The Kam People of China

The Kam People of China
Author: D. Norman Geary
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2003
Genre: Dong (Chinese people)
ISBN: 9780700715015

The Kam are still essentially a 'hidden people' - very little has been published in English about them. This book aims to fill a gap in the English literature, by providing a comprehensive introduction to Kam culture. The conclusion looks to the future for the Kam people and their culture.

Ethnic Identity of the Kam People in Contemporary China

Ethnic Identity of the Kam People in Contemporary China
Author: Wei Wang
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-05-31
Genre: Dong (Chinese people)
ISBN: 9781032040806

Based on over two years of fieldwork, this book presents a sociolinguistic analysis of how the ethnic identity of the Kam people has been reconstructed and manipulated in contemporary China.

Ethnic Identity of the Kam People in Contemporary China

Ethnic Identity of the Kam People in Contemporary China
Author: Wei Wang
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2021-07-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000412881

Based on three years of fieldwork in Zhanli, a remote Kam Village in Guizhou Province, Wang and Jiang explore the complex dynamics between the discursive practices of the local government and the villagers in relation to the reconstruction of Kam identity in response to social change, particularly the rise of rural tourism. China’s profound demographic and socio-economic transformation has intensified the dominance of Han culture and language and seriously challenged the traditional cultures in ethnic minority areas. The authors draw on multiple empirical sources, including in-depth interviews with Kam villagers and local officials, field observations, media discourse, local archives and government documents. They present an engaging account of the significant compromises that government and villagers have made in relation to ethnic identity in the name of economic development, and of the tensions and struggles that characterise the ongoing process of ethnic identity reconstruction. Students and researchers in sociolinguistics, ethnography, and discourse studies, especially those with an interest in Chinese discourse, and everyone interested in issues around ethnicity (minzu) issues in China, will find this book a valuable resource.

Kam Women Artisans of China

Kam Women Artisans of China
Author: Marie Anna Lee
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2019-01-29
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1527527158

Deep in the fir woods of southwestern China, in a village called Dimen, live several women who are masters of many cultural arts. Following the centuries-old lifestyle of their ancestors, they are the living repositories of their civilization. They carry the unwritten history and wisdom of the Kam people in their songs, weave cloth that is smooth and strong, and dye fabric to the richest indigo blue. They devote every free moment to embroidering sleeves, hems, hats, and purses in the bright colors of the natural setting that surrounds the village. Through everyday activities, lessons in craft, folk stories and songs, the women weave a patchwork of Kam culture and reveal its hidden treasures in fibers, textiles, papermaking as well as ethnography, anthropology, and Sinology. This book presents an opportunity to learn from the past long lost in Western tradition, explore contemporary rural life in China, and experience ancient culture metamorphosing under the pressure of technology.

The Dong Language in Guizhou Province, China

The Dong Language in Guizhou Province, China
Author: Yaohong Long
Publisher: Sil International, Global Publishing
Total Pages: 300
Release: 1998
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

Presents studies of Dong (2.5 million in southwestern China) history, culture, tonal language, grammar, phonology, lexicon and orthography.

The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture

The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture
Author: Kam Louie
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2008-06-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1107495253

At the start of the twenty-first century, China is poised to become a major global power. Understanding its culture is more important than ever before for western audiences, but for many, China remains a mysterious and exotic country. This Companion explains key aspects of modern Chinese culture without assuming prior knowledge of China or the Chinese language. The volume acknowledges the interconnected nature of the different cultural forms, from 'high culture' such as literature, religion and philosophy to more popular issues such as sport, cinema, performance and the internet. Each chapter is written by a world expert in the field. Invaluable for students of Chinese studies, this book includes a glossary of key terms, a chronology and a guide to further reading. For the interested reader or traveler, it reveals a dynamic, diverse and fascinating culture, many aspects of which are now elucidated in English for the first time.

Theorising Chinese Masculinity

Theorising Chinese Masculinity
Author: Kam Louie
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2002-04
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780521806213

This book is the first comprehensive analysis of Chinese masculinity. Kam Louie uses the concepts of wen (cultural attainment) and wu (martial valour) to explain attitudes to masculinity. This revises most Western analyses of Asian masculinity that rely on the yin-yang binary. Examining classical and contemporary Chinese literature and film, the book also looks at the Chinese diaspora to consider Chinese masculinity within and outside China.

Life in a Kam Village in Southwest China, 1930-1949

Life in a Kam Village in Southwest China, 1930-1949
Author: Chaoquan Ou
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2007-10-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047421647

Although this unique insider's account of minority life in China is clearly a book in itself, it is also the sequel to the much-acclaimed The Kam People of China (Geary, Ou and others, 2003). It describes the hitherto scarcely researched culture of people from Xiangye village, in an untravelled corner of Guizhou province, Southwest China, in the 20 years leading up to Liberation in 1949. Xiangye is a Kam (Dong) nationality village, so the book highlights Kam culture of the 1930s and 1940s. It is a fascinating and unparalleled study, also offering exceptionally clear details of many aspects of material culture and social customs, for example, the work of rice-farming, cotton production, and cooking, beautifully illustrated with line drawings and photographs, that should appeal to anyone interested in the Kam people, China, or in ethnology generally. The author grew up in Xiangye and later became Professor of Anthropology at a university in Qinghai province. The manuscript was first written in Chinese, with the intention of having it translated into English for an outside readership.

Architecture, Ritual and Cosmology in China

Architecture, Ritual and Cosmology in China
Author: Xuemei Li
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2023-05-31
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1000877078

Drawing on the author’s extensive fieldwork in the Dong areas in southwest China, this book presents a detailed picture of the Dong’s buildings and techniques, with new insights into the Dong’s cosmology and rituals of everyday life meshed with the architecture, and the symbolic meanings. It examines how the buildings and techniques of the Dong are ordered and influenced by the local culture and context. The timber bridges and drum towers are the Dong’s most prominent architectural monuments. Usually built elaborately with multiple roofs, these bridges and drum towers were designed and maintained by the local carpenters who also built the village suspended houses, in an oral tradition carried down from father to son or to apprentice. They were funded entirely by the local people, and the bridges tend to be built in places without great pressure of traffic or another bridge already existing close by. Why does such great expense go into the Dong’s buildings with elaboration? How were they built? And what do they mean to their users and builders? This book is an anthropological study on the Dong’s architecture and technique, and it aims to contribute a discourse on the interdisciplinary research area. It is suitable for graduate and postgraduate readers.

Current Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse

Current Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse
Author: Yun Xiao
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2019-04-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027262985

This volume features a discourse empirical orientation from diverse perspectives and various methodologies, in which narratives, interviews, surveys, and large-scale databases or self-created written and spoken corpora are employed and analyzed to gain a better understanding of new developments and changes in Chinese language and discourse. Authors employ updated approaches from a variety of fields, including applied linguistics, functional linguistics, corpus linguistics and sociolinguistics, to describe the structure of Chinese language and discourse and to examine its critical issues, many focusing on globalization-induced language developments and changes. With an empirically-based discourse/socio-cultural approach, this collection makes valuable contributions to research on Chinese language and discourse and serves as a sound reference for Chinese researchers and educators in diverse fields such as Chinese language and discourse, Chinese linguistics and language education, Chinese multiculturalism, and more.