Tourism and the Naxi Minority Nationality, Yunnan Province,
China
A Case Study in Indigenous Tourism
Trevor H.B. Sofield
Tourism Programme Murdoch University
Murodch, WA, Australia November 1999
Introduction
The Naxi (population 295,000, 1995) are of Tibetan origin and
settled in the Lijiang region of Yunnan perhaps 2000 years ago. In ancient
times the Naxi were followers of the Dongba religion (animist spirit and
ancestor worship). Over time Dongba syncretised with Buddhism, Taoism and Islam
but it retains its own characteristics and is still referred to as
“Dongba”. The Naxi combined their cultural and literary heritage
with Confucianism and their society produced many artists and scholars, musical
societies, schools of art, and academies of classical learning. Their
architecture is also distinct, involving stone and wood carved buildings.
The Naxi are famous for the creation of their own written
language more than 1,000 years ago, using a combination of symbols and
pictographs. There are several famous Dongba texts written in this language,
and their dongjing music has also survived. It is Taoist ritual music
and includes several songs and poems dating back to the Tang and Song dynasties,
including several famous songs composed by the Tang emperor, Li Longji in the
8th century, the “Trigram Dance Music” and the
“Rainbow-coloured Feather Robe Dance”. The Trigram
is a ceremonial piece which was first used to celebrate the opening of a
Taoist hall by Li Longji in 741AD. Another imperial composition,
“Waves Washing the Sand”, was composed by the last emperor of
the Southern Song dynasty, Li Yu, and was used to accompany the offering of
incense to the gods at the Buddhist Great Grotto of Wenchang. The linkage
between the Imperial Court and the ancient Naxi leaders, who were accorded a
degree of autonomy by the centre and ruled as vassal governors over their own
kingdom, remains a matter of considerable ethnic pride today.
The dress of the Naxi is distinctive and most of the women
continue to wear blue blouses and trousers covered by blue or black aprons. The
traditional T-shaped cape worn by the women has a dual function: it not only
prevents chafing from the basket which is always worn on the back, but it has
symbolic meaning. Day and night are represented by the white and dark halves of
the cape, and seven embroidered circles symbolise the stars. Two larger
circles, one on each shoulder, depict the eyes of a frog which, until the
15th century, was an important god to the Naxi. With the decline of
animist beliefs, the frog eyes fell out of fashion but some of the capes still
carry the circles and the Naxi still call the cape by its original name of
‘frog eye sheepskin’. The wearing of such clothes by the women
merits some comment. Naxi society was traditionally a matriarchal society with
the women assuming control in the organisation of households (see below). While
matriarchy has broken down to some extent in the less isolated villages and the
urban areas, the women still take the lead in many things and the wearing of
traditional dress is one such manifestation of a determination to express their
continuing role and identity. They wear traditional clothes not as an object
for the gaze of the tourist and his/her camera, but as a physical and symbolic
marker of their ethnicity: it is their decision not the decision of their
menfolk and as such is also an expression of their authority. In Lijiang, they
continue to take the leading role in much of the decision-making processes
(McKahn, 1999). It is of interest that by contrast the men of Lijiang will not
don their traditional long gowns for everyday wear but reserve them for
ceremonial occasions or staged performances for tourists (see accompanying
photos of a cultural performance in the rural Naxi village of Xia Shu He, where
the men have ‘dressed up’ for the tourists).
Tourism and the Naxi, Lijiang
Today Naxi cultural heritage is still very strong and Lijiang
Old Quarter (Dayan) manifests the strength and durability of many customs and
traditions. Lijiang was the administrative centre of the ancient Naxi kingdom
and its administrative buildings and temple complex, Mu Pu, while damaged during
the Cultural Revolution, have been fully restored. There is a large mural in
the main court hall which dates back to the 8th century AD, most of
it escaping unscathed from the ravages of the Red Guards because the Lijiang
elders covered it up behind boards. The town has many ancient houses, and the
charm of its narrow alleys and small spring-fed rivers which flow throughout the
town, support a strong tourism industry. The Naxi have utilised tourism as a
mechanism for both conserving their music, dance, songs, festivals and arts and
crafts, and for underpinning their economy. There are several active
traditional orchestras, a number of staged festivals, and numerous arts, crafts
and artefacts for sale in souvenir stalls throughout Lijiang Old Quarter. The
town dates back to 600 AD and was inscribed on the World Heritage List of
cultural sites by UNESCO in 1997. It is one of the most popular tourist
destinations in Yunnan.
While much of the Naxi culture was suppressed under the
totalistic iconoclasm of Mao, it has been revived and indeed encouraged under
the Open Door policies initiated by Deng in 1978, and most recently elevated to
a matter of the highest Provincial Government policy (1999). As noted above
there are many Naxi cultural associations today, such as the Dongba Culture
Research Institute (which promotes and supports research into the ancient
culture and traditions of the Naxi); and the Dayan (Lijiang) Naxi Ancient Music
Association. This Association has reconstructed an ancestral hall in the
Lijiang Old Quarter of Dayan, established a traditional orchestra, and gives
performances of the ancient Dongba music and dances six nights each week in the
Hall. Many of the musical instruments are several hundred years old, and care
is taken to ensure the authenticity of the costumes worn by the male and female
musicians and dancers, including intricately embroidered hand-woven materials
rather than modern synthetics. The performances of the orchestra are extremely
popular with the Chinese, especially overseas Chinese, who make up more than 80%
of the audience for each performance.
In addition to such cultural performances, there are Naxi
‘Cultural Villages’ where tourists may see not only rural ceremonies
but witness the rural ‘way of life’ (‘culture writ
large’). Such visits are as interesting for Chinese as for non-Chinese
tourists since they provide a window into a way of life that is totally outside
their experience in the huge amorphous urban centres of Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou, and for the overseas Chinese from Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Kuala
Lumpur, San Francisco or Sydney. Such visitors will display interest not only
in the cultural performances staged for their benefit but will poke around the
village, wander into courtyards, ask if they may venture inside houses and
barns, and question householders, young and old, about their way of life
(Personal observations, Xia Shu He village, 1999).
Luoshui Village at Lugu Lake to the northwest of Lijiang is
perhaps the most visited rural Naxi village. Until recently the Naxi lived in
matriarchal families, although their traditional rulers were always men. Within
household units however, women held sway, inherited all property, and disputes
were settled by women. The Mosuo people (a sub-branch of the Naxi) who live
around Lake Lugu to the north-west of Lijiang, still maintain a strong
matriarchal system, with a unique marriage system. This is called azhu,
or ‘friend’ system, with the women taking lovers who visit them
overnight but who return to their mother’s household each day. The men
work in the mother’s fields rather than the wife’s fields and are
resident at their mother’s house. All children born to a couple belong to
the woman and live in her household: no special effort is made to recognise
paternity. Women it appears seize the initiative more often than men to start or
end a relationship (Kang, 1999).
Taking advantage of their national image of ‘carefree
sexuality’ (McKahn, 1999, p.8) the villagers of Luoshui have developed a
thriving home-stay industry. All 35 of the Mosuo households run lodges with
capacity for 20-50 guests, and the 25 Pumi families and 18 Han families which
make up the village of 78 households, also engage actively in a range of tourism
activities (Kang, 1999). Day trips on the lake in Mosuo dug-out canoes, horse
riding around the lake and into the surrounding mountains, evening Guozhuang
parties (folk-singing and dancing), and mud-wrestling with Mosuo girls, are
the main activities, with the matriarchal lifestyle of the family structure an
obvious attraction. Tourism-generated income is estimated at more than RMB
20,000 p.a. per household (Kang, 1999).
Lijiang witnessed a graphic example in 1996 of the way in which
they Chinese Government has distanced itself from the totalistic iconoclasm of
Mao and also given a degree of state recognition and therefore legitimacy to
religious beliefs and worship. A severe earthquake struck the Lijiang region on
4 February 1996 with the epicentre located beneath the eastern flank of Jade
Dragon Mountain. The Naxi community attributed the earthquake to the wrath of
the mountain god, Saddo, tutelary deity of the people of the Lijiang basin.
Saddo was upset, Naxi people said, because of the indiscriminate tourism
development which had taken place around the mountain. In 1995, for example, a
chair lift had been erected to take visitors from a new tourist village at the
foot of the mountain to an alpine resort under construction. Further south, at
Dry Lake Basin, another resort was being developed with a four-mile long chair
lift to take visitors up to the mountain’s glaciers. On the western side,
a new highway was being cut to shorten access to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Thousands
of tourists were tramping all over the mountain. With “all of this poking
and prodding, cutting and gouging, and strangers tromping around”, Saddo
was angry and he let the people of Lijiang know by creating the earthquake
(McKahn, 1999, p.2).
Public concern grew to the extent that the Lijiang Prefecture
Tourism Bureau, which was responsible for building the new chair lift system on
Jade Dragon Mountain, hired two Naxi priests (Dongbas) from the Dongba
Culture Research Institute to perform Shu Gv, the traditional sacrifice
to the mountains. They performed the ceremony once on 2 July 1996 at the
groundbreaking of the first gondola tower, and again a year later at the
project’s completion (McKahn, 1999). While there may have been an element
of public relations in the action of the Lijiang Prefecture Tourism Bureau in
hiring the priests, such a response and expenditure would have been not only
unthinkable under Mao but would have probably led to severe criticism and
perhaps dismissal of the officials concerned. For the Naxi the ceremony served
three main purposes;
- it appeased the angry god;
- it in effect provided divine sanction and
‘approved’ tourism development as acceptable (and thus for the
economic benefit of the Naxi); and
- it reaffirmed the merit and worth of
their religious beliefs and culture.
Prior to 1996, tourist visitation to Lijiang was less than
900,000 tourist days per year (i.e. number of tourists multiplied by their
length of stay), with an estimated value in 1995 of Renminbi (RMB) 230 million.
In 1997, the figure expanded to 1.6 million tourist days with an estimated value
of RMB 800 million, and in 1998 the figure was 2.01 million tourist days with an
estimated value of RMB 1060 million. In 1993 there were three hotels in Lijiang
and less than six guesthouses. By December 1998 there were 71 large and small
hotels (including a 12 storey, five star hotel whose rooms and suites range from
USD$100 to USD$1000 per day) with a total of 8,600 beds. There were numerous
guesthouses and bed-and-breakfast accommodation units with approximately 5,000
more beds. These beds were insufficient to handle the numbers of visitors
during the 1999 Spring Festival when the County Government set up another 1,300
beds in schools and private homes (Lijiang Prefecture Tourism Bureau, 1999).
The growth in tourism was so noticeable that the local people talk about tourism
before and tourism after the earthquake, with tourism endeavours
since 1996 blessed by the mountain god Saddo (McKahn, 1999).
This cosmological explanation may satisfy the ethnic minority
and as such must be accepted as a local reality. There are additional factors
which should also be considered in the growth of tourism. The most obvious is
the construction of an airport with jet aircraft capabilities in 1994.. Prior
to its opening, Lijiang was a 16 hour express bus ride (or two days if the
‘local’ bus was taken) along unsealed roads from the capital,
Kunming. Before the earthquake, between 1994 and 1996 there were 3-4 flights
per week into the airport. After the earthquake, the number of flights
increased to 4-6 flights per day for a total of 36 Boeing 737 flights per week
by mid-1999. Up to 90% of visitors now arrive by air (Lijiang Prefecture
Tourism Bureau, 1999). This growth has been accompanied by large expenditure by
the Prefecture Government on upgrading infrastructure (roads, power, water), and
in investment in hotels, restaurants, taxi and guide services, etc. The growth
of tourism in Lijiang has taken place in the context of national policies
of support for cultural tourism, another factor which must be seen as
significant since it facilitated funding and investment by both the public and
private sectors in tourism development.
Effects of Tourism
At the macro scale, the direct expenditure of tourists in 1998
(an estimated RMB 1.060 million) equated to an average of RMB 972 per person in
Lijiang Prefecture. With a multiplier of 1.6, tourism generated income in
Lijiang Prefecture on a per capita basis was RMB1,555 per annum.
At the micro scale of course, this does not translate into even
distribution. A survey carried out by the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences (Du
Juan, 1998) indicated that in 1997/98 annual incomes for small hotel owners,
keepers of tourists shops and stalls, restaurant owners and managers, chefs, bus
and taxi operators and tour guides in Lijiang Old Quarter, may be as high as
RMB25,000-30,000. For rural villages on the tourist circuit closest to Dayan
(Lijiang Old Quarter), per capita incomes were around RMB3000-4000 per annum.
Other villages in the Lijiang basin however were not so prosperous. Accounting
for one third of the agricultural workforce for the entire Prefecture, 70% had
annual per capita incomes of RMB 500-1000, and 30% had per capita annual incomes
of between RMB 1000-1500. Remote mountain villages represented the other end of
the spectrum. At heights above 2800m where they cannot grow productive crops but
must depend upon livestock grazing and forest products, the annual income for
entire families is less than RMB1000 p.a. Twenty percent of upland farm
families live below the Yunnan poverty line of RMB 500 p.a.
There are many examples of tourist-driven income growth among
support services and industries (in addition to the obvious ones such as hotels,
restaurants, taxis, and tour guides). In 1988, for example, there was one meat
market in Lijiang (its resident population was then about 22,000). In 1998
there were seven meat markets, its population was 30,000, but tourist numbers
had increased from about 70,000 tourist days to 1.01 million tourist days. Arts
and crafts household production for touristic sale is estimated to have
increased more than 100 times in the past decade (Du, 1998). The sale of
traditional medicines and herbs, for which there appears to be an insatiable
demand by overseas Chinese in particular, has also increased dramatically. Yet
the potential for tourism to alleviate poverty in all areas of Lijiang
Prefecture is limited. Much of it is rugged with no road access, and some
communities simply do not have attractions that could be developed.
As well as economic effects, there are social and cultural
impacts which must be considered. The increasing commercialisation of
Lijiang’s Old Quarter has created some tension between native Lijiang
residents and outside entrepreneurs who have been attracted into the town.
Although no figures are available it appears that significant numbers of
non-Naxi have either purchased or rented premises for various tourist
operations. They include innkeepers, karaoke bar operators, nightclubs,
restaurateurs, artists, craftpersons, and “shopkeepers selling everything
from ethnic clothing and local products to lingerie, film, T-shirts, jade,
traditional medicines, antiques, wood carvings, and a host of other tourist
goods” (McKahn, 1999, p.7). Prostitution and drugs are apparently
evident, and their unwelcome presence in the town is attributed exclusively to
‘outsiders’. Complaints are frequently made by Naxi residents about
‘losing’ their town to outsiders, having their trade
‘stolen’ by outsiders, and newcomers having no respect for
traditional ways of doing things. Editorials and articles in the local press
have even suggested banning ‘outsiders’ (waidi ren) from
doing business in the town (McKahn, 1999, p.7). This would seem to be a
universal theme: residents of towns all over the world voice similar concerns
(e.g. Pearce, Moscardo and Ross, 1996, writing about small communities and
tourism in north Queensland).
In addition to the social stress caused by the presence of large
numbers of non-Naxi residents and business people, other social impacts include
the fact that the Naxi are being excluded from their own space by the invasion
of tourism. Where the central town square, Si Fang Jie, once operated as a
market for all things needed by the townsfolk (serving this function
continuously for a period of many centuries), the authorities have
‘cleaned it up’ and relocated the meat market, the produce market
and the prepared food vendors to the outskirts of the town. Souvenir stalls for
tourists operated by Bai ‘immigrants’ now replace the functional
stalls of previous times. Residents can no longer chat with their neighbours
and community members in Si Fang Jie as they go about the daily business of
purchasing the necessities of life but must walk an extra kilometre or more for
their shopping needs (no vehicles are allowed inside the precincts of the
ancient town). Tourist demand for some of these goods, and the competition which
residents must face from tourism operators requiring the same goods and
services, have increased prices and is another cause of complaint. The centre
is no longer a central focus/place for community socialising and market
transactions but simply a transit point for residents. For tourists it appears
authentic (the location is the same, many of the ancient houses remain, worn
cobblestones line the square, and many of the arts and crafts are locally made
by hand in traditional fashion with traditional materials) but the cultural
essence and the everyday necessities previously on sale have been
replaced with items whose function is no longer utilitarian but constitute
souvenirs and trinkets. It is the commoditisation which Cohen (1999) suggests is
inevitable when tourism ‘invades’ indigenous cultures.
Private space is also shrinking. Where once residents could
stack firewood outside their homes, hang their washing out to dry along the
alleys, dry skins on the pavement, process local foods outside their doors, and
so on, both the State and the tourist have claimed that space for their needs.
Some of these domestic activities still occur but the soft buffer
‘zone’ (not formally designated as a zone, of course) between the
resident and the tourist has receded. Lijiang Old Quarter is no longer as nice
a place to live, according to McKahn (1999), and this would appear to be
supported by the evidence of locals moving out to suburbs of Lijiang (where they
also have access to gas, sewage, electricity and water facilities significantly
superior to those in Old Town, some of which are non-existent there). The
strict application of a building code designed to conserve the pictorial appeal
of the ancient town and maintain its World Heritage Site listing is a mixed
blessing for residents denied access to modern facilities.
Conclusions
Paradoxically, Lijiang’s tourism boom is believed to have
led to both a loss of ethnic culture through the effects of modernisation and at
the same time an increase in knowledge about its culture. . Mandarin and
English are alleged to have resulted in diminished use of the indigenous
language, culture has been commoditised, and religion and festivals
commercialised and degraded for tourism. Stereotyping of Naxi culture is to
some extent unavoidable as images and staged performances are provided to meet
tourist expectations and demand. But on the other side of the ledger, tourism
has resulted in some cultural aspects and traditional skills being revived and
maintained. As well as the orchestras and the Dongba Culture Research
Institute, schools have been established offering classes in spoken Naxi,
dingjong music and the Dongba script by the Naxi for their own people,
children in particular.
If ten years ago the kind of tourism experienced by Lijiang was
characterised by ‘external impacts on innocent relatively passive
victims’, as much of the earlier literature on tourism studies illustrated
in its approach to analysing host/guest situations (Wood, 1997), we now
understand that tourism itself has changed, that it is processural, dynamic, and
that over time host communities internalise tourism and respond in quite
different ways from initial reactions. Cohen (1999) suggests that at the outset
tourism penetrates directly into the ‘authentic’ daily life of an
ethnic community: and if tourism does not die out but continues then it creates
a ‘tourist sphere’ which emerges as separate from although
intricately inter-linked with the daily life of the people, who may then stage
‘authentic’ aspects of their culture. The regular evening
performances of the Dayan Naxi Ancient Music Association in its reconstructed
Naxi Ancestral Halls are an example of Cohen’s ‘contrived
authenticity’ as tourist attraction. On the other hand the establishment
of ethnic schools in Lijiang which are for the benefit of the Naxi community not
tourists, is an example of this internalisation at work in a different way.
Tourism has placed a value on their ethnicity which they did not appreciate to
the same extent previously. In turn, the skills and knowledge acquired by the
next generation of Naxi residents of Lijiang arising from this schooling may be
put to work exploiting aspects of tourism for their own and their
community’s benefit. The rapid economic and social change entailed in the
tourism development of Lijiang have both centrifugal and centripetal stresses at
work on the socio-cultural heritage of the Naxi people.
[Author’s note: The material for this case study was
gathered during a six week field trip to Yunnan in September/October 1999. A
shorter field trip was made to Lijiang in September 1999. Discussions were held
with a number of the 180 experts at the “Leadership Conference on
Conservancy and Development” held in Yunnan 12-19 September 1999,
sponsored by the Ford Foundation, organised by the Center for United
States-China Arts Exchange, and supported at the highest level by the Yunnan
Provincial Government; and with the 120 participants to the Conference on
“Anthropology, Chinese Society and Tourism”, held at Yunnan
University, Kunming, 28 September–3 October 1999 and sponsored jointly by
that University’s Department of Anthropology and the Chinese University of
Hong Kong.]
References
Cohen, E. (1999). “Ethnic Tourism in Southeast
Asia.” Paper presented at the International Conference on
Anthropology, Chinese Society and Tourism, Kunming, 28 Sept – 3 October,
1999.
Dayan Naxi Ancient Music Association (1999) Naxi Ancient
Music: Programme Notes. Lijiang.
Du, Juan (1998). Some Observations on Market Adifferentials
– Mainstay Industry and Smaller Oncerns in Lijiang County. [original
in Mandarin] Paper prepared for the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences Ethnology
Institute.
Kang, Yunhai (1999). Participatory Community-based Tourism
Development. A Case Study of Luoshui Village Beside Lugu Lake in Yunnan
Province of China. Kunming: Yunnan Science and Technology Press.
Lijiang Prefecture Tourism Bureau. (1999). Annual Report
1998. Lijiang: Prefecture Government Bureau.
McKahn, Charles F. (1999). “The Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly: Some Preliminary Observations on Tourism Development in
Lijiang.” Paper delivered at the Leadership Conference onConservancy
and Development. Yunnan, 12-19 September 1999.
Pearce, P.L., Moscardo, G. & Ross, G. (1996)
Tourism Community Relationships. Oxford:
Pergamon.
Picard, M. and Wood, R.E. (eds) (1997) Tourism, Ethnicity and
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Press.
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construction of ‘Otherness’. In: Picard, M. and Wood, R.E.
(eds) Tourism, Ethnicity and the State in Asian and Pacific Societies,
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