Cultural Diversity in China 2015; 1(1): 44–67 Research Article Open Access Wu Da* Three Tongues and Two Identities: A Case Study of Ersu Ethnic Identities in Sichuan, China Abstract: Apart from their mother tongue, most Ersu people Yuexi counties. The indigenous people called this area the can speak their two neighboring languages, Mandarin and “five villages along the route” (da lu wu pu). In Shimian the Nuosu Yi language, fluently. Therefore, the Ersu people County, the Ersu people lived in Xieluo Tibetan Autonomous have three languages. In the beginning of the 1980s, two Xiang (township), which is called the “lower eight villages” ethnic identities among the Ersu people emerged. Some of (xia ba pu). This name is vis-à-vis the “upper eight villages” them recognize themselves as being of Tibetan nationality, (shang ba pu) which is the Muya people’s area, known as while others requested to be recognized as a distinct minzu Xianfeng Tibetan Autonomous Xiang. Although Ersu and (nationality or ethnic group). The writing system used by Muya belong to two different ethnic groups, both of them are the Ersu people played an essential role in the dispute. recognized by the Chinese government as being of Tibetan The Tibetan canons used by the religious practitioners of nationality. In Hanyuan County, the Ersu people live in the Ersu people, Shuvuer, strengthened the Ersu people’s Xiaopu Tibetan and Yi Autonomous Xiang, Dashu, Henan identification with the Tibetans, while the Shaaba and Dawan towns. The Ersu have a population of about 10, hieroglyph used by another type of religious practitioners of 000; among them, 3, 024 are in Ganluo County and 2, 277 the Ersu people, Shaaba, stressed the uniqueness of the Ersu are in Yuexi County according to the official statistics of culture. Focusing on the use of the two writing systems of 2000 and 1990 (Ganluo County Statistic Department 2001; the Ersu people, this paper offers an analysis of this kind of Yuexi County Chorography Committee 1994). According to ethnic dispute which is based on “subjective identification” linguistic classification, the Ersu language belongs to the and “imagined communities” from the perspective of Qiangic (not Tibetan branch), Tibetan-Burma branch, Sino- reconstructionist ethnic theory in anthropology. Tibet family. The Ersu have lived with other ethnic groups such as Keywords: Ersu people; reconstruction approach; Yi and Han in 36 villages for a long time. Among the 36 subjective identification; imagined communities villages (28 in Ganluo and 8 in Yuexi County), Jiabasha village and Qinglin village in Ganluo County, Lajigu village, Xinqiao village, and Lianshanying village in Yuexi DOI 10.1515/cdc-2015-0004 County are considered as “nearly pure” Ersu villages, Received July 23, 2014; accepted August 1, 2014 where most residents are Ersu. In the other 31 villages, the Ersu people live with Yi and Han. Ersu can speak Ersu, Yi 1 Introduction and Mandarin Chinese fluently, so the Yi people call them “people with three tongues”. The Ersu people live in Ganluo and Yuexi counties, The Ersu people call themselves Ersu or Berzii, and Liangshan Yi Autonomy Prefecture, and Shimian and they sometimes use these two terms together as Berzii- Hanyuan counties of Ya’an, Sichuan province. More Ersu. “Ersu” means “white people” with er meaning specifically, they live on the ancient Lingguan route “white” and su meaning “people, person”. Even today, (Lingguan Dao in Chinese), which belongs to the so-called their Han neighbors in villages still call them Xifan, which “Southern Silk Road” (nanfang sichou zhi lu) in Ganluo and means “western barbarian”, or Fanzu, which means “barbarian nationality”, in Sichuan dialect of Mandarin. Some Ersu people call themselves Fanzu, while others call *Corresponding author: Wu Da: Minzu University of China, E-mail: themselves Zangzu (Tibetan) when they speak Mandarin. [email protected] However, the local Yi people call Ersu Ozzu. © 2015 Wu Da, licensee De Gruyter Open. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. A case study on Ersu ethnic identities in Sichuan, China 45 The Ersu people were officially classified as Tibetan It focuses on the migrating history of the “Xifan” people. by the state after the Fourth National Census in 1990. The basic information of the local Ersu people can be Before 1990, they were normally called Fanzu in Ganluo found in the county annuals of Ganluo County and Yuexi and Yuexi counties, Zangzu (Tibetan) in Shimian County, County; Qian Anjing (Jin Suizhi1) introduced part of the and even as Han (Ethnic Chinese) in Hanyuan County. religious ceremonies of the Ersu people in Yuexi County However, their nationality on their citizen ID cards was of Liangshan Prefecture and Shimian County of Ya’an City. “Fanzu” in Ganluo before 1990. Before 1990, some Ersu Huang Yuebu argues that the symbols in the Nanjing cliff people viewed themselves as Zangzu while some did not. paintings show the location for religious ceremony such They thought they should become an independent minzu as worshipping the mountain gods and the prayers of (nationality or ethnic group) -- or Ersuzu (Ersu nationality). Tibetan Benbo worshippers. They describe the Tibetan There was a big debate between the Tibetan faction and religious content and forms in the beginning or the middle the Ersuzu faction. In the 1980s, the Ersu faction made a period of Tang Dynasty, a thousand years ago. The article request to the National Ethnic Affairs Committee (NEAC) by Luo Qingtian introduces the historical origin of the Ersu and the Sichuan Ethnic Affair Committee (SEAC), asking people in Hanyuan. The Japanese scholar Nishida Tatsuo for recognition as an independent minzu. Because of argues that the Xifan language in Xifan Yiyu is the same this the NEAC commissioned the Sichuan Institute for language used by the Duoxu people in Mianning County Nationalities (SIN) to conduct a research on their ethnic of Liangshan. The Duoxu people are also called Xifan in identification. The result was that the former classification history, and later, they were identified as Tibetan by the was retained. The Ersu people were still deemed as a Chinese government. Sun Hongkai argues that the Duoxu branch of Zangzu. After that, some people accepted the language has a direct relation with Ersu language and that above classification, while some other elites still felt it should be the central language of the Ersu people (Sun that they should not be included in Zangzu, but should 1982b). be regarded as an independent ethnic group-the Ersu Other articles whose titles contain “Tibet” or “Xifan” nationality. mainly refer to those people who were called Xifan during Articles and books on Ersu astronomy, language, the past at the Liangshan area, but are now regarded as writing system, religion and other cultural items have Tibetan. Some of these articles involve the Ersu people, been produced. These publications include: Liu Yaohan but they fail to specify the exact place of those Xifan or et al. (Liu et al. 1981), Sun Hongkai (Sun 1982a; 1982b), Tibetan people. These articles include Mu Jun and Ren Wang Yuanlu (Wang 1990), Long Xijiang (Long 1991a; Qing (2001), Mu Jun, Ren Qing and Xichang Zeren (2001), 1991b), Ganluo County Statistics Department (2001), Ma Wenzhong (2001), etc. They mainly appear in the Ganluo County Chorography Committee (1996), Yuexi new yearly journal Liangshan Tibetan Study edited by County Chorography Committee (1994), Qian Anjing the Liangshan Tibetan Association. Two issues (2001, (1997), Jin Suizhi (1998), Huang Yuebu (2001), Luo 2002) have been published by the end of the year 2002. Qingtian and Wu Da (2004; 2005; 2010). Among these Furthermore, Zhang Quanchang (1987 (1962)) and the publications, Liu et al.’s article discusses the astronomy Sichuan Province Ethnic Affairs Commission Xifan of Ersu. They point out that the Ersu calendric system Identification Work Force (1982) also mentioned the Ersu includes a concept of “tiger pushes the earth” and people. Wu Da (2003) discusses the cuisine culture in uses this concept to understand the four seasons. Sun terms of ethnic interaction and acculturation. Hongkai puts forward that the Ersu language belongs to the Qiangic, and not to Tibetan or Loloish (Yi). Sun published two articles: one of them introduced Ersu 2 Ersu Language and Writing phonology, morphology and sentence structure (Sun System 1982a). The other introduced the “Shaaba hieroglyph”, which is used by Ersu traditional religious practitioners, Shaaba (Sun 1982b). Wang Yuanlu’s article introduces the 2.1 Ersu Language writing construction of the “Shaaba hieroglyph” and its significance in the study of ancient writing systems. The In their village, the Ersu people speak their own language. two articles of Long Xijiang are actually one article divided In Jiabasha village and Lajigu village, the language use into two parts and announced at two different times. The unified long article generally introduces the “Xifan” 1 Qian Anjing and Jin Suizhi are names of the same person who is a people in Liangshan area, which also includes the Ersu. professor at Sichuan University. 46 Wu Da reflects the trend that the number of multilingual speakers used by the Lisu people with a population of 4000 in is growing with the increase of age. In the pre-school Muli Tibetan Autonomous County, Mianning County and period, the children can only speak Ersu. They acquire Jiulong County of Ganzi Prefecture (Sun 1982a). Chinese quickly when they enter primary schools. If the Long Xijiang (1991a) proposes a different view, majority of the classes are Yi students, they will master Yi suggesting that there are few differences between the as well. The older they become, the more the opportunities Ersu language and the Niru language (referred to as Lisu they have to deal with the Yi and the Han people, and the by Sun) and they can be considered as different dialects higher their command of Yi and Chinese becomes.