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China

A Snapshot of the Nu

There is scant literature in English about the Nu people of China, but the mention of poison arrows and the Nus’ odd way of cutting notches in sticks to mark significant events made me curious about them. According to English-language accounts, the Nu have one of the smallest populations among the minorities of China—only 27,000 people, almost all of whom live in the steep mountains drained by the turbulent Nu River. The Chinese character “Nu” means furious, wild, angry.

Beijing’s Development Policy and Tibetans

As the juggernaut of China’s Western Development Program rolls on, the worst fears of the Tibetan people are coming true. Not only has the Chinese government moved Tibetans from their homelands, but it has also brought Chinese migrants to Tibetan areas, drastically changing the economic and physical landscape, and threatening ethnic conflict.

China’s Tribal Farmers Face the Global Market

“I arrived at the market at 2 a.m. this morning,” said Mrs. Liu as she spread out her precious produce on the floor next to her friends. Her exotic fruit, vegetables, and fungi freshly gathered the day before were selling quickly.

Contemporary Chinese Shamanism:The Reinvention of Tradition

Xu Ma tossed and turned in a disturbed sleep, lost in a land covered with green grass and trees that rolled on and on as far as she could see. Many times in past nights she had witnessed that same scene and awoken in a sweat. An enlarged lump had appeared on her wrist at about the same time the dreams had begun, and she felt a throbbing pain that continued to worsen. The village clinic could do little to alleviate her distress. Neighbors suggested she seek out a woman healer named Wang.

Reminiscences About the Reindeer Herders of China

Late on a frosty afternoon in fall 1993, we were leaving the mountains of the northern slopes of the Greater Hinggan Range on the back of a rumbling cart, lurching here and there. In one direction the sky glowed red, and in the other it looked like something between rain and snow. A double rainbow arched across the valley behind us—a seal on our memories, locking the scene in the past forever. Nobody said a word. The air was too cold and the wind whistled past our red ears as we concentrated on breathing through our noses.

Land Use and Fung-shui: Negotiation in the New Territories, Hong Kong

With the intensive rural development and increasing values in property from the late 1970s in Hang Kong, land administration became a more complicated task. The Government increasingly needed more land for future development, both industrial and residential; but the government's claim to indigenously-held land was strongly rejected by the land's owners and dwellers. One of the main grounds for challenging the government is fung-shui, or geomancy.

World Bank-Funded Oil Project Would Displace Bagyeli in Chad and Cameroon

On June 6th, the World Bank approved funding for a $3.5 billion dollar project enabling oil exploitation in Chad and Cameroon. The project includes the construction of 3 oil fields in the Doba Basin of southern Chad, with oil production estimated at 225,000 barrels per day. Once the oil is extracted, it will be transported through a 600 foot-wide pipe crossing Cameroon. An international consortium composed of large oil corporations like Shell, Elf, Agip, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron initially backed the project.

Can This Language be Saved?

Words are fascinating things. With meanings that expand and contract, they can be popularized, bought and sold in a linguistic marketplace, or, if denied access, they can be forced off the conversational road, never to be heard from again. Atapaka, for instance, was on someone's lips one hundred years ago, as were Wyandot, Galice, Nootsack, Salinan, Twana, and Lumbee. At the time, linguists documenting Native American languages noted that people spoke Chumash and Tonkawa with the same healthy conviction that we use Spanish, French, or English.

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