We spent the last few days in Lijiang, a town in the Yunnan province which borders Tibet and Vietnam. The old town is the most perfectly charming, attractive and well-preserved place I have been. The narrow cobblestone streets are lined with waterways that the people use for washing and fetching water. The houses have traditional Chinese arched, tile roofs. Depending on where you stand you can see snowy mountain views behind the houses. The Naxi, a unique minority ethnic group in China, are the primary home/shop-owners in Lijiang.
The town is a little too perfect in fact. The Chinese government figured out how much money tourism could bring to Lijiang, has promoted tourism, and the town is now packed with and caters to tourists. We still loved it though - many of the Naxi people, especially the older generation, live and work amongst the tourists. You can escape to parts of the old town that are all Naxi. Plus it's really interesting to see how the traditional Naxi interact with the imported Western and Han cultures.
The Naxi are matriarchal. Traditionally the woman runs the business. Men are known for arts and poetry. These traditional roles weren't totally obvious as we walked around but we saw a lot of women shop owners and men taking care of the children. The women we interacted with and ran our hostel were assertive, competent, and seemed like they could take care of business.
Traditional Naxi lifestyle is still very present. Many of the Naxi women wear traditional, non-Western costume. It's very common to see the women carrying huge baskets of produce home from the market; family members delivering freshly prepared lunches and dinners to shopkeepers; closely knit families living and working together in 1 room shops/homes; and people cooking their meals in the street and washing their clothes, dishes and even hair in the waterways that line the streets. You don't see many young people wearing the traditional costume though, unless it's a getup for the tourists. The young people mostly seem to work in Han-owned "Naxi" shops in the center of town, or restaurants that cater to the tourists. In the old Naxi village Baisha, where there are very few tourists, you see almost no young people - they are probably working in Lijiang. It's quite sad to witness and be a part of the forces that are eroding the Naxi culture.
I went for a walk early this morning and stumbled on a group of 25 older Naxi women doing dance performances in the main plaza. Some of them seemed to enjoy themselves but many seemed to be going through the motions. I thought they were being paid to perform for the tourists. There were a handful of locals that were not a part of the costumed group but joyfully participated in the dancing nonetheless. It brought a tear to my eye to think about how music and dancing could bring Naxis so much joy, but it could be reduced to a tourist gimick that the old women felt compelled to participate in to make a little money. Fortunately I may have misinterpreted. The woman at the tourist information booth claimed that these women perform for free AND that there is a group of young women who dance every day in the afternoon. So it's difficult to understand what impact tourism is having on the traditional Naxi culture.
(Steve's comment) : Baisha is a small village about 9 miles outside of Lijiang. It's funny that Marisa didn't write about how we got there, because she didn't have to make any of the effort to do it. :-) We rented a tandem bicycle for $4 for the entire day (In San Francisco that'd probably cost $30). Because of her knee she can't bike, so I had the pleasure of biking 9mi uphill (+500ft vertical distance) while moving about 400 lbs of cargo (including myself). Actually, it was a lot of fun, because we got to see the countryside along the way. For the most part is was quite beautiful, although as is unfortunately common in China, there were parts of the road that were well-decorated with rubbish. The ride back took us 1/3 the time, and I didn't have to pedal at all because it was so downhill.
When we walked through the streets of the Baisha village, which is more Naxi, agricultural and poor, I said "Nihao" to everyone we saw. A third smiled back warmly, and the rest either thought we were freaks or wished us gone from their neighborhood.
Walking through Baisha gave me a first-hand glimpse of hard manual labor. I saw old people (it's hard to know how old, since their lifestyle probably causes them to age earlier than we do) crouching in fields, breaking rocks and carrying huge loads. My first impression was how lovely and peaceful Baisha was, and what beautiful mountain views it offered, but the villagers' bodies pay the toll for their lifestyle.
(Steve's comment): It was really amazing to see all the things that were done in Baisha via physical labor. In many places people built walls by pounding the crap out of rocks until they were in the perfect shape to fit together (rather than using cinderblocks, which were readily available). I'm not sure if that's because they prefer the look of the hand-hewn rock walls or if it's because that's cheaper for them, as labor is so cheap in china. All throughout Baisha we heard the sounds of pickaxes and hammers powered by human muscle. Another interesting construction technique was that people seemed to be making bricks, by hand, from the mud/clay in their front yards. They also mixed in hay and animal dung, and then left the bricks out to dry.
Our hostel in Lijiang, Mama Naxi's, was a unique experience. Whenever you sit down in the common room/dining area you are given some sort of food, wanted or not, e.g. banana, yak yogurt, even muesli one morning. You also get a snack handed to you on your way out for a day trip. Mama Naxi doesn't want anyone to go hungry. She likes to ask what you are doing that day and insists on helping you arrange a driver, guide, future hostel bookings or travel tickets. She does this for no commission because "Mama Naxi loves to help her guests!" according to a sign near our room. Mama Naxi walks around the dining area and makes sure everyone has the right condiments and if they don't shouts, sometimes to noone in particular, "more honey!," "milk and sugar!" Actually her English isn't even that good, but she uses choice vocabulary, body language and intonation with incredible effect. Her husband is also around and occasionally serves people or asks them what they are doing today, but Mama Naxi is definitely in charge. She has several female helpers who help when requested but would rather be sitting in front of the TV in the corner. The staff hangs out here whenever they can. They also cook eggs, french toast, etc. on a tiny camp-looking stove that sits conveniently beside the TV. Other than that, it's pretty much a normal hostel.
(Steve's comment): My favorite mama naxi moment was when I walked in for our free breakfast and she said something like, 'Today you have banana pancake!!!' to me. How could I resist? It wasn't like a normal pancake, but was one of the local ways of making a pancake-like piece of bread, covered with bananas and wild-flower nectar-tasting honey.
I like the dual commentary. And the pictures are great.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's fun to read your two perspectives. I especially enjoyed reading about Mama Naxi and the other take-charge women. Nice pictures! Lijian does look charming.
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