Mushan

After Dali, we swung back into Kunming for a night before heading south of Kunming for the southern loop of our study tour. First stop, the town of Mushan, which is home to the Yi minority ethnic group.

We arrived in town and were welcomed in this manner!!  Here in Mushan the students (and us teachers as well!) were provided the opportunity to live with a local family for an evening.

Here's the home in which we stayed.  In this one large building, one family lives on the left, one on the right (the families are related as the families of a brother/sister pair live her) and they share this common area.

Due to illness, I took the place of a student and here is my homestay partner with our "host mom." She has two children, 1 is in college in Kunming and the other is 17 and away at high school.  Her husband was away driving her 17 year-old back to school.

Dinner is served!

No gas stove here, everything is cooked in this fire driven wok!

About halfway through dinner, this man walks in and sits down.  Turns out he's our host mother's father-in-law.  80 some years old and tough as nails.  I with I could have more easily communicated with him, but he, as most older people in these more rural places, speak the local dialect only.  He understood our mainstream Mandarin (thanks television) but couldn't speak it back to us.

The family raises pigs.  This baby, seven months old, is headed for slaughter.  She will sell for 1000 RMB.

Pigs for sale, but one is always slaughtered for the family to eat.  There were drying pig parts hanging all over the place.

This kid in the middle was fascinating.  He's 15 and a high school dropout.  He's from near Beijing, but has been in Mushan (his mother's hometown) since October.  He dream is the join the military and become a sniper (yes, you read that right) and if that can't happen, he is confident that he will be able to find some factory job that will pay him well.  He was fascinated in us and vice versa.

Our host mother in traditional Yi clothing.

During our school visit, we got a meeting with the mayor of Mushan.

In our conversation with the mayor, we learned a number of things.  The Chinese government has done a great deal to improve the lives of these far-flung ethnic minorities.  There is no taxes collected at all and the government subsidizes farming.  Anytime land is reforested, there are major incentives and subsidies.  Within the past decade health insurance has come to China.  30% is paid by the patient and the rest is free.  There is a great push towards solar energy and there are subsidies to install solar water heaters and the like.

In terms of the Yi culture, the mayor feels the Yi people have been successful in keeping alive their culture because of their pride.  The Cultural Revolution didn't diminish the fervor for their culture and he feels that in modern times, ethnic minorities in China are not discriminated against, making it easy for minorities to express themselves and pride in themselves. In addition, the Yi have very strong family ties and so even though many kids go off to University, they come back to the area. 

Lastly, there are benefits to being Yi.  There are extra points added to the score of applicants to Chinese universities and ethnic minorities are allowed to have two children under the one-child policy.

A picture with me and someone important in town, but I forget exactly why he was important.

During the night we stayed in Mushan, we were treated to a performance of traditional dance.  What is awesome is that the WOMEN do the dancing.  These women of Mushan have been all over China and the United States performing.

One of the amazing feats performed by the woman was called the "ants?"   Here's a couple of our boys trying to perform it.  The women were better.

Of course, we had to end with the dragon!

Full moon in Mushan!