Berkley Center

I woke up to the sound of our bus driver honking relentlessly in a futile attempt to move the cows that were blocking the road. “We are definitely not in Beijing anymore,” announced our guide. I looked around and saw nothing but endless tea plantations and a river stream flowing between them. We finally entered the Yi village that was to host us for the next couple of days, and we were greeted by our host parents and 8-year-olds with smartphones taking pictures of the confused-looking group of foreigners. This was not quite what I expected, but when in China nothing really seems out of the ordinary.

I spent the past two weeks backpacking through Yunnan province in the south of China, experiencing rural life and researching the different ethnic minorities that inhibit it. Yunnan is extremely unique and diverse in almost every aspect. Not only can you experience all four seasons in a day, but it is also home to 25 different ethnic minorities. Just to put in perspective, China has 23 provinces and 55 recognized minority groups, Yunnan being the most diverse of them all. From one of the least developed provinces that struggled to rid itself of the label of “backwardness,” Yunnan now leads tourism in the country, and many of its old cities and religious sites are protected by UNESCO or the government. Yunnan’s diversity was previously seen as a source of instability, but it is now recognized as an important bridgehead for China’s trade with Southeast Asia, mainly due to the similarities its ethnic groups share with those of Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.

My time in Yunnan was packed with once-in-a-lifetime experiences. We hiked the rice terraces in the Hani village, visited mosques in Dali, got a glimpse into the life of a monk in the Dai village, explored a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, took a pictograph class of the ancient Dongba language, celebrated the Chinese New Year on the border with Myanmar, and learned traditional Naxi dances in the house of the village shaman. From all of these places and crazy experiences, what I will remember most was the generous hospitality and the inspiring way in which those groups managed to preserve their unique traditions. However, like everything in China, things move faster than ever, and the younger generation develops aspirations to move to bigger cities and pursue higher education, which might cause issues as the population of the village becomes older and less able to rely on agriculture as its main source of income.

My meimei (host sister) told me with great pride that her grandfather was the first pioneer to venture out of the village borders and build a house across the river, after which all the others followed. However, there are not many options to develop further in a village of 500 people that rarely has any interaction with the outer world. She told me about her aspirations to attend college and possibly leave Yunnan, but she would be the first in her family to do so. If the children leave, the parents are usually left with no choice but to lease their land to external entrepreneurs who grow cash crops. Her classmates, on the other hand, want to attend a local university and return home to help their parents with their land. Another issue I’ve seen in villages we visited is over-tourism that forces locals to relocate from the old town and sell their land to hotels or restaurants. This sharp and almost sudden increase in tourism in the area, as well as increased incentives to urbanize, will impact each village and ethnic group differently. If not carefully managed and monitored, these could end up harming the cultures they worked so hard to preserve.

My time in Yunnan definitely changed the way I see and experience China. We constantly see China in numbers, statistical figures, and charts but forget that there are people behind those numbers who are faced with difficult to impossible choices. China is overwhelmingly diverse and is so much more than its big cities, and I am excited to continue to tell the humbling stories of those I meet.