Life in a Kam Village in Southwest China, 1930–1949 GEARY_f1_i-xiv.indd i 7/11/2007 6:53:55 PM Sinica Leidensia Edited by Barend J. ter Haar In co-operation with P.K. Bol, D.R. Knechtges, E.S. Rawski, W.L. Idema, E. Zürcher, H.T. Zurndorfer VOLUME 80 GEARY_f1_i-xiv.indd ii 7/11/2007 6:53:56 PM Life in a Kam Village in Southwest China, 1930–1949 By Ou Chaoquan Translated by D. Norman Geary LEIDEN • BOSTON 2007 GEARY_f1_i-xiv.indd iii 7/11/2007 6:53:56 PM On the cover: Dazhai in Xiangye village. Photo by Dean Schauer. All photographs by Dean Schauer. All line illustrations by Zhong Shengzhi. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISSN 0169-9563 ISBN 978 90 04 16229 7 Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands GEARY_f1_i-xiv.indd iv 7/11/2007 6:53:56 PM CONTENTS Acknowledgements ..................................................................... vii Preface ......................................................................................... ix Maps ............................................................................................ xiii Chapter One Location ............................................................. 1 Chapter Two Langdong ........................................................... 9 Chapter Three The name ‘Kam’ ............................................ 21 Chapter Four The villagers ...................................................... 25 Chapter Five Physical characteristics of the people ................. 33 Chapter Six The village ........................................................... 39 Chapter Seven Farming ........................................................... 51 Chapter Eight Spinning and weaving ...................................... 61 Chapter Nine Thrifty people ................................................... 69 Chapter Ten Mornings and evenings ...................................... 81 Chapter Eleven Food ............................................................... 87 Chapter Twelve Mealtime etiquette ......................................... 97 Chapter Thirteen Drinks ......................................................... 103 Chapter Fourteen Clothing ...................................................... 109 Chapter Fifteen Coming-of-age ............................................... 115 Chapter Sixteen Courtship by night ........................................ 121 Chapter Seventeen Courtship by day ...................................... 129 Chapter Eighteen Intimidating situations for young women ... 133 Chapter Nineteen Matchmakers .............................................. 139 Chapter Twenty Engagement ceremony ................................. 145 Chapter Twenty-One Marriage and divorce ........................... 149 Chapter Twenty-Two Unorthodox marriages ......................... 159 Chapter Twenty-Three Marriage relationships ....................... 167 Chapter Twenty-Four The distinction in culture between men and women ...................................................................... 177 Chapter Twenty-Five Clan-centred community ...................... 183 Chapter Twenty-Six Pipe-smoking elders ................................ 193 Chapter Twenty-Seven No beggars or thieves ......................... 201 Chapter Twenty-Eight Monotonous and primitive music ....... 205 Chapter Twenty-Nine Festivals and celebrations ..................... 209 Chapter Thirty Children ......................................................... 217 GEARY_f1_i-xiv.indd v 7/11/2007 6:53:56 PM vi contents Chapter Thirty-One Survival in the midst of suffering ........... 223 Chapter Thirty-Two Author’s postscript ................................. 231 Chapter Thirty-Three Translator’s postscript ......................... 247 Glossary ....................................................................................... 253 References ................................................................................... 255 Index ........................................................................................... 259 Plates ........................................................................................... 265 GEARY_f1_i-xiv.indd vi 7/11/2007 6:53:56 PM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The rst draft of this book was completed in Chinese and signed by Professor Ou Chaoquan in June 2004. Several colleagues assessed this Chinese manuscript: Professor Wang Liangfan (of Guizhou Univer- sity), Professor Long Yaohong (of Guizhou Institute of Nationalities), Professor Shi Lin (retired from Nankai University in Tianjin), Mr Pan Yongrong (of the Guizhou Nationalities Research Institute), Ms Glo- ria Chan (then a member of SIL International) and Ms Lu Qilian (a graduate of the Guizhou Institute of Nationalities). All these friends gave useful feedback. While not all the feedback recommended publica- tion in Chinese, all indicated that it might be worthwhile publishing in English. The translation of the manuscript was delayed until 2006. Before that, in May 2005, Alastair Dore did some useful background research on life in Guizhou province in the 1930s and 1940s. Helen Buchanan helped with library research. The work of translation was supported by Mr Hai-Tao Wang, who supplied a ready computer-translation from Chinese into English; and by Mr Wei Peilei, a Kam colleague who helped to interpret many unfamil- iar turns of phrase. For the most dif cult translation questions, answers were sought from the author himself, Professor Ou Chaoquan. Once a rough manuscript existed in English, it was given a thorough reading by William Geary, who made many useful suggestions. Com- ments from a referee, appointed by the publisher, were also helpful. A nearly- nal version was carefully examined by Ruth Geary and by Donna Snyder, and at that stage many improvements of clarity were made. The translator made a trip to Xiangye in August 2006, accompa- nied and assisted by Wei Peilei. On that occasion, the two visitors were kindly hosted by the village party secretary Mr Yang Xiubiao and his neighbour Mr Ou Chaoheng. During the photography visit at the end of March 2007, the same two men again served as hosts, together with the village leader Mr Ou Chaosheng. On both visits, the villagers of Xiangye displayed the warm hospitality that characterizes the Kam people generally. GEARY_f1_i-xiv.indd vii 7/11/2007 6:53:56 PM viii acknowledgements The Kam artist Mr Zhong Shengzhi drew the line drawings. He did so by reference to the Chinese manuscript and his own imagination and experience. Dean Schauer, a member of SIL International, took all the photos appearing in the book. Wei Peilei prepared the maps. The Assistant Editor for Asian Studies at Brill Academic Publishers, Ms Patricia Radder, was ef cient and encouraging at every stage of the publication process. An Editor at Brill, Ms Caroline van Erp, helped incorporate many improvements to the manuscript in the later stages of its preparation. Thanks to all these friends for their help. Special thanks to Ruth Geary for her patience and help during the busy days of translating, checking and re-checking the English manuscript. Any errors in the book do, of course, remain the responsibility of the author and of the translator. Ou Chaoquan (author) Norman Geary (translator) Guiyang April 2007 GEARY_f1_i-xiv.indd viii 7/11/2007 6:53:56 PM PREFACE Geary et al. (2003) wrote the second book available in English about the Kam nationality in China.1 (The Kam are known in China as the Dong (侗) nationality. The word ‘Kam’ is pronounced in the same way as ‘gum’ in ‘chewing gum’.) The book was a general anthropological description with the title The Kam People of China and the subtitle Tur n- ing Nineteen, which referred to a looking-back towards the ‘best days’ of the Kam culture. In reviewing the book, Wellens (2003, p. 556) criti- cized it for ‘a tendency to essentialise and exoticise ethnic minority cul- ture . The picture presented of Kam society is a rather rosy one and criticism of the policies of the Communist Party is almost absent.’ The authors recognized that there was some truth in such criticism. Two co-authors of The Kam People decided in response to embark on another, measuredly frank, description of the culture—not to the exclu- sion of ‘rosy’ parts, of which there are still many, but with an emphasis on telling the culture-story as it really was. Was, because The Kam People itself was already close to is, and because the Kam culture is presently a moving target, spiralling off in a haze of rapid change even as these words are written. Moreover, as Wellens implies, no description of a culture can be made without reference to political environment and a deliberately open treatise on the modern-day Kam runs a higher risk of becoming