China builds system to protect intangible heritage
www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-28 13:12:41

BEIJING, April 28 -- Zhou Heping, deputy Culture Minister, said at
a press conference today that China would set up a database and a
detailed list of intangible cultural heritage at country, province, city
and county levels.

The country will gradually form a safeguarding system to protect
intangible cultural heritage with Chinese characteristics.

Zhou added that the Chinese government has always attached great
importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. In
promoting traditional Chinese culture, the government has made many
efforts and garnered significant achievements.

In August 2004, China joined the Convention for the Safeguarding of
Intangible Cultural Heritage, becoming one of the few member countries
included by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).

According to Zhou, several days ago, the General Office of the
State Council issued a document that gives some suggestions on the
safeguarding of China's intangible cultural heritage and calls for the
establishment of a protective system with Chinese characteristics. This
year the government will complete the first list of intangible cultural
heritage at the county-level. After that, China will begin to enrich the
lists at province, city and county levels.

(Source: Chinanews)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/28/content_2888807.htm

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Fei Xiaotong's life: China's true story
www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-27 11:06:11

BEIJING, April 27 -- Fei Xiaotong (1910-2005), who died on Sunday
in Beijing, is best remembered for his passion for sociology and
anthropology.

[image] Professor Fei Xiaotong (1910-2005) exerted a strong and dynamic
influence over generations of sociologists and scholars interested in
China, both home and abroad. [baidu]
He gave "Chinese substance to the modern social sciences and applied
them rigorously to the needs of China and its people," according to the
board of trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership,
which chose Fei to receive the 1994 award. The honour is based in the
Philippines.

Born into a well-off family, Fei, however, saw with his own eyes
the ills of Chinese society in the early 20th century. He started
college majoring in medicine but then changed his mind.

The world is a richer place for his decision.

"I abandoned the lifelong aim of treating people's physical
diseases and went after the greater goal of curing social illnesses and
injustice. That was when I first had the idea of becoming a sociologist
and an anthropologist," he recalled in an interview with Song Huaisheng,
a freelance writer who published a profile of Fei in China Daily three
years ago.

"My goal in life (after that), which has occupied me for decades,
is to understand Chinese society, figure out its fundamental
characteristics and those of rural Chinese society in particular," Fei
said then.

Fei lived up to those goals, said Jing Jun, a sociology professor
at Tsinghua University who directs the Centre for HIV/AIDS Studies.

"He was always concerned with the lives of common Chinese people,"
Jing explained, adding that Fei exerted strong influence in his own
decision to choose sociology and anthropology as a lifelong career.

Fei studied sociology at Tsisnghua University between 1930 and 1935
and furthered his studies at the University of London where he received
a doctorate. He later completed a fellowship at the Royal
Anthropological Institute, also in London.

A memorial is set up in the Department of Sociology at Peking
University, where Fei had taught and directed since the 1980s. [China Daily]
However, the social sciences of anthropology and sociology then emerging
in the West offered experiences only about colonized "natives."

"China has to find her own way," to speak to the practical needs of
the Chinese people, Fei said.

He had the imagination to develop his own new approaches.

"He didn't allow just paying lip service," Jing Jun said. "He
encouraged field trips and substantial research."

He did his first field work in the mountainous area in what is
today's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where the ethnic Yao people
lived. He wrote "Peasant Life in China" in English in 1938.

His earlier field work in Kaixian Village of Wujiang County in East
China's Jiangsu Province in 1936 has become a textbook for all sociology
students.

There, he jotted down the sufferings of peasants who depended on
rice farming and silk weaving for their livelihoods - and whose fates
depended on the whims of the world market. As a result of falls in the
prices of silk, many peasants saw their lives turn to shambles.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-45), Fei taught at
Yunnan University and continued his research. He stridently called for
"an effective land policy" but warned that land reform alone would not
improve the lives of the peasants.

He was at his prime in the late 1940s, when he published a series
of studies on Chinese society.

Although he was not able to carry out many sociological studies in
the first 30 years after the People's Republic of China was founded, he
conducted studies among China's ethnic minorities. He also translated
works by foreign writers.

As the nation began its reforms and opening up to the outside world
in the late 1970s, Fei was entrusted with the work of restoring
discipline in the study of social sciences after the "cultural
revolution" (1966-76) ended.

"Restoration of sociology after the 'cultural revolution' is Fei's
most important contribution in terms of his academic work," said Wang
Sibin, professor of sociology at Peking University.

At that time, Fei was nearly 70. He sought help from Yang Qingkun,
his classmate from Yeching University then living in the United States.
He also introduced American scholars of sociology and anthropology to
Chinese academia, helping to re-establish the entire field of
sociological education and research during the early 1980s.

His theories have not only helped people understand rural China but
also offered ways to facilitate changes, many have said.

In the 1980s, he proposed that farmers be encouraged to start
village enterprises and become urbanized without leaving the land. His
theories, to a large extent, helped push the development of township
enterprises in China, Wang said.

The economic miracle that has taken place especially in rural
coastal areas is a testimony to Fei's efforts, Wang said.

Fei's lifelong endeavours won him international acclaim, including
the Malinowski Prize from the International Applied Anthropology
Association and Huxley Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute in London in 1981, the Asian Cultural Prize from Japan in
1993, and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1994.

Understanding China

Over the years, Fei arguably provided initial knowledge about China
for the scholarly world.

His book, "From the Soil, The Foundations of Chinese Society," is
listed as recommended or required reading at universities worldwide for
students who take courses in China or Asian studies.

The book was published in 1947 in Chinese, but its insightful
analysis of the fundamental characteristics of Chinese society and the
differences between Chinese society and that of the West continues to
illuminate.

The official website at the University of California Press
describes the English version of Fei's book as follows: "'From the Soil'
describes the contrasting organizational principles of Chinese and
Western societies, thereby conveying the essential features of both.

"Fei shows how these unique features reflect and are reflected in
the moral and ethical characters of people in these societies. This
profound, challenging book is both succinct and accessible."

Gary G Hamilton, a professor with the Sociology Department at the
Jackson School of International Studies at University of Washington,
translated Fei's book into English.

"I am very sorry to hear about Fei Xiaotong's death," Hamilton
said. "I loved the book very much, when I read it the first time,"
Hamilton said in an interview with China Daily via email yesterday, "I
knew I had to translate it into English."

After the work was completed, Hamilton came to Beijing to see Fei.

"We sat for several hours talking about the book. I asked him what
the title should be in English. 'Xiangtu Zhongguo' does not translate
well into English," Hamilton explained.

"In the course of the conversation, I said the book's main message
is that the Chinese come from the soil. Fei said, 'That's it. That is
the title: 'From the Soil'," Hamilton recalled.

"And so that is what I entitled the book in English: 'From the
Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society.'

"He wrote the book for a Chinese audience to tell them about the
distinctiveness of Chinese society, to tell them the reason Chinese
society was so special," Hamilton said. "To do this, he took his
knowledge of Europe and the United States and condensed it and made it
contrast with the reality of Chinese society.

"It is through this book that many Westerners can now learn about
China," Hamilton noted.

Laurel Bossen, an associate professor of the Department of
Anthropology, McGill University in Canada, said that for decades Western
scholars "have turned to Fei's works for a rich description of rural
Chinese life before 1949.

"His works are clearly written, unpretentious, and very sincere.
Fei explained how he did his research, and he talked about many
important social questions. He was deeply concerned about poverty in
rural areas, and tried to do research that could point to practical
solutions."

Bossen said she first read Fei Xiaotong's books when she wanted to
learn more about rural China, particularly the status of women, before 1949.

"Remarkably for those times, Fei Xiaotong always provided quite a
lot of information about women and particularly their economic roles,"
Bossen wrote to China Daily via email. "His work was extremely valuable
for those who want to study changes in rural China across the 20th
century. Without Fei Xiaotong's work, we would have almost no starting
point."

She wrote her own book "Chinese Women in Rural Development: Six
Years of Change in Lu Village, Yunnan" (2002), which was translated into
Chinese last year.

Bossen was able "to make comparisons with the past only because he
(Fei) provided such an excellent description of the economic and social
conditions at that time.

"I feel that my own research is a kind of friendly dialogue with
Fei Xiaotong, whom I have greatly admired."

She had an opportunity to meet with Fei once in Beijing, and talked
with him about her study of Lu Village in Yunnan. "He was generous and
encouraging, as well as charming and humorous," she recalled.

"Elderly villagers in Yunnan also remembered his visit in 1990 with
fondness. He witnessed and wrote about a century of tremendous changes
in China, and promoted greater understanding of rural China at home and
abroad. He will be missed, but not forgotten," she said.

"I hope people in the West will read it for a long time to come. It
is a book that forms a bridge between Chinese society and Western
society, and it is a bridge sorely needed," said Hamilton.

(Source: China Daily)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/27/content_2883797.htm

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Unspoiled mummies unearthed at Xinjiang site
www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-25 13:39:55

BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhuanet)-- Mummies unearthed in Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region in 2003 have been well-preserved, scientists said
recently.

One of the mummies excavated at the Xiaohe Tomb Site in the Lop Nur
Desert [baidu]
Excavated from the Xiaohe Tomb Complex in the Lop Nur Desert, Zhu Hong,
director of the Frontier Archeology Study Department of Jilin University
in Jilin Province, said: "The mummies were unbelievably well-preserved,
even better than the mummies in Egypt. Even lice on the dead people's
heads have been preserved."

Zhu participated in the excavation in 2003 and studied the mummies
with two other experts this year between January 31 and February 12.

Archeologists unearthed 167 tombs at Xiaohe site, which sprawls
over a 2,500-square-meter oval-shaped dune. About 174 kilometers away
sit the ruins of the Loulan Kingdom, an ancient civilization that
vanished 1,500 years ago.

The complex contained about 330 tombs. More than 160 were spoiled.
Most objects found in the tombs remained untouched.

Idelisi Abuduresule, head of the Xinjiang Cultural Relics and
Archeology Research Institute, said they will help studies on social
culture and customs of that period.

The institute launched the excavation project in 2003 with the
approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

The tomb complex yielded rare cultural relics including wooden
objects, animal hair fabrics, jade, stoneware, as well as the fur and
bones of animals such as sheep, cattle, fowl and lynx

It also yielded objects symbolic of genitals, suggesting a belief
in phallicism. Few bronze ware pieces were unearthed. Zhu said bronze
ware objects may have been too rare to be buried as funerary objects.

Most tombs had the same design, experts said. Ancient people dug
sand pits, used coffins made of poplar wood and then erected carved wood
pieces to indicate the dead person's gender, Zhu said.

Idelisi said more riddles will be studied. "Why were the tombs
terraced? Why were the wooden posts cut into a variety of shapes from
columns to prisms and what did people use for carving? Why didn't we
find any traces of human life near such a massive burial site?" he asked.

Idelisi said the burial style is unique and solving its mysteries
will likely involve the research efforts of not only archeologists and
historians, but also anthropologists, religion experts and environment
researchers.

Experts believe the tomb complex might belong to the Bronze Age and
are attempting to determine the date of the tombs through tree-ring
analysis of coffins and chronometry on soil samples from the tombs.

The massive burial site was first discovered in 1934 by Swedish
explorer Folke Bergman. His archeological diary helped Chinese
researchers spot the site at the end of 2000, when the diary was
published in Chinese.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/25/content_2875052.htm

__________________

with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

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