Mandy Sadan
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265550
- eISBN:
- 9780191760341
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265550.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the changing political framework of the region from the late nineteenth century through to World War I as fluid political boundaries that were transformed into bordered ...
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This chapter examines the changing political framework of the region from the late nineteenth century through to World War I as fluid political boundaries that were transformed into bordered territories. It describes how local elites in the Yunnan boundary region managed the transition zone of the mountains between Burma and China, and the role that they played in the local political system after the Panthay revolt and just prior to the fall of the Konbaung Dynasty in Burma. The chapter then describes how old and new elites were created in this process of geo-political transformation. It focuses in particular on the eastern borderworld, where great ethnographic complexity became rationalised in line with new and emerging political needs. It describes in detail how a local system of cross-group relations expressed as a ritual system became a model for later Kachin ethno-nationalist ideological expansion influenced by these administrative changes.Less
This chapter examines the changing political framework of the region from the late nineteenth century through to World War I as fluid political boundaries that were transformed into bordered territories. It describes how local elites in the Yunnan boundary region managed the transition zone of the mountains between Burma and China, and the role that they played in the local political system after the Panthay revolt and just prior to the fall of the Konbaung Dynasty in Burma. The chapter then describes how old and new elites were created in this process of geo-political transformation. It focuses in particular on the eastern borderworld, where great ethnographic complexity became rationalised in line with new and emerging political needs. It describes in detail how a local system of cross-group relations expressed as a ritual system became a model for later Kachin ethno-nationalist ideological expansion influenced by these administrative changes.
Wen-Chin Chang
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453311
- eISBN:
- 9780801454516
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453311.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
The Yunnanese from southwestern China have for millennia traded throughout upland Southeast Asia. Burma in particular has served as a “back door” to Yunnan, providing a sanctuary for political ...
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The Yunnanese from southwestern China have for millennia traded throughout upland Southeast Asia. Burma in particular has served as a “back door” to Yunnan, providing a sanctuary for political refugees and economic opportunities for trade explorers. Since the Chinese Communist takeover in 1949 and subsequent political upheavals in China, an unprecedented number of Yunnanese refugees have fled to Burma. This book is the first ethnography to focus on the migration history and transnational trading experiences of contemporary Yunnanese Chinese migrants (composed of both Yunnanese Han and Muslims) who reside in Burma and those who have moved from Burma and resettled in Thailand, Taiwan, and China. Since the 1960s, Yunnanese migrants of Burma have dominated the transnational trade in opium, jade, and daily consumption goods. The book details the trade's organization from the 1960s of mule-driven caravans to the use of modern transportation, and reconstructs trading routes while examining embedded sociocultural meanings. These Yunnanese migrants' mobility attests to the prevalence of travel not only by the privileged but also by different kinds of people. Their narratives disclose individual life processes as well as networks of connections, modes of transportation, and differences between the experiences of men and women. Through traveling they have carried on the mobile livelihoods of their predecessors, expanding overland trade beyond its historical borderlands between Yunnan and upland Southeast Asia to journeys further afield by land, sea, and air.Less
The Yunnanese from southwestern China have for millennia traded throughout upland Southeast Asia. Burma in particular has served as a “back door” to Yunnan, providing a sanctuary for political refugees and economic opportunities for trade explorers. Since the Chinese Communist takeover in 1949 and subsequent political upheavals in China, an unprecedented number of Yunnanese refugees have fled to Burma. This book is the first ethnography to focus on the migration history and transnational trading experiences of contemporary Yunnanese Chinese migrants (composed of both Yunnanese Han and Muslims) who reside in Burma and those who have moved from Burma and resettled in Thailand, Taiwan, and China. Since the 1960s, Yunnanese migrants of Burma have dominated the transnational trade in opium, jade, and daily consumption goods. The book details the trade's organization from the 1960s of mule-driven caravans to the use of modern transportation, and reconstructs trading routes while examining embedded sociocultural meanings. These Yunnanese migrants' mobility attests to the prevalence of travel not only by the privileged but also by different kinds of people. Their narratives disclose individual life processes as well as networks of connections, modes of transportation, and differences between the experiences of men and women. Through traveling they have carried on the mobile livelihoods of their predecessors, expanding overland trade beyond its historical borderlands between Yunnan and upland Southeast Asia to journeys further afield by land, sea, and air.
Megan Bryson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780804799546
- eISBN:
- 9781503600454
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804799546.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This book follows the transformations of the goddess Baijie, a deity worshiped in the Dali region of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, to understand how local identities developed in a Chinese ...
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This book follows the transformations of the goddess Baijie, a deity worshiped in the Dali region of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, to understand how local identities developed in a Chinese frontier region from the twelfth century to the twenty-first. Dali, a region where the cultures of China, India, Tibet, and Southeast Asia converge, has long served as a nexus of religious interaction even as its status has changed. Once the center of independent kingdoms, it was absorbed into the Chinese imperial sphere with the Mongol conquest and remained there ever since. Goddess on the Frontier examines how people in Dali developed regional religious identities through the lens of the local goddess Baijie, whose shifting identities over this span of time reflect shifting identities in Dali. She first appears as a Buddhist figure in the twelfth century, then becomes known as the mother of a regional ruler, next takes on the role of an eighth-century widow martyr, and finally is worshiped as a tutelary village deity. Each of her forms illustrates how people in Dali represented local identities through gendered religious symbols. Taken together, they demonstrate how regional religious identities in Dali developed as a gendered process as well as an ethno-cultural process. This book applies interdisciplinary methodology to a wide variety of newly discovered and unstudied materials to show how religion, ethnicity, and gender intersect in a frontier region.Less
This book follows the transformations of the goddess Baijie, a deity worshiped in the Dali region of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, to understand how local identities developed in a Chinese frontier region from the twelfth century to the twenty-first. Dali, a region where the cultures of China, India, Tibet, and Southeast Asia converge, has long served as a nexus of religious interaction even as its status has changed. Once the center of independent kingdoms, it was absorbed into the Chinese imperial sphere with the Mongol conquest and remained there ever since. Goddess on the Frontier examines how people in Dali developed regional religious identities through the lens of the local goddess Baijie, whose shifting identities over this span of time reflect shifting identities in Dali. She first appears as a Buddhist figure in the twelfth century, then becomes known as the mother of a regional ruler, next takes on the role of an eighth-century widow martyr, and finally is worshiped as a tutelary village deity. Each of her forms illustrates how people in Dali represented local identities through gendered religious symbols. Taken together, they demonstrate how regional religious identities in Dali developed as a gendered process as well as an ethno-cultural process. This book applies interdisciplinary methodology to a wide variety of newly discovered and unstudied materials to show how religion, ethnicity, and gender intersect in a frontier region.
John A. Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449680
- eISBN:
- 9780801462771
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449680.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
How can policymakers effectively reduce poverty? Most mainstream economists advocate promoting economic growth, on the grounds that it generally reduces poverty while bringing other economic ...
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How can policymakers effectively reduce poverty? Most mainstream economists advocate promoting economic growth, on the grounds that it generally reduces poverty while bringing other economic benefits. However, this dominant hypothesis offers few alternatives for economies that are unable to grow, or in places where economic growth fails to reduce or actually exacerbates poverty. This book draws on extensive fieldwork in two Chinese provinces—Yunnan and Guizhou—that are exceptions to the purported relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction. In Yunnan, an outward-oriented developmental state, one that focuses on large-scale, urban development, has largely failed to reduce poverty, even though it succeeded in stimulating economic growth. Provincial policy shaped roads, tourism, and mining in ways that often precluded participation by poor people. By contrast, Guizhou is a micro-oriented state, one that promotes small-scale, low-skill economic opportunities—and so reduces poverty despite slow economic growth. It is no coincidence that this Guizhou approach parallels the ideas encapsulated in the “scientific development view” of China's current president Hu Jintao. After all, Hu, when he was Guizhou's leader, helped establish the micro-oriented state in the province. The book's conclusions have implications for our understanding of development and poverty reduction, economic change in China, and the thinking behind China's policy decisions.Less
How can policymakers effectively reduce poverty? Most mainstream economists advocate promoting economic growth, on the grounds that it generally reduces poverty while bringing other economic benefits. However, this dominant hypothesis offers few alternatives for economies that are unable to grow, or in places where economic growth fails to reduce or actually exacerbates poverty. This book draws on extensive fieldwork in two Chinese provinces—Yunnan and Guizhou—that are exceptions to the purported relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction. In Yunnan, an outward-oriented developmental state, one that focuses on large-scale, urban development, has largely failed to reduce poverty, even though it succeeded in stimulating economic growth. Provincial policy shaped roads, tourism, and mining in ways that often precluded participation by poor people. By contrast, Guizhou is a micro-oriented state, one that promotes small-scale, low-skill economic opportunities—and so reduces poverty despite slow economic growth. It is no coincidence that this Guizhou approach parallels the ideas encapsulated in the “scientific development view” of China's current president Hu Jintao. After all, Hu, when he was Guizhou's leader, helped establish the micro-oriented state in the province. The book's conclusions have implications for our understanding of development and poverty reduction, economic change in China, and the thinking behind China's policy decisions.
Erik Mueggler
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226483382
- eISBN:
- 9780226483412
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226483412.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
Death has become the central salient topic in many parts of rural China. Transformations in economic life, social structure, political ideology, and spiritual aspirations have occurred at dizzying ...
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Death has become the central salient topic in many parts of rural China. Transformations in economic life, social structure, political ideology, and spiritual aspirations have occurred at dizzying speed. The socialist rituals that once gave people narrative structures to comprehend historical change have disappeared. Elderly people have lived through repeated radical social transformations from the socialist revolution forward: their deaths are now the sole site where these events can be reprised and evaluated. These deaths are opportunities to reassess how individual lives articulate with history, what social persons are, and what they might become. Practices of death are at the center of relations with a population that socialism disregarded: immaterial animate beings like ancestors, ghosts, and spirits. Death frames historical time with questions of embodiment and disembodiment: of the materialization of immaterial beings in bodies, effigies, and stones, and their dematerialization through fire, consumption, or corruption. This book investigates death in a mountain community in Yunnan Province, where Lòlop’ò people, officially Yi, speak a Tibeto-Burman language called Lòloŋo and are heir to an extraordinary range of resources for working on the dead: techniques to give the dead material form; exchanges to give substance to relations among the living and with the dead; laments and ritual chants used to communicate with the dead. Ultimately the aim of the book is to understand the questions Lòlop’ò ask and answer about these mysterious others at the center of their social world.Less
Death has become the central salient topic in many parts of rural China. Transformations in economic life, social structure, political ideology, and spiritual aspirations have occurred at dizzying speed. The socialist rituals that once gave people narrative structures to comprehend historical change have disappeared. Elderly people have lived through repeated radical social transformations from the socialist revolution forward: their deaths are now the sole site where these events can be reprised and evaluated. These deaths are opportunities to reassess how individual lives articulate with history, what social persons are, and what they might become. Practices of death are at the center of relations with a population that socialism disregarded: immaterial animate beings like ancestors, ghosts, and spirits. Death frames historical time with questions of embodiment and disembodiment: of the materialization of immaterial beings in bodies, effigies, and stones, and their dematerialization through fire, consumption, or corruption. This book investigates death in a mountain community in Yunnan Province, where Lòlop’ò people, officially Yi, speak a Tibeto-Burman language called Lòloŋo and are heir to an extraordinary range of resources for working on the dead: techniques to give the dead material form; exchanges to give substance to relations among the living and with the dead; laments and ritual chants used to communicate with the dead. Ultimately the aim of the book is to understand the questions Lòlop’ò ask and answer about these mysterious others at the center of their social world.
David Bradley
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520219885
- eISBN:
- 9780520935259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520219885.003.0013
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
One of the first things the Chinese Communists did with the Yi, as they did with all ethnic groups, was to define them. In the linguistic realm, this also meant classifying them into dialects, ...
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One of the first things the Chinese Communists did with the Yi, as they did with all ethnic groups, was to define them. In the linguistic realm, this also meant classifying them into dialects, subdialects, and local vernaculars. This was done not purely for scholarly reasons but also in order to facilitate the standardization and teaching of Yi languages. This chapter provides a comprehensive view of this classifying process and of the three different projects of standardization that have resulted in very different modern scripts in Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. Although there are probably about a million members of the Yi minzu who do not speak Yi languages, this leaves nearly six million who do, and to varying degrees, Yi languages have entered the modern world, especially in Liangshan by means of school textbooks, daily newspapers, radio stations, and other modern media.Less
One of the first things the Chinese Communists did with the Yi, as they did with all ethnic groups, was to define them. In the linguistic realm, this also meant classifying them into dialects, subdialects, and local vernaculars. This was done not purely for scholarly reasons but also in order to facilitate the standardization and teaching of Yi languages. This chapter provides a comprehensive view of this classifying process and of the three different projects of standardization that have resulted in very different modern scripts in Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. Although there are probably about a million members of the Yi minzu who do not speak Yi languages, this leaves nearly six million who do, and to varying degrees, Yi languages have entered the modern world, especially in Liangshan by means of school textbooks, daily newspapers, radio stations, and other modern media.
Wen-Chin Chang
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453311
- eISBN:
- 9780801454516
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453311.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter recounts the experiences of Zhang Dage as a migrant in Burma. More specifically, it examines the localities, peoples, livelihoods, and times of Zhang Dage's early youth in Burma based on ...
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This chapter recounts the experiences of Zhang Dage as a migrant in Burma. More specifically, it examines the localities, peoples, livelihoods, and times of Zhang Dage's early youth in Burma based on his letters and essays. Zhang Dage, born in a mountain village in Shan State, Burma, in 1962, shares many stories that reflect different stages of his life, including his childhood and education. His narrative also provides valuable data regarding the migrant Yunnanese lifestyle, especially in the Shan State. Like many Yunnanese migrants, Zhang Dage's life has been marked by a series of migrations. Since 1980 he has settled in Taiwan, but every Chinese New Year he takes his family back to his parents' home in Reshuitang Xincun (often called Xincun), a primarily Yunnanese Han village in the Chiang Mai Province of northern Thailand. This chapter also considers Zhang Dage's concerns about his aged parents in Thailand, his eldest sister in Yunnan, his native places in Shan State, and his own family in Taiwan.Less
This chapter recounts the experiences of Zhang Dage as a migrant in Burma. More specifically, it examines the localities, peoples, livelihoods, and times of Zhang Dage's early youth in Burma based on his letters and essays. Zhang Dage, born in a mountain village in Shan State, Burma, in 1962, shares many stories that reflect different stages of his life, including his childhood and education. His narrative also provides valuable data regarding the migrant Yunnanese lifestyle, especially in the Shan State. Like many Yunnanese migrants, Zhang Dage's life has been marked by a series of migrations. Since 1980 he has settled in Taiwan, but every Chinese New Year he takes his family back to his parents' home in Reshuitang Xincun (often called Xincun), a primarily Yunnanese Han village in the Chiang Mai Province of northern Thailand. This chapter also considers Zhang Dage's concerns about his aged parents in Thailand, his eldest sister in Yunnan, his native places in Shan State, and his own family in Taiwan.
Wen-Chin Chang
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453311
- eISBN:
- 9780801454516
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453311.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
In this chapter, the author tells the story of Ae Maew as a migrant in Burma. Ae Maew, the Shan nickname of a Yunnanese graduate student whom the author met in Taiwan in 2004, was a second-generation ...
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In this chapter, the author tells the story of Ae Maew as a migrant in Burma. Ae Maew, the Shan nickname of a Yunnanese graduate student whom the author met in Taiwan in 2004, was a second-generation migrant in Burma who had grown up in Laikha in Shan State. Ae Maew reflects on her Chinese education, drug addiction in her family, family history and conflicts, migration to Taiwan, and her sentiments toward Burma. Her memories of mules and horses reveal an intimate female role behind the long-distance caravan trade. The author also talks about her visit to Taunggyi University, where Ae Maew had studied for about three years, along with Ae Maew's unhappy Chinese New Year in 2005. She says the frictions Ae Maew experienced have stimulated her to seek new possibilities and directions abroad rather than remain in Burma.Less
In this chapter, the author tells the story of Ae Maew as a migrant in Burma. Ae Maew, the Shan nickname of a Yunnanese graduate student whom the author met in Taiwan in 2004, was a second-generation migrant in Burma who had grown up in Laikha in Shan State. Ae Maew reflects on her Chinese education, drug addiction in her family, family history and conflicts, migration to Taiwan, and her sentiments toward Burma. Her memories of mules and horses reveal an intimate female role behind the long-distance caravan trade. The author also talks about her visit to Taunggyi University, where Ae Maew had studied for about three years, along with Ae Maew's unhappy Chinese New Year in 2005. She says the frictions Ae Maew experienced have stimulated her to seek new possibilities and directions abroad rather than remain in Burma.
Wen-Chin Chang
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453311
- eISBN:
- 9780801454516
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453311.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This book explores the migration history and transnational trading experiences of contemporary Yunnanese Chinese migrants (composed of both Yunnanese Han and Muslims) who are residing in Burma (or ...
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This book explores the migration history and transnational trading experiences of contemporary Yunnanese Chinese migrants (composed of both Yunnanese Han and Muslims) who are residing in Burma (or Myanmar) as well as those who have moved from Burma to another country such as Thailand. It recounts the stories of Yunnanese migrants to shed light into their lived experiences as well as their thinking, feeling, intimacies, courage, ambition, and despair. The book focuses on migrant Yunnanese mobility and (transnational) economic ventures, and especially their long-distance trade involvement with a range of armed ethnic groups and official agencies. Taking a transborder and transnational perspective, it examines the migratory and mercantile agency of the diasporic Yunnanese, with particular emphasis on why and how they have undertaken ongoing movement and a range of underground and cross-border trades.Less
This book explores the migration history and transnational trading experiences of contemporary Yunnanese Chinese migrants (composed of both Yunnanese Han and Muslims) who are residing in Burma (or Myanmar) as well as those who have moved from Burma to another country such as Thailand. It recounts the stories of Yunnanese migrants to shed light into their lived experiences as well as their thinking, feeling, intimacies, courage, ambition, and despair. The book focuses on migrant Yunnanese mobility and (transnational) economic ventures, and especially their long-distance trade involvement with a range of armed ethnic groups and official agencies. Taking a transborder and transnational perspective, it examines the migratory and mercantile agency of the diasporic Yunnanese, with particular emphasis on why and how they have undertaken ongoing movement and a range of underground and cross-border trades.
Michael J. Hathaway
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520276192
- eISBN:
- 9780520956766
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520276192.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This book examines how environmental winds gained force and shaped Yunnan Province’s social landscapes. It looks at the lives of those individuals who not only encountered environmentalism but ...
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This book examines how environmental winds gained force and shaped Yunnan Province’s social landscapes. It looks at the lives of those individuals who not only encountered environmentalism but brought it into being in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). By focusing on the PRC’s environmental politics, it offers a different way of thinking about globalization, and in particular globalized formations. Drawing on the author’s extensive and ongoing engagements with many people in Yunnan Province, the book highlights the role played by ordinary people in what it calls “making the global.” It first provides an overview of wildlands and wildlife in the PRC before the environmental winds (1950s–1980s) and goes on to discuss some of the dominant theories for understanding globalization and globalized formations. It also considers how the Chinese metaphor of winds can be adopted as a concept for understanding how globalized social formations—in this case environmentalism—work.Less
This book examines how environmental winds gained force and shaped Yunnan Province’s social landscapes. It looks at the lives of those individuals who not only encountered environmentalism but brought it into being in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). By focusing on the PRC’s environmental politics, it offers a different way of thinking about globalization, and in particular globalized formations. Drawing on the author’s extensive and ongoing engagements with many people in Yunnan Province, the book highlights the role played by ordinary people in what it calls “making the global.” It first provides an overview of wildlands and wildlife in the PRC before the environmental winds (1950s–1980s) and goes on to discuss some of the dominant theories for understanding globalization and globalized formations. It also considers how the Chinese metaphor of winds can be adopted as a concept for understanding how globalized social formations—in this case environmentalism—work.
Thomas A. Borchert
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824866488
- eISBN:
- 9780824875657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824866488.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the politics of religion in Yunnan and Sipsongpannā. The first part of the chapter analyzes and describes the official discourse on religion in China and the institutions for ...
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This chapter examines the politics of religion in Yunnan and Sipsongpannā. The first part of the chapter analyzes and describes the official discourse on religion in China and the institutions for governing religious communities, arguing that the state has established a system that allows it flexibility to govern religious groups according to its needs. The second part examines the politics of religion in Sipsongpannā in light of this system of governance. It shows that the monks of the region act strategically, cooperating with the local government but using this system to foster their own agendas.Less
This chapter examines the politics of religion in Yunnan and Sipsongpannā. The first part of the chapter analyzes and describes the official discourse on religion in China and the institutions for governing religious communities, arguing that the state has established a system that allows it flexibility to govern religious groups according to its needs. The second part examines the politics of religion in Sipsongpannā in light of this system of governance. It shows that the monks of the region act strategically, cooperating with the local government but using this system to foster their own agendas.
Thomas A. Borchert
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824866488
- eISBN:
- 9780824875657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824866488.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of transnational monastic education and the experiences of Dai-lue monastics in traveling outside of Sipsongpannā for an education. While monks and nuns have ...
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This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of transnational monastic education and the experiences of Dai-lue monastics in traveling outside of Sipsongpannā for an education. While monks and nuns have long traveled to attend schools, there has been little scholarly reflection on this travel. By looking at the experience of the Dai-lue monastics in Chinese Mahayana Buddhist Institutes and Thai Dhamma schools, I show how Buddhism, Theravada and citizenship enable this travel. While these create a notion of a Buddhist ethnoscape, this is a weak connection that is undercut by frictions created by class and nationalism.Less
This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of transnational monastic education and the experiences of Dai-lue monastics in traveling outside of Sipsongpannā for an education. While monks and nuns have long traveled to attend schools, there has been little scholarly reflection on this travel. By looking at the experience of the Dai-lue monastics in Chinese Mahayana Buddhist Institutes and Thai Dhamma schools, I show how Buddhism, Theravada and citizenship enable this travel. While these create a notion of a Buddhist ethnoscape, this is a weak connection that is undercut by frictions created by class and nationalism.
John A. Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449680
- eISBN:
- 9780801462771
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449680.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
This chapter describes the research methodology used in the present study and introduces the two provinces under consideration. It compares the impact of economic, social, political, cultural, ...
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This chapter describes the research methodology used in the present study and introduces the two provinces under consideration. It compares the impact of economic, social, political, cultural, demographic, natural, and geographical factors in Guizhou and Yunnan. For each factor, available data from five qualitative and quantitative sources were collected in order to cross-check the results derived from each source. Each factor was analyzed to determine whether it could explain the juxtaposition of economic growth without poverty reduction in Yunnan and/or the combination of poverty reduction without economic growth in Guizhou. The analysis of demographic, economic, and political factors revealed several similarities and differences between the two provinces and some factors that moved in the opposite direction than expected. Thus, the puzzling pattern of economic growth and poverty reduction seen in the two provinces remains a mystery.Less
This chapter describes the research methodology used in the present study and introduces the two provinces under consideration. It compares the impact of economic, social, political, cultural, demographic, natural, and geographical factors in Guizhou and Yunnan. For each factor, available data from five qualitative and quantitative sources were collected in order to cross-check the results derived from each source. Each factor was analyzed to determine whether it could explain the juxtaposition of economic growth without poverty reduction in Yunnan and/or the combination of poverty reduction without economic growth in Guizhou. The analysis of demographic, economic, and political factors revealed several similarities and differences between the two provinces and some factors that moved in the opposite direction than expected. Thus, the puzzling pattern of economic growth and poverty reduction seen in the two provinces remains a mystery.
John A. Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449680
- eISBN:
- 9780801462771
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449680.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
This chapter addresses the question of why the leaders of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces chose different policy approaches to effect economic development. This question is significant, given that these ...
More
This chapter addresses the question of why the leaders of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces chose different policy approaches to effect economic development. This question is significant, given that these leaders faced similar challenges, operated in similar contexts, and answered to the same bosses in the central government. Were the contrasting strategies adopted due to initiatives from provincial leaders, some centrally initiated experiment, a historical or geographical factor, or a combination of these factors? Evidence suggests that, although the central government constrained and encouraged certain actions and approaches in the provinces, the experiences and backgrounds of the individual provincial leaders affected the choices of strategies. Moreover, once a particular course was set and had received central support, a form of path dependency caused the strategy to continue even after the original leaders had departed.Less
This chapter addresses the question of why the leaders of Guizhou and Yunnan provinces chose different policy approaches to effect economic development. This question is significant, given that these leaders faced similar challenges, operated in similar contexts, and answered to the same bosses in the central government. Were the contrasting strategies adopted due to initiatives from provincial leaders, some centrally initiated experiment, a historical or geographical factor, or a combination of these factors? Evidence suggests that, although the central government constrained and encouraged certain actions and approaches in the provinces, the experiences and backgrounds of the individual provincial leaders affected the choices of strategies. Moreover, once a particular course was set and had received central support, a form of path dependency caused the strategy to continue even after the original leaders had departed.
John A. Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449680
- eISBN:
- 9780801462771
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449680.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
This chapter examines the impact of road construction on economic growth and poverty reduction in Yunnan and Guizhou. Yunnan leaders' road construction policy focused resources on building highways, ...
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This chapter examines the impact of road construction on economic growth and poverty reduction in Yunnan and Guizhou. Yunnan leaders' road construction policy focused resources on building highways, which stimulated the exports of the province and supported the development of the tourism industry. The Guizhou government, on the other hand, concentrated on rural roadways, becoming in the process a leading province in the density of such roadways. The policies of both provinces fall into the category of market facilitation because the intention of each roadway was to expand market opportunities and access. Although the two provinces adopted a similar role for the state, they nevertheless did so while following different strategies. Yunnan leaders adopted a strategy that most clearly emulates the developmental state, promoting large-scale construction intended to maximize economic growth largely through industry. Guizhou leaders, in contrast, focused on small-scale activities and poverty reduction, which is more consistent with a micro-oriented state.Less
This chapter examines the impact of road construction on economic growth and poverty reduction in Yunnan and Guizhou. Yunnan leaders' road construction policy focused resources on building highways, which stimulated the exports of the province and supported the development of the tourism industry. The Guizhou government, on the other hand, concentrated on rural roadways, becoming in the process a leading province in the density of such roadways. The policies of both provinces fall into the category of market facilitation because the intention of each roadway was to expand market opportunities and access. Although the two provinces adopted a similar role for the state, they nevertheless did so while following different strategies. Yunnan leaders adopted a strategy that most clearly emulates the developmental state, promoting large-scale construction intended to maximize economic growth largely through industry. Guizhou leaders, in contrast, focused on small-scale activities and poverty reduction, which is more consistent with a micro-oriented state.
John A. Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449680
- eISBN:
- 9780801462771
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449680.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
This chapter examines the impact of migration on economic growth and poverty reduction in Guizhou and Yunnan. For Guizhou, migration helped reduce poverty, even though the modest remittances ...
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This chapter examines the impact of migration on economic growth and poverty reduction in Guizhou and Yunnan. For Guizhou, migration helped reduce poverty, even though the modest remittances contributed little to economic growth. The mobile Guizhou labor force contributed primarily to GDP growth in other provinces. For Yunnan, migration was a missed opportunity. Few rural residents migrated, thus limiting potential remittance income. Had the Yunnan government adopted policies promoting vocational training and other forms of job support, and promoting the construction of rural roadways, the inability or unwillingness of potential migrants to accept the risks inherent in migration might have been overcome. By encouraging migration, the Yunnan government might also have reduced poverty within the province.Less
This chapter examines the impact of migration on economic growth and poverty reduction in Guizhou and Yunnan. For Guizhou, migration helped reduce poverty, even though the modest remittances contributed little to economic growth. The mobile Guizhou labor force contributed primarily to GDP growth in other provinces. For Yunnan, migration was a missed opportunity. Few rural residents migrated, thus limiting potential remittance income. Had the Yunnan government adopted policies promoting vocational training and other forms of job support, and promoting the construction of rural roadways, the inability or unwillingness of potential migrants to accept the risks inherent in migration might have been overcome. By encouraging migration, the Yunnan government might also have reduced poverty within the province.
John A. Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449680
- eISBN:
- 9780801462771
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449680.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
This chapter first discusses the causal connection between tourism, economic growth, and poverty reduction, and briefly introduces the development of tourism in China. It then explores the volume, ...
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This chapter first discusses the causal connection between tourism, economic growth, and poverty reduction, and briefly introduces the development of tourism in China. It then explores the volume, distribution, and structure of tourism in Yunnan and Guizhou. In Yunnan, the main focus of the tourism industry is on the rich cultural diversity of the province and it is centered in rural, predominantly minority regions. The distribution and structure of the tourism industry primarily promotes economic growth, with a more limited effect on rural poverty reduction. Although Yunnan has many potential tourist attractions in poor counties, the government focused its resources on developing tourist destinations in the non-poor counties. In Guizhou, many tourist activities and sites are distributed in modest villages in poor counties, and they are structured to be small in scale. As a result, poor rural residents benefit directly by hosting tourists, both foreign and domestic. Although the amount of money involved—and thus the profits—are usually quite modest, they can make a big difference in the income of poor people.Less
This chapter first discusses the causal connection between tourism, economic growth, and poverty reduction, and briefly introduces the development of tourism in China. It then explores the volume, distribution, and structure of tourism in Yunnan and Guizhou. In Yunnan, the main focus of the tourism industry is on the rich cultural diversity of the province and it is centered in rural, predominantly minority regions. The distribution and structure of the tourism industry primarily promotes economic growth, with a more limited effect on rural poverty reduction. Although Yunnan has many potential tourist attractions in poor counties, the government focused its resources on developing tourist destinations in the non-poor counties. In Guizhou, many tourist activities and sites are distributed in modest villages in poor counties, and they are structured to be small in scale. As a result, poor rural residents benefit directly by hosting tourists, both foreign and domestic. Although the amount of money involved—and thus the profits—are usually quite modest, they can make a big difference in the income of poor people.
John A. Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449680
- eISBN:
- 9780801462771
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449680.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
This chapter examines the impact of coal mining on economic growth and poverty reduction in Yunnan and Guizhou. In Yunnan, coal contributed to economic growth but did not significantly reduce ...
More
This chapter examines the impact of coal mining on economic growth and poverty reduction in Yunnan and Guizhou. In Yunnan, coal contributed to economic growth but did not significantly reduce poverty, largely due to the volume, distribution, and structure of the coal industry. In Guizhou coal production probably impeded economic development, although it did reduce poverty, primarily through smaller-scale town and village enterprise (TVE) mines based in the Guizhou poor counties. Although the geographical distribution of coal resources contributed to this pattern, policy decisions made by the provinces and the central government were also crucial. But the effects of coal mining on poverty reduction must be weighed against its substantial risks. The dangers inherent in the industry make it difficult to advocate a policy in which TVE coal mining is promoted to reduce poverty.Less
This chapter examines the impact of coal mining on economic growth and poverty reduction in Yunnan and Guizhou. In Yunnan, coal contributed to economic growth but did not significantly reduce poverty, largely due to the volume, distribution, and structure of the coal industry. In Guizhou coal production probably impeded economic development, although it did reduce poverty, primarily through smaller-scale town and village enterprise (TVE) mines based in the Guizhou poor counties. Although the geographical distribution of coal resources contributed to this pattern, policy decisions made by the provinces and the central government were also crucial. But the effects of coal mining on poverty reduction must be weighed against its substantial risks. The dangers inherent in the industry make it difficult to advocate a policy in which TVE coal mining is promoted to reduce poverty.
John A. Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449680
- eISBN:
- 9780801462771
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449680.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
The patterns of economic growth and poverty reduction in Guizhou and Yunnan can be partially explained by their distinct policies on the similar features of their rural economies: road building, ...
More
The patterns of economic growth and poverty reduction in Guizhou and Yunnan can be partially explained by their distinct policies on the similar features of their rural economies: road building, migration, tourism, and coal mining. Although these four factors proved to be important in both provinces, it is the variations of each of them that explain the different patterns of economic growth and poverty reduction. Thus, the policy choices of these provincial governments, not just cultural, geographical, and economic factors, created these puzzling patterns. This chapter analyzes these areas synthetically to derive and explore the overall models that the leaders of the two provinces adopted to change and improve their economies. It discusses the developmental state model adopted by the Yunnan provincial government and the micro-oriented state model followed by Guizhou leaders. The models of poverty reduction vary in the nature of the relationship between the state and market, primary goals (e.g., growth or poverty reduction), tactical approaches, scale of the activity, and mechanism through which the poor are expected to benefit.Less
The patterns of economic growth and poverty reduction in Guizhou and Yunnan can be partially explained by their distinct policies on the similar features of their rural economies: road building, migration, tourism, and coal mining. Although these four factors proved to be important in both provinces, it is the variations of each of them that explain the different patterns of economic growth and poverty reduction. Thus, the policy choices of these provincial governments, not just cultural, geographical, and economic factors, created these puzzling patterns. This chapter analyzes these areas synthetically to derive and explore the overall models that the leaders of the two provinces adopted to change and improve their economies. It discusses the developmental state model adopted by the Yunnan provincial government and the micro-oriented state model followed by Guizhou leaders. The models of poverty reduction vary in the nature of the relationship between the state and market, primary goals (e.g., growth or poverty reduction), tactical approaches, scale of the activity, and mechanism through which the poor are expected to benefit.
John A. Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449680
- eISBN:
- 9780801462771
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449680.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to examine the relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction by analyzing two regional economies: the poor provinces of ...
More
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to examine the relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction by analyzing two regional economies: the poor provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan in China. Both provinces are remote and mountainous, with many rural families subsisting on what they can produce from these harsh agricultural conditions. However, in the 1990s, the economy of Guizhou grew sluggishly while poverty declined, whereas the economy of Yunnan grew rapidly with few people emerging from poverty. The remainder of the chapter discusses the research methodology used in the present study along with a brief overview of the subsequent chapters.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to examine the relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction by analyzing two regional economies: the poor provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan in China. Both provinces are remote and mountainous, with many rural families subsisting on what they can produce from these harsh agricultural conditions. However, in the 1990s, the economy of Guizhou grew sluggishly while poverty declined, whereas the economy of Yunnan grew rapidly with few people emerging from poverty. The remainder of the chapter discusses the research methodology used in the present study along with a brief overview of the subsequent chapters.
