Continuity of Qiang Culture

    "The quake toppled most Qiang homes, destroying the cultural environment of the people," lamented Yu Mei from the Culture and Sports Bureau of Wenchuan County. "With no written language," Yu stressed, "their culture is particularly vulnerable to disruption. The earthquake of last year put it at even greater risk, making efforts to save their heritage more pressing than at any time before." The Wenchuan earthquake claimed some 20,000 Qiang lives, or 10 percent of the minority group's population, including two Shibis and five Qiang artists. The survivors are left with seven sites for passing on intangible cultural heritage in ruins, with ancestral homes and historic sites like the remains of Jiang Wei City – the rammed earth city walls of the Han Dynasty, the stone walls of a Ming Dynasty city, and stone watchtowers swept away or rendered unsalvageable by the disaster. In addition to the disappearance of objects essential to their traditional cultural and religious activities, volumes of documents related to intangible cultural heritage are still buried under debris.

    Five counties – Wenchuan, Maoxian, Lixian, Songpan and Heishui, all hit hard by the quake – work collectively to save and restore Qiang heritage. Wenchuan County has invited experts from Sichuan, Shaanxi and Guangxi to plan the repair and restoration of historical Qiang sites across the county. Among them is Luobozhai. "Our goal is to rebuild a system to effectively protect the folk culture of Qiang by the year 2019." In the neighboring Maoxian County, reconstruction of the Qiang Ethnic Museum will be launched with a ground-breaking ceremony on May 12, 2009.

    As rebuilding proceeds across the area, controversy has arisen over whether Qiang communities should remain where they have been for centuries or be relocated for reasons of security and convenience. With their homes leveled, some 20,000 people had little choice but to leave Wenchuan County, including many students. A local official said: "Both my children are studying in other parts of the country. Our Qiang culture is primarily instilled at home, through daily conversation and conventions. If kids are away from their parents so much of the time, how can they carry on their native culture?" A local writer Yang Xinsong echoes these thoughts, arguing that relocation may dilute or erode the Qiang culture among the future generations no longer inhabiting the high mountains where their culture and traditions are rooted. "We always call Qiang 'the people above clouds'. Out of the clouds, they are cut from the soil of their culture."

    This worry is not shared by everyone. Hu Fei, a Qiang cadre of Wen-chuan's Construction Planning Bureau, doesn't see the changes in her life in a negative light. "My child is also studying in a place away from hometown, but local children remain in the county until they finish middle school education anyway. The number of Qiang people who have ventured into the bigger world is still comparatively small. The Qiangs in their ancestral villages can preserve their traditional culture and customs, and so will their migrant peers. The essence of our culture is a resilient spirit, resistant to the most adverse situations." Hu Fei's husband reflects her optimism. A local middle school teacher, he was caught in the quake with his students who for several days couldn't reach their parents. None of them shed tears, instead pitching tents and supporting each other. One day Hu Fei saw a Luobozhai woman weeping outside the county's rescue command office. All the males in her family were killed in the quake but when asked what she would do now, she merely replied: "Are there any options? Life has to go on."

    A month after the quake Luobozhai people staged their first Guozhuang (a native dance) amid the ruins of their village. The women villagers, clad in traditional costumes they dug out of the debris, stood in a circle, hand in hand. The dance that had been performed numerous times as a merry tribute to love and harvest took on an uncharacteristically somber tone. The dancers swirled and swung at a slow tempo, their colorful sashes fluttering in the breeze. All of a sudden, the dancers stopped, reached their arms into the sky and sang out: "The quake tore apart the earth and our homes and took away our beloved, but we will endure." Beside them a handful of maize seedlings formed a tiny crest in the sea of fractured walls and stumps.