among other things, a post over at tang dynasty times has gotten me thinking about how minorities are viewed in china. the post covers a number of things, most notably dance and music in the ancient east. my post is only tangentially related.

there are a few things that have been bothering me lately on how minorities are presented in china, though in no way do i doubt this exists in my own country as well. it seems that without fail when a uyghur is shown on tv there is an instance of dancing. if i were to believe all i hear, i’d be left thinking the only thing that many ethnic minorities do is steal things and then dance in celebration of their most recent cellphone acquisition. i’ve had a number of things stolen from me in china, many directly off my person. without exception all things have been stolen by someone of han or apparent han ancestry. granted when my bike was stolen a couple years back i didn’t see who stole it, but it was in an entirely han apartment complex with han guards who i very much doubt would let a uyghur in empty handed and then let him leave moments later with a bicycle. more than likely it was some resident wanting to mess with the 老外 by stealing the (broken at the time) bike and then dumping it on the other side of the compound where i’d never bother to look.

what is it about dance, particularly traditional dance, that seems to determine so much of our ideas of other cultures? as the first lord of cromer was busy in egypt belly dancing was displayed at all the clubs frequented by the occupying forces’ officials, despite the dance being hardly a standard thing in egypt at the time, instead owing its heritage to the bedouin and the like. of course by the most of the english saw it much had changed and much removed, the removed parts consisting mostly of articles of clothing.

in the past when i’ve mentioned egypt i may witness bent elbows and a pidgeon-like neck movement. when it’s india that’s the topic, i’m met with another more lateral head movement. depictions of minorities in china often if not always include said minorities locked in a state of dance. and if not dance, than ornate costuming used in dance. i’d recently acquired a chinese picture dictionary in an attempt to build up practical vocabulary. it has all 56 ethnic groups listed with pictures of a woman belonging to each. the dai girl has a woman in what could be her yoga outfit which itself doesn’t bother me as much as the fact that she’s been draw with her arms up and one knee slightly raised. all the rest are in festival clothes. all save one. the han girl is standing looking mildly coquettish as she wears a very standard non-descript pink sundress. are we to think the han have no culture of their own? or, what i think more likely, is it that the han are just like us westerners who are buying this book while the rest of the ethnic groups we’re to think of as still being strange an exotic? hard to tell. every uyghur or hui or zhuang i’ve ever met was wearing the same thing the han around me wear. once i even met a dai who didn’t care much for yoga or dancing.

i rather like the idea of preserving the culture of the ethnic minorities in china. i rather like the idea of preserving diversity in general. it’s one reason deep down a part of me rather resents the idea of masses of english speakers descending on china for the sake of teaching english. the stench of a quickly rotting colonialism is just barely detectable in the air. i do realise we’re not forcing china to learn english and that it’s an internally perceived need. that doesn’t mean i need to be comfortable with english becoming the de facto global lingua franca. but in the process of cultural preservation it seems that it’s still a bit of distillation. this seems especially true when it’s the majority who has been placed in charge of the preservation of the minority. i haven’t got a solution for this. i suppose in the end it’s not going to matter as over time new ethnic groups will arise and diversity will always find a way to exist. it just may not be the diversity of whatever arbitrary groups were around this past century.