The deer turned her head: Ethnic options for the Hainan Li

Abstract

For two thousand years the Li people of Hainan Island maintained their language, customs, and ethnic identity despite Chinese political control. In the last century, however, Li traditional culture has been undermined by Chinese and foreign influences, with the pace of change accelerating under Communist rule. Yet even as assimilation proceeds, many aspects of ethnicity survive. The Li who receive a Chinese higher education and attain prestigious jobs are accepted with reservations into Chinese society, but most Li remain illiterate, poor, and objects of prejudice. The Chinese state offers assimilation yet defines minorities as primitive and childlike; the Li respond with a mixture of traditionalism, assimilation, activism, and cosmopolitanism. Out of this Li-Han dialogue comes an ever evolving definition of ethnicity.

The Li, indigenous people of Hainan Island, have retained a strong identity organized around performance of traditional rites and customs, despite a 2,000-year relationship with the Chinese. But with the growth of state power and accelerating economic development, Li distinctiveness is weakening.

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Notes on contributors

Nancy S. Netting

The material for this article was gathered during my three years in residence (1988–89, 1991–92, and 1996) at the South-Central College for Nationalities in Wuhan, the People's Republic of China. During this time I taught minority students, including several Li, and conferred with Chinese ethnographers and historians. On three trips to Hainan, in 1989, 1992, and 1996, I interviewed Li villagers, officials, entrepreneurs, teachers, and researchers. Census data, historical accounts, and reports on other Chinese minorities enabled me to place the Hainan material within a larger context. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Adam Wang Quanlei, the Li student who originally introduced me to his people and later guided me around Hainan Island. Without his knowledge, patience, and good humor this research would never have been possible.