Operation China

Iu Mien, Hunan May 14 ➤

rebellions occurred among HUNAN the Iu Mien in Hunan, Shaoyang starting in 1836. The fight • •Hengyang •Kaili was over the control of the •Chengbu •Leiyang GUIZHOU opium trade. Most drugs •Guilin going from southern China GUANGXI GUANGDONG to the northern provinces Scale passed through Xinning 0 KM 160 County, just to the west of Population in China: the Xiang River valley. The Iu 130,000 (1990) 167,700 (2000) Mien in this region were 216,300 (2010) involved with the trade as Location: Hunan well as several Chinese triad Religion: Polytheism societies, including the Christians: None Known Qinglian Jiao (Black Lotus Society) and the Bangbang Overview of the Hui (Cudgel Society). In Hunan Iu Mien 1847 another revolt Countries: China occurred in Xinning, led by Pronunciation: an Iu Mien, Li Caihao. The Iu “Hoo-nahn-Yoo-Mee-en” Mien were savagely Other Names: defeated after fighting Hunan Yao, Mien, Pan Yao Population Source: 130,000 lasted for several months. (1995 Wang Fushi – 1990 figure); Thousands of Iu Mien were Out of a total Yao population of killed.3 2,134,013 (1990 census) Location: S Hunan: Yongzhou, Shuangpai, Xintian, Changning, Customs: Many of the Iu Daoxian, Lanshan, Lingxian,

Paul Hattaway Mien in Hunan live in Ningyuan, Jianghua, Jiangyong, Location: An official Language: The language of isolated villages at the Dong’an, Linwu, Guiyang, Xinning, and Yizhang counties government study in 1995 the Iu Mien in Hunan has summits of high mountains. Status: listed 130,000 speakers of probably changed because Because of their location, Officially included under Yao the Iu Mien language living of influences from the Iu Mien pipe fresh water Language: in southern Hunan neighboring languages such to their villages through a Hmong-Mien, Mienic, Mian-Jin 1 Province. They inhabit at as Ghao-Xong and Xiang skillfully constructed system Dialects: 0 least 17 different counties Chinese. Today speakers of of bamboo pipes. Religion: Polytheism, Animism, within Hunan, including Hunan Iu Mien struggle Ancestor Worship, Daoism Yongzhou, Shuangpai, greatly to understand the Religion: The Hunan Iu Mien Christians: None known Xintian, Changning, Daoxian, speech of their counterparts share three religious belief Scripture: None Lanshan, Lingxian, in Guangxi, Guizhou, and systems. They worship Pan Jesus film: None Ningyuan, Jianghua, Yunnan provinces. Hunan Iu Hu, the mythical progenitor Gospel Recordings: None Jiangyong, Dong’an, Linwu, Mien is closer to the speech of their race, they appease Christian Broadcasting: None Guiyang, Xinning, and of the Iu Mien in northern spirits and demons, and ROPAL code: IUM03 Yizhang. In many locations Guangdong Province, but it they also observe rituals the Iu Mien live alongside is still different enough to borrowed from Daoism Status of Evangelization Ghao-Xong and Han be labeled a separate (which includes ancestor 95% Chinese. There are no fangyan (language, in a worship). speakers of the Hunan Western sense) by variety of Iu Mien reportedly contemporary Chinese Christianity: The Iu Mien in living outside of China. scholars.2 Hunan are among China’s most unreached people 5% 0% Identity: Although they are History: There has been groups. There is very little A B part of the great Yao great conflict between the Iu Christian influence of any C nationality in China, the Iu Mien (Yao) and the Han for sort in Hunan, and few A = Have never heard the gospel B = Were evangelized but did not Mien living in Hunan many centuries. Until this believers have ever dared to become Christians Province have been found to century the Chinese venture into the isolated C = Are adherents to any form of speak a dialect that differs character for writing Yao mountains inhabited by the Christianity and is considered mutually used the radical for “insect” Iu Mien since time unintelligible with Iu Mien instead of the radical for immemorial. varieties elsewhere. “people.” A series of

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