Sociological scholar and university professor has spent the best part of four decades on Jinuo Mountain, living among and surveying the ethnic group that calls it home, Wang Ru and Li Yingqing report in Kunming.

Sociological scholar Zheng Xiaoyun (center) with Zi Chunlan and her husband Wu Yinghua, in Yanuo in 2019. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Even after more than 40 years, Zheng Xiaoyun, a sociological scholar who now works as a professor at Hubei University, clearly remembers the first time, in 1982, that he entered the long house, a communal dwelling, built on stilts and made of bamboo and wood.

Located in Yanuo village, on Jinuo Mountain in Jinghong, Yunnan province, it is home to members of the Jinuo ethnic group.

"It really opened my eyes. I entered the building from one side, and without a lamp, I saw dozens of fire pits in the middle of the space. Many residents were cooking by the pits, and children ran back and forth. The atmosphere of a big family, which I had never seen before, was really impressive," recalls Zheng.

Then a student at Yunnan University on the brink of graduating, Zheng took the journey with his classmates as part of a field survey.

The 20-day trip initiated his bond with Jinuo people. Since then, he has embarked on a long-term research program to study the group.

By spending much of his time over the past four decades staying with local people, he has witnessed their modernization with his own eyes, and recorded great changes taking place within the group.

The Jinuo people were the last to be categorized as an ethnic group in China, listed as such in 1979. The group lives on Jinuo Mountain, speak their own language but have no written text.

Zheng Xiaoyun (left) dining in a Jinuo village in Jinghong, Yunnan province, in 2018. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

When Zheng first arrived at the place, local people lived a slash-and-burn life, with many families in one large long house, a traditional way of dwelling for this group, but which has since disappeared.

One year after Zheng first visited the Jinuo people, in 1983, he was recruited by Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences to officially carry out his field research of the group.

During the whole of the 1980s, he visited every one of the more than 40 Jinuo villages, stayed with local people for up to eight months a year, and continues to visit them today.

Every time he arrives at a Jinuo village, he lives, hunts, forages for wild vegetables and farms with them. During the process he observes, befriends and talks with them. He also participates in important sacrificial, wedding and funeral ceremonies, striving to know every facet of their lifestyle.

Zheng is impressed by Jinuo people's solidarity and equality.

According to him, when he first visited the group, hunting was still an important way to make a living, just like their ancestors before them.

"They often hunted with several other villagers. When they successfully caught their prey, even it was only one pheasant, they followed a primitive egalitarian ritual, dividing the meat evenly so that every participant could share a portion," says Zheng.

The last long house in Yanuo village, in Jinghong of Yunnan province, in the 1980s, which no longer exists. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

And they often help each other in daily life.

"When one family has problems, all others offer a helping hand," Zheng says.

"I visited an old man in his 70s, who was almost blind and didn't have children or spouse. All the families in the village took turns to help him till his land and harvest his crops. When he passed away, villagers stopped all work for one day to hold the funeral. They all regarded it as an important issue.

"Old people and children seem to live a carefree life there, and people live harmoniously together," he adds.

Jinuo people attach great importance to education. According to Zheng, in 1984, when one village relocated, the first thing villagers did when they arrived at their new location was not to build houses to live, but classrooms for the children, so that they could go to school as usual. After that, they started to plan their new home.

Speaking about the focus of his research, Zheng says, "on the one hand, it is concentrated on recording their traditions, like their customs, daily activities and people's lives from birth to death. I made a very detailed study on such things and recorded them carefully.

"On the other hand, I have tried to figure out how this group develops, and how people's traditional lives can connect with the modern society, and what problems they face in the process," he adds.

The last long house in Yanuo village, in Jinghong of Yunnan province, in the 1980s, which no longer exists. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Path to modernization

When Zheng first started visiting Jinuo villages, they were extremely impoverished and remote.

"In the past, people could only walk to their villages. It took me two to three days hiking on the mountain to reach some of them. People's lives at that time are hard to imagine today. They had almost no belongings at home," says Zheng.

He lived like a local. They mostly ate half-cooked rice with some hot pepper. Only when there was a successful hunt was there meat.

Zheng's research of the Jinuo ethnic group was related to their modernization, and that confused him a lot at first.

"I remember one evening in the 1980s, when I sat on the balcony of a local's residence. There was no electricity. I watched the stars all over the sky, and the firelight from the fire pits in people's houses. Thinking about the status of these villages, I found it really difficult to imagine how the group could be modernized," recalls Zheng.

But changes do happen. At the end of the 1970s, with help from local government and other institutions, planting techniques for Wurfbainia villosa, better known locally as sharen, were introduced to the Jinuo Mountain, and people gradually mastered the skills.

A Jinuo village in the 1980s. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

According to Zheng, at the end of the 1980s, the mountain became the second largest production base for the plant in China. Following that success, rubber and tea industries were later developed in the area.

In 1984, the first trade fair was held in the Jinuo Mountain area. Before that, people lived mostly in a self-sufficient manner, and sometimes businessmen from other places would visit Jinuo villages to exchange mountain products with salt, medicine and iron tools. Jinuo people themselves, though, had never sold their products at a market.

The fair marked a milestone for the group on the march toward a commodity-based economy, according to Zheng.

With the development of the local economy, roads were laid between villages and electricity infrastructure was installed. Brick buildings replaced the bamboo and wooden buildings, and modern necessities like television sets, computers and cars are now a part of everyday life. In 2019, it was announced that the Jinuo ethnic group was officially lifted out of poverty.

That same year, at a seminar discussing the development of the Jinuo group over the past four decades, Zheng attributed its progress to the value it places on education and ability to master new skills.

"Stressing education and being able to master new techniques seems to be a strong inborn awareness of Jinuo people," says Zheng.

Zheng (right) in a field survey in the 1980s. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Deep bonds

When Zheng first visited Yanuo village in 1982, the local leader, Buluzhou, who has since passed away, helped arrange his stay and helped him accomplish his work.

Zheng stayed in Buluzhou's home and observed how the man, who worked as the head of the village from the 1950s until 1990s, governed the village.

He found Buluzhou to be very wise when he was required to distribute communal property for private use, and was impressed by the way he solved disputes during the process.

Zheng got on well with Buluzhou's son-in-law Zi Qie, who took care of Zheng when he stayed at their home.

"We were just like brothers. He took care of me in every possible way. Every time I arrived, he went hunting to get some meat, or collected other ingredients to improve my meals. He often cleaned the room I lived in, so that I could feel more comfortable. Later, as I visited them frequently, he ensured the room was for my use exclusively," says Zheng.

When Zi's daughter was born in 1983, at the request of her father, Zheng chose the name Zi Chunlan for her, and he has witnessed her growth.

According to Zi Chunlan, Zheng visited her home often in the 1980s, and later when he passed by every year. Since there was no telephone in her home, Zheng could not contact the family members in advance before his visits, and sometimes arrived to find nobody home.

"We lived a poor life at that time, but uncle Zheng often brought oil, sugar and biscuits for us. He often had no time to wait for us to return home, and would leave the gifts for us. When we found these things we knew that he had been to visit," says Zi Chunlan, who now works as a successful tea merchant in her hometown.

"He's just like a family member to us. Now my father has passed away, he is just like another father caring for me and my child, and helps me a lot in daily life," she adds.

Recalling his bond with Zi Chunlan's family, Zheng says Buluzhou was the governor of a traditional society, Zi Qie's generation was transitional, between the past and the modern. And Zi Chunlan is a good example of the new generation who is tough, smart and diligent, and that's why she has greatly improved her life.

Over the years, based on his field survey, Zheng has written a number of essays and books on many facets of the Jinuo group's lifestyle, including festivals, traditional dwellings and cultural comparisons between the Jinuo and Dai ethnic groups.

"Although it was arduous work, I have found much pleasure in this process," says Zheng.

Contact the writers at wangru1@chinadaily.com.cn