Yi Festival in EShan (峨山): Dancing, Bongs, & Bees

I went to class for the first time last week—a graduate class titled “Linguistic Field Research Analysis”.  I showed up 10 minutes early just to be safe, and found the class mostly filled, from the third row on back.  I took a seat in the front row all the way on the side by the window so the professor would know that I was there but I wouldn’t be in the center.  By the time the class was about to start, there were only three people in the front two rows:  me and two girls who had come in too late to get seats farther back (they sat behind me in the second row).  I turned around to talk to the girls, but they were intensely preparing for class.

The professor was 10 minutes late, and everyone continued talking while he began.  This class, as it turns out, is a first year graduate class of about 40 students.  Since it is mid-semester already, I expected some interesting discussions about field research or some case studies or something along those lines.  Instead, the professor spent the first hour and a half of the two-hour course individually quizzing each of the students on the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)—a set of symbols and characters used by linguists to represent every phonetic sound and variation in all natural languages—and then he went into a brief discussion about linguistic tones.  While I found the discussion on tones at least somewhat useful, I was still bored throughout the entire class.  What’s more, every time a student made a mistake on the IPA, all of the students laughed, and the professor looked over at me nervously as if he had to prove himself and his class in my presence.  To be perfectly honest, I was more nervous that he was going to ask me to recite the IPA as well!  After class, I chatted with some of the graduate students and then went with the professor to his office.  There, he introduced me to a retired professor Zhang ChunDe (张纯德), who is a Yi member and an expert in the field of Yi studies.  (He has 7 or 8 books published on various aspects of Yi, including their culture, history, religion, writing, and language).

We had brief introductions, and Zhang ChunDe explained that he had been invited by the government of EShan (峨山—the first autonomous county of the Yi People in China) located in YuXi, about two hours south of Kunming, to the first annual Yi Ancestral Cultural Festival starting the next day, Wednesday, 11/25 and going through Friday, 11/27.  He said he’d asked, and I was allowed to join him.  It kind of threw me off at first, since Thursday was Thanksgiving and I had plans, and it was so soon, and I almost said no.  But, I realized after a moment that this type of event is why I’m here, and it was a good opportunity to make contacts and get involved in Yi society, which I shouldn’t pass up.  I thanked him and agreed to go.

He called me the next morning to tell me that we had tickets for a 1:30pm bus, and would meet at the bus station at 1.  I spent a little time packing, arguing with myself about how much clothes to bring for the three day trip, and eventually weeding down my extra bag, deciding I didn’t need to bring my computer and could manage with one pair of pants and a few t-shirts to wear under .  I arrived a little bit early, and waited.   By 1:20, I was starting to get a little bit nervous that I might be in the wrong place.  I called him, and he didn’t pick up.  Fortunately, at 1:28, he came hustling up to the station.  I grabbed his bag for him, and we ran through the station to find the bus.  (I also want to note that despite the fact that I was so proud of myself for bringing so little, he had with him even less, only a small bag, which it turns out was filled with books to give as gifts—no change of clothes.)

We found the bus, and he said that two other professors were supposed to be joining us.  I waited for him on the bus while he ran around looking for them and calling them.  Finally, the other people on the bus and the driver were getting impatient and threatened to leave without him, so I signaled him back, and we figured that they’d have to take the next bus.  A short two hours later, the bus stopped on the side of the highway and informed us that we’d reached our destination.  We got out and found no way to actually get off the highway (if it were just me, I would have just hopped the fence, but he didn’t seem like he had the interest or ability).  So, we walked a ways till we got to the off-ramp, and down around till we came to a toll booth where a line of girls dressed in traditional Yi costume were waiting to welcome guests attending the conference.  A man with a clipboard came up, and there was some handshaking and acknowledgments that we were there for the conference.  He ushered us into a nice SUV and drove us to another location to register.  There, we presented ourselves to another welcoming committee, who looked for our names in a registration book.  At this point, I realized that this festival/conference was much bigger and more serious than I had expected it to be.  Along with about 800 other professors, bureaucrats, and other individuals with interest in Yi studies, my name was also officially listed in the guest book as an “American Visiting Researcher”.  (It also said that I had a PhD—I didn’t correct them.)

They took us to a village about 10 minutes from the center of EShan, because they said the town was too crowded.  The hotel was nice enough.  I got my own room, and the village is known for its hot springs, so the shower water was naturally hot.  This festival, I spent a little time looking through the gift bag.  It contained a nicely sized wheel of Puer tea, a 120 page hardbound photo It was a bit awkward at first, but people were nice enough and seemed curious about my presence there.  Zhang Laoshi introduced me to everyone, and it turned out that he really knew EVERYONE; or, at least everyone knew him.  I was talking to two professors from Beijing on my own, when Zhang Laoshi came over, and they said they had his book on their desk back in Beijing.

Dinner was interesting.  I was very gracious, (though a bit out of my element) and I admit that I still don’t fully understand Chinese toasting culture.  I had never been at an event or dinner like this before, and at first it took me by surprise.  During dinner, people would get up with a bottle of BaiJiu and their glass, and walk around individually toasting specific people, then refilling both glasses in preparation for a later toast.  Making it worse, everyone was speaking very quickly in either really heavily accented Southwest Mandarin or in Yi.  Having communication difficulties and not really knowing my place, I stayed quiet.

After dinner they took us to a sort of opening ceremony.  The term opening ceremony may even be quite appropriate since they stole some of the music from the Olympics, and the event was held in a large outdoor stadium, with over 2 million USD in lighting, sound, fireworks, and other theatrics invested in it.

The next day we got up early for the unveiling of a large statue of Abudumu (阿普笃慕), the ancestor of the Yi people.  Abudumu apparently lived about 2200 years ago, and had 6 sons with 3 wives.  This festival was dedicated to him.  The large statue of him, along with statues of his 6 sons, was built in April or May of this year, but this was the official unveiling.  It was an interesting ceremony.  The Yi people have a rich culture and writing system, which comes from their shamanistic religion, Bimo.  A group of shamans were on hand to “bless” the statues.  There were also horn players, drummers, firecrackers, and a lot of people.

Later in the day we took part in the Yi Cultural and Economic Social Development Conference.  The first speaker was a Yi woman named Wu Xia.  She had obtained a PhD from a university in Hong Kong, and a second PhD from the University of Michigan.  Her presentation was on comparisons between the Yi people and native peoples of North and South America, with a focus on sun calendars.  (The Yi people use a 10-month sun calendar.)  Her talk was very interesting, and one of the only ones that I really understood, since she spoke in fairly clear Putonghua.  Everyone else was speaking with strong accents.

Later that night, we went to the finals of the Yi Flower Drum Dance (花鼓舞) competition.  The Flower Drum Dance is a famous dance of the Yi people, which includes (you guessed it) flowers and drums.  Often, the men dance with flowers while the women dance and play drums, but there are variations.  The competition included 11 teams, a singing performance, and a Guzheng (Chinese harp) performance by 4 young girls.  The dances were interesting and very enjoyable—a few of the teams included fusions between the traditional dance and modern dances such as hip hop and break dancing, but on the whole, I liked the more traditional dances a lot more.

We were originally supposed to go home the next morning, but the event coordinators offered to give us a VIP tour of the region, so we agreed.  They first took us to the YuanTian Bio-energy Development Company, where the president of the company gave us a tour of the hills growing the plants they use to produce bio-diesel and other oils.  It was very foggy out early in the morning, and there wasn’t much to see.  Later, we visited the Yu Lin Quan BaiJiu (Chinese alcohol) factory/brewery (?).  The company has been around for hundreds of years, and it was interesting to tour the facilities.  I was talking with the Vice President of the company, and he offered to let us all taste one of their very high quality baijius, which had been sitting for 20 years.  They poured it right out of the jugs, and it was very strong.  A bit spicy on the tongue with a strong warming feeling—it burned for a few minutes.

Next, we visited a tea mountain famous in the region for its Puer, green, and oolong teas.  We had lunch there, during which there was much drinking and more toasting.  It seems that the Yi tradition is to sing to each other when making a toast.  I was asked to sing an English song, and couldn’t think of anything appropriate, so I sang a song in Hebrew.  Afterwards, went on a tour of the mountain and tea gardens, and then got to taste three of their teas:  a green tea, a roasted green tea, and a Puer tea.  Normally each glass can cost up to $20 USD, but since we were VIP guests, it was of course on the house.  We all drank a lot, and they kept filling up our glasses.

While tasting the teas, the offered me a bong.  In Yunnan, it is customary to smoke a cigarette or straight tobacco through a large bong.  You can see it all over Yunnan, and it really is quite remarkable the first few times you see it.  I politely declined.

Dinner that night was interesting.  I really regret that I didn’t bring my camera.  On the table, there was a dog meat stew, a bowl of chicken heads, and a plate of fried bees.  I have seen bee larvae served in China before, but this was new to me.  It was literally a plate piled high with bees.  They had apparently been lightly breaded and fried quickly.  Many of them were bread-less.  After a bit of encouragement, I stuck a couple in my mouth.  They were fairly crispy, and not bad.  I was told that it’s an expensive dish.  Based on the trouble it must take to get the bees, I’m not surprised.  After eating a few, someone asked me, “you’re not allergic to bees, are you?”.  I said, “hmm… I really hope not!”

Since we’d stayed the extra day, it was decided that we’d go home the next morning.  All in all, it was an amazing trip.  I met a lot of people, learned a lot about the Yi, got VIP treatment, and had a good time.

On Sunday, I went for lunch at Zhang ChunDe’s house.  I showed up at 9am, and we spent three hours in his study reading books and discussing my research.  He lives with his wife, his daughter, and her husband and son.  His other daughter and her family, and two other couples and their children also came for lunch.  I must say, the boys who were around 7 or 8 were quite the小皇帝(litte emperors—spolied).  They wanted what they wanted and wouldn’t listen to their parents or grandparents without a big effort.  In any case, their parents made them perform their English, which they’re studying in school, in front of me, and then perform the piano.  I also played for them for a moment or so, and one of the boys played the accordion really quite well.  Zhang ChunDe invited me to the Yi Ten-Month Festival this upcoming Saturday, and also offered to take me to a village next week to begin my field research.  We are planning to go out to the village on Monday.  He said he’d go with me, find me a translator, a place to stay, make my arrangements and then leave me up there for the week.  I’m very grateful that he’s been so much help to me.  He’s a great contact to have made.

So, things are getting going.  I have already posted photos from last week, and I have a lot of videos which I will upload at some point.