Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Asian Ethnicities"
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| [a] Lake Life RF |
Members of the Bai ethnic group numbered 1.8 million in the
2000 census, and are concentrated in the Bai Autonomous County west of Yunnan
Province, as well as in the southern and western provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou,
Hunan, and Sichuan. They are known today by several appellations, including
Baizi, Baini, and Bihuo, although the general term is “Bairen”—“Bai (“white”) People.”
The Bai are distributed widely among the southwestern provinces, but in 1956
were consolidated under the title “Bai ethnic group.” As in many cases for
today’s recognized minority groups in China, the unity of the designation
belies a much greater complexity with regard to cultural practices, local
histories, and even language.
The Bai language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language
family, and has been associated with the Yi language branch. This connection is
conjectural in some respects, and many linguists think that the Bai language
should be recognized as an individual language branch of its own. There has
been significant interplay with other languages in China’s southwest, and the
Bai language has many loanwords from the Han language. As early as the Tang
dynasty (CE 618-906), the Bai created their own written characters, and Bai
writers used this system to record historical events and develop several
literary genres over the centuries. This language was readjusted in 1982 by the
Chinese government, declaring a standard of 27 initial consonants and 37 final
sounds.
The richest center of Bai life can be found around Erhai, or Ear-lobe Lake, in Yunnan province. The Bai people have fished the lake since the earliest historical accounts two millennia ago, and the combination of mountainous terrain and watery environment has traditionally played a large role in Bai culture. One of China’s largest freshwater lakes, its location between the Cang mountains to the west and Dali City to the east has given the region, and the Bai people, a distinctive place among China’s ethnic groups.
Geography and History
The terrain most commonly known to the Bai people includes the Langcang River valley and forested sections of Yunnan in the west. Its traditional eastern border is the Jinsha River, which is conducive to wide and open agriculture and ample irrigation. In the southwest, Er Lake presents varied terrain, ample fishing, and warm weather.
The people who are now considered Bai have played a role in Chinese history since at least the Spring and Autumn period (eighth to fifth centuries BCE) of the Zhou dynasty, and had connections with both of the major contenders for unification in the third century BCE, Qin and Chu. When the Qin centralized Chinese government under one authority in the mid-third century, it set the group in the “southwest tribes region” in present-day Yunnan.
In subsequent centuries this area and these people would come to be known specifically as “Bai” (“white”). During periods of governmental division in China, the Bai and allied ethnic groups gained a good deal of stature in regional government, the most dramatic case being the rapidly developed Nanzhao Kingdom established in part by ancestors of the Bai in the eighth and ninth centuries, during a tumultuous phase of Tang dynasty history. By the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the ethnic groups of Yunnan were established by governmental decree, and today’s Bai were said to be based in the Dali area of northwest Yunnan.
In the Qing era (1644-1911), the Bai ethnic group—as was the case for many areas of southwestern China—was the site of both major and minor uprisings against the state. The past century has seen the Bai ethnic group actively engaged in the same struggles that have punctuated China’s modern history, from housing of Communist party outposts and providing training grounds for use in the War of Resistance with Japan (抗日戰爭) to active involvement in the Chinese Civil War itself.
Social Life
Agricultural activities have become a solid mainstay in Bai daily life, and these activities are accompanied increasingly by livestock raising, including cattle, horses, sheep, and mules. As much as hunting and fishing has defined the Bai identity, the spread of agriculture to southwestern China has created the foundation for large-scale productivity in an area well suited to the technology.
Although the Bai people follow the standard solar calendar promulgated by the People’s Republic of China government, they do follow, with varying intensity, a local calendar that has paralleled the main one for many centuries. This local calendar has thirteen months, with one having a “vacant moon” (虛月) put into the flow of months. The ritual calendar is punctuated by a combination of modern and more historical markers, from tourist reenactment dates—a major form of domestic commerce—to nationally recognized cultural and political dates, and even recognition of local historical and legendary figures.
Farmers Markets last 7-10 days ever three months, and one of the most significant local festivals is known as the Torch Festival, occurring on June 25th each year. Almost precisely at the time of the summer solstice, torches are lit to carry the hopes for a great harvest. Poetic couplets are hung in doorways, and a wide array of games, dancing, and racing take place. The spring festival, or “March Fair,” is an even bigger pageant. Taking place near the full moon of the third lunar month, it is the festival that launches the agricultural year just as people are about to begin, in earnest, the hard summer’s work in the fields.
The Bai people are known to have fairly standard marriage practices when compared to present-day Chinese cultural configurations. Monogamy is the standard, and the Bai practice basic exogamy in the sense that marriage within the same surname is prohibited. Almost any other group is open for marriage possibilities, and much of the differentiation in today’s Bai ethnic minority can be found in the increasingly wide-variation in marriage partners and the areas from which they come in today’s China.
Although the distinctive Azhili religion was widely practiced during the Nanzhao period, today’s religious expressions reflect the Bai ethnic group’s place in a larger Chinese setting. Religious beliefs among the Bai people today vary from expression of faiths quite common in all of China—Buddhism, Daoism, and even pockets of Christianity. All of these overlay a specifically local set of religious practices centered on the worship of local deities, including allied ancestor worship and hero worship. The term 本主崇拜 “local deity worship” embraces these multiple concepts and activities, which blend in syncretic fashion with more easily recognized faiths.
Economic life in Yunnan and among the Bai people changed dramatically after the Communist party took control of the Chinese mainland in 1949. Before that time, Yunnan, as with almost all other parts of China, was dominated by landlords, and tenant farming was common. Over the past sixty years, China has seen a dramatic series of changes in agriculture, land ownership, and local economic life. Today, the main crops include rice, wheat, beans, millet, cotton, and some tobacco, and markets range from local to regional and, for some products, national.
This is a two part post on the Bai ethnic group in China. Click below for the other part:
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| [b] Fish RF |
The richest center of Bai life can be found around Erhai, or Ear-lobe Lake, in Yunnan province. The Bai people have fished the lake since the earliest historical accounts two millennia ago, and the combination of mountainous terrain and watery environment has traditionally played a large role in Bai culture. One of China’s largest freshwater lakes, its location between the Cang mountains to the west and Dali City to the east has given the region, and the Bai people, a distinctive place among China’s ethnic groups.
Geography and History
The terrain most commonly known to the Bai people includes the Langcang River valley and forested sections of Yunnan in the west. Its traditional eastern border is the Jinsha River, which is conducive to wide and open agriculture and ample irrigation. In the southwest, Er Lake presents varied terrain, ample fishing, and warm weather.
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| [c] Struggles RF |
The people who are now considered Bai have played a role in Chinese history since at least the Spring and Autumn period (eighth to fifth centuries BCE) of the Zhou dynasty, and had connections with both of the major contenders for unification in the third century BCE, Qin and Chu. When the Qin centralized Chinese government under one authority in the mid-third century, it set the group in the “southwest tribes region” in present-day Yunnan.
In subsequent centuries this area and these people would come to be known specifically as “Bai” (“white”). During periods of governmental division in China, the Bai and allied ethnic groups gained a good deal of stature in regional government, the most dramatic case being the rapidly developed Nanzhao Kingdom established in part by ancestors of the Bai in the eighth and ninth centuries, during a tumultuous phase of Tang dynasty history. By the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the ethnic groups of Yunnan were established by governmental decree, and today’s Bai were said to be based in the Dali area of northwest Yunnan.
In the Qing era (1644-1911), the Bai ethnic group—as was the case for many areas of southwestern China—was the site of both major and minor uprisings against the state. The past century has seen the Bai ethnic group actively engaged in the same struggles that have punctuated China’s modern history, from housing of Communist party outposts and providing training grounds for use in the War of Resistance with Japan (抗日戰爭) to active involvement in the Chinese Civil War itself.
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| [d] Bai portrait RF |
Social Life
Agricultural activities have become a solid mainstay in Bai daily life, and these activities are accompanied increasingly by livestock raising, including cattle, horses, sheep, and mules. As much as hunting and fishing has defined the Bai identity, the spread of agriculture to southwestern China has created the foundation for large-scale productivity in an area well suited to the technology.
Although the Bai people follow the standard solar calendar promulgated by the People’s Republic of China government, they do follow, with varying intensity, a local calendar that has paralleled the main one for many centuries. This local calendar has thirteen months, with one having a “vacant moon” (虛月) put into the flow of months. The ritual calendar is punctuated by a combination of modern and more historical markers, from tourist reenactment dates—a major form of domestic commerce—to nationally recognized cultural and political dates, and even recognition of local historical and legendary figures.
Farmers Markets last 7-10 days ever three months, and one of the most significant local festivals is known as the Torch Festival, occurring on June 25th each year. Almost precisely at the time of the summer solstice, torches are lit to carry the hopes for a great harvest. Poetic couplets are hung in doorways, and a wide array of games, dancing, and racing take place. The spring festival, or “March Fair,” is an even bigger pageant. Taking place near the full moon of the third lunar month, it is the festival that launches the agricultural year just as people are about to begin, in earnest, the hard summer’s work in the fields.
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| [e] Farming RF |
The Bai people are known to have fairly standard marriage practices when compared to present-day Chinese cultural configurations. Monogamy is the standard, and the Bai practice basic exogamy in the sense that marriage within the same surname is prohibited. Almost any other group is open for marriage possibilities, and much of the differentiation in today’s Bai ethnic minority can be found in the increasingly wide-variation in marriage partners and the areas from which they come in today’s China.
Although the distinctive Azhili religion was widely practiced during the Nanzhao period, today’s religious expressions reflect the Bai ethnic group’s place in a larger Chinese setting. Religious beliefs among the Bai people today vary from expression of faiths quite common in all of China—Buddhism, Daoism, and even pockets of Christianity. All of these overlay a specifically local set of religious practices centered on the worship of local deities, including allied ancestor worship and hero worship. The term 本主崇拜 “local deity worship” embraces these multiple concepts and activities, which blend in syncretic fashion with more easily recognized faiths.
Economic life in Yunnan and among the Bai people changed dramatically after the Communist party took control of the Chinese mainland in 1949. Before that time, Yunnan, as with almost all other parts of China, was dominated by landlords, and tenant farming was common. Over the past sixty years, China has seen a dramatic series of changes in agriculture, land ownership, and local economic life. Today, the main crops include rice, wheat, beans, millet, cotton, and some tobacco, and markets range from local to regional and, for some products, national.
This is a two part post on the Bai ethnic group in China. Click below for the other part:
 |
| [f] Regional RF |
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