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Abstract
For over a decade, original ecological (yuanshengtai原生态) has contested ethnic (minzu) as an influential framework in representing minority folk culture in Chinese official and popular media. This article explores the ideological implications of such a shift in the context of state-minority relationships. By examining Han elites’ invention of the neologism and Naxi elites’ adaptations, I argue that YST transforms local ethnic categories into a transethnic, translocal, and transnational concept, and therefore allows both the nation state and the minority groups to promote their own versions of ethnic identities. Compared to the antagonistic model between state domination and minority resistance, YST reflects a shift from minority political self-determination to cultural self-representation in the drastically changing global environments.
Notes
1. For example, Becquelin, “Xinjiang in the Nineties.” Bovingdon, “The Not-So-Silent Majority” Hillman and Henfry, “Macho Minority: Masculinity and Ethnicity on the Edge of Tibet”; Khan, “Ghinggis Khan: From Imperial Ancestor to Ethnic Hero”; and Colin Mackerras, “Xinjiang at the Turn of the Century.”
2. See Sautman, “Self-representation and Ethnic Minority Rights in China”; Baranovitch, “From Resistance to Adaptation.”
3. Yuan has a range of meanings from original, authentic, to primitive. In this article, I translate yuanshengtai culture literally as original ecological culture to allow multiple interpretations and use YST as its abbreviation. See the following of the main text for more detailed discussions on the concept.
4. Since its establishment in 1984, the singing competition has been held twice a year as the most authoritative and watched singing competition in the last two decades. The only exception is that the 2012 competition was postponed to 2013. Weng, “Bei ‘yuanshengtai’ wenhua de renleixue sikao.”
5. While the popular and bel canto vocal styles are heavily influenced by Western operatic classics and pop music, respectively, the ethnic style is supposedly based on Chinese folk songs but often mixing in Western bel canto and orchestral instrumentation. See Gorfinkel, “From Transformation to Preservation” and Rees, “Use and Ownership: Folk music in the People’s Republic of China.”
6. Gorfinkel, “From Transformation to Preservation.”
7. Rees, “Intangible Cultural Heritage in China Today.”
8. Gorfinkel, “From Transformation to Preservation.”
9. Gorfinkel, “From Transformation to Preservation”; Qiao, ‘“Yuanshengtai’ minge suoyi.”
10. Qiao, “‘Yuanshengtai’ minge suoyi”; Rees, “Intangible Cultural Heritage in China Today.”
11. Gorfinkel, “From Transformation to Preservation”; Rees, “Use and Ownership: Folk Music in the People’s Republic of China.”
12. Guo, State and Ethnicity in China’s Southwest.
13. Mullaney, Coming to Terms with the Nation; Yang, “Central State, Local Governments, Ethnic Groups and the Minzu Identification in Yunnan (1950s–1980s).”
14. Ibid.
15. Gorfinkel, “From Transformation to Preservation.”
16. Guo, State and Ethnicity in China’s Southwest; Chao, “Layered Alterities: Discourses of the Other in Lijiang, China.”
17. Qiao, “‘Yuanshengtai’ minge suoyi.”
18. Xu, “Guangxi yuanshengtai minzuyinyuede shengcunfazhanzhengce chutan.”
19. Ibid.
20. La, “Geshou Jinzhuzhuoma canjia zanggehui zhiwei chuanchengzangzuyinyue.”
21. Baranovitch, “From Resistance to Adaptation.”
22. McCarthy, Communist Multiculturalism: Ethnic Revival in Southwest China.
23. Weng, “Bei ‘yuanshengtai’ wenhua de renleixue sikao.”
24. McKhann, “The Naxi and the Nationalities Question” and “The good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Rees, Echoes of History: Naxi Music in Modern China. Guo, State and Ethnicity in China’s Southwest.
25. Weng, “Bei ‘yuanshengtai’ wenhua de renleixue sikao.”
26. Yinxiang Lijiang, “Jiuzhou yinxiang chuban gongsi.”
27. Mao, “Impressions under Fire.”
28. Yinxiang Lijiang.
29. Ibid.
30. Mao, ‘Impressions under Fire.”
31. Ibid.
32. Li and Wu, “Zhongguo pijiu shichang aozhan kaishi.”
33. Ibid.
34. Yinxiang Lijiang.
35. White, “The Political Economy of Ethnicity in Yunnan’s Lijiang Basin.”
36. Schein, “Gender and INTERNAL ORIENTALISM in China” and Minority Rules: The Miao and the Feminine in China’s Cultural Politics; Gladney, “Representing Nationality in China: Refiguring majority/minority identities.” Journal of Asian Studies vol. 53, no. 1 (1994), 92–123.
37. Rees, “Intangible Cultural Heritage in China Today.”
38. Yinxiang Lijiang.
39. Baranovitch, “Between Alterity and Identity: New Voices of Minority People in China.”
40. Mao, “Impressions under Fire.”
41. Yinxiang Lijiang.
42. Ibid.
43. Performed mainly by local amateur elderly accompanied by Xuan Ke’s charismatic English interpretation, ‘Naxi Ancient Music’ (Naxi guyue) has been the earliest and most famous group for Naxi traditional music, thanks to its numerous overseas tours since the late 1990s. See Rees, Echoes of History.
44. Huaxi dushi bao, “Zhang Yimou beizhi pohuai huanjing zao Yunnan geshou Xuan Ke paohong.”
45. Zong and Bao, “jiegou Naxiguyueshenhua – Duiyixiang minzuwenhuaziyuan zhuanhuawei wenhuashangpinde renleixuefenxi.”
46. Wu. “What is Naxi Archaic Music.”
47. Zong and Bao, “jiegou Naxiguyueshenhua.”
48. Ibid. and Tian, “Adjudge without Justness.”
49. For example, after giving a talk at Cambridge University, Xuan Ke later claimed his honorary doctorate degree from the institution. He lists several foreign interviewees as his student advisees.
50. For example, Liu, “The myth of Xuan Ke”; Tian, “Adjudge without Justness.”
51. Li, “Sizhengxieweiyuan ti’an baohu wenyipipingquan.”
52. Arts Criticism, “Zhenshi yu huangyan: Wang Zhi yu Xuan Ke zai zhongyangdianshitai ‘mianduimian’.”
53. Quoted from Zong and Bao, “jiegou Naxiguyueshenhua.”
54. In this article, I follow He Wenguang’s own account and other media reports and refer to the family as the He family.
55. Equivalent to high-school level.
56. China has a long tradition of elite collecting, editing, and composing folk songs for political purposes since the civil war era. In the early years of PRC, musicologists were often sent by the state to record and improve traditional folk music from minority regions. Many folk songs produced this way are later involved in controversies and lawsuits regarding copyright. See Harris, “Wang Luobin: Folk song King of the Northwest or Song thief? Copyright, representation, and Chinese folk songs”; Rees, “Use and Ownership.”
57. Zhang, “He Wenguang he tade yinyue zuopin.” Yun, “He Wenguang he tade dangdai ‘yuefu xinminge’.”
58. He, Mengzhong de Xianggelila: He Wenguang yuanchuang gequ zuopin jingxuan.
59. Zhang, “He Wenguang he tade yinyue zuopin.”
60. Wang, “Cui Jian: Xiao Ruilian shi zhebeizi yingyueshang zui dadong woderen.”
61. Wang, “Cui Jian.”
62. He, “Naxi renjia zai meiguo.”
63. Li, “The Making of Ethnic Yunnan on the National Mall.”
64. He, “Naxi renjia zai meiguo.”
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Yun, “He Wenguang he tade dangdai ‘yuefu xinminge’.”
69. Ibid.
70. Jin, “He Wenguang yuanchuang gequde minzuxing neihan.”
71. Yun, “He Wenguang he tade dangdai ‘yuefu xinminge’”; Wu, “He Wenguang de ‘dangdai yuefu xinminge’.”
72. Yun, “He Wenguang he tade dangdai ‘yuefu xinminge’.”
73. Shi, “Naxi gewu zhijia.”
74. Rees, “The Many Musics of a Chinese County Town.”
75. Rees, “Use and ownership,” 47.
76. Shi, “Naxi gewu zhijia.”
77. He, Mengzhong de Xianggelila.
78. Cheng, “From Campus Racism to Cyber Racism”; Dikotter, The Discourse of Race in Modern China.
79. Shi, “Naxi gewu zhijia.”
80. Rees, “The Many Musics of a Chinese County Town.”
81. Zhang, “He Wenguang he tade yinyue zuopin.”
82. Weng, “Bei ‘yuanshengtai’ wenhua de renleixue sikao”; Rees, “Use and ownership”; Xu, et al., “Yuanshengtai wenhua yu zhongguo chuantong.”
83. Ye, “Jiedu ‘yuanshengtai wenhua’.”
84. Comaroff and Comaroff, Ethnicity, Inc.; Tilley, “Performing Culture in the Global Village”; Wang, “Rethinking Authenticity in Tourism Experience”; Xie, “The Bamboo-beating Dance in Hainan, China.”
85. To complicate matters further, the Ethnic Classification Project of the 1950s grouped many different people under the single category of Naxi, despite their cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity. For example, although labelled as Naxi, Mosuo and Naxi of Lijiang speak mutually unintelligible languages and have different socio-economic systems. See McKhann, “The Naxi and the Nationalities Question”; Rees, Echoes of History; Chao, “Hegemony, Agency and Re-presenting the Past.”
86. Another highly distinguishable voice in the 2013 competition was a blonde Russian girl representing the online team. Nevertheless, she is unambiguously considered a foreigner and not as conceptually challenging as the Macao singer.
87. Chao, “Layered Alterities.”
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Chunmei Du
Chunmei Du is an assistant professor of History at Western Kentucky University. She received her Ph.D. from East Asian Studies Department at Princeton University. She studies modern Chinese intellectual and cultural histories in global and comparative contexts.