracted China as a widely popular snack, its is like raising a child. It requires a lot many food lovers since it opened in pungent odor may put off even the launched a tofu of care,” Li said. 2014. most adventurous eaters. culture festival. It’s the Li lays pieces of fresh tofu on “The taste is . I love these For Li Yong, who has been making wooden racks, where it will sit for tofu dishes,” said Song Liming, a fre­ stinky tofu for nearly four decades, best time for my five days, slowly fermenting into quent visitor to the village. the food might smell bad, but its family.” blocks of stinky tofu. Li needs to Stinky tofu has become Qibu­ taste is unbeatable. flip the pieces over twice during chang’s biggest attraction in recent “Like the food itself, producing Li Yong, a stinky tofu maker in the fermentation process to fully years. The village now receives more stinky tofu might be painstaking, Qibuchang village, Kunming, ferment the tofu. than 5,000 tourists a day who are Yunnan province but it has been a successful business White fuzz will form on the sur­ interested in visiting the village’s that has supported my family over face of the tofu, as it starts to give off tofu workshops and learning about the years,” the 55­year­old said. bits are then mixed with a coagulant its unique, pungent smell, which the local tofu culture. Li lives in Qibuchang village on A worker spreads bean curds onto a table to make stinky tofu at a called gypsum, and simmered in will grow stronger day by day. Tofu and other bean products the outskirts of Kunming, capital of workshop in Zunyi, Guizhou province. XING HAN / FOR CHINA DAILY boiling water until the mixture sep­ Li said the time­consuming proc­ produced by the villagers have also southwestern China’s Yunnan prov­ arates into and blobs of ess of making stinky tofu by hand is been sold to other parts of the coun­ ince. The village boasts a long histo­ curds. worthwhile because market try as well as foreign countries such ry of producing stinky tofu that ers went to do other work,” he said. ers have started using machines to Using a ladle, Li scoops the curds demand for the product is higher. as Zambia and Tanzania in recent dates back to the early Ming Dynas­ “I didn’t want to see my father’s craft produce the specialty in large quan­ onto a table and spreads them flat He sells his handmade stinky tofu years. “Our village has built a tofu ty (1368­1644). of making stinky tofu fade away.” tities. with his hands. Then, he lays a to more than 20 small restaurants in museum and launched a tofu cul­ Li decided to follow in his father’s Since then, he has been making Before dawn, Li walks into his porous cloth and a wooden plank on Kunming, where it is steamed or ture festival,” Li said. “It’s the best footsteps and become a tofu maker stinky tofu by hand using his workshop to soak and top of the curds, and puts stone deep fried and served with spicy time for my family.” when he was 20. father’s old­school method, grind them into small bits with a weights on the plank to squeeze out sauce. “At that time, my two elder broth­ although many of his fellow villag­ hand­powered stone mill. The little the extra liquid. In a family restaurant run by Li’s XINHUA