Ethnicity and Territory Across the Sino-Burmese Border: The Case of the Wa in the Wa Hills

 

主講人：Naomi Hellmann（納敏）（PhD candidate, University of Utrecht、本所訪問博士生）

主辦單位：中研院民族所「世界化中國研究群」

時間：8月20日（五）15：00～17：00

地點：線上會議，會議前將寄送連結網址

報名網址：https://forms.gle/aCBaNQbUVWppuuou9

(因系統人數限制，有收到信件連結者才表示報名成功)

會議聯絡mail：gcstudies@gate.sinica.edu.tw

摘要：

This paper is concerned with cross-border ethnic groups in Sino-Southeast Asia – the area where southwestern China and northern continental Southeast Asia meet. More specifically, my research focuses on the case of the Wa in the Wa Hills – an old civilization that predates the making of modern states. Today, the area is carved up and fixed by territorial subunits with varying degrees of autonomy that traverse the Sino-Burmese border: the Wa Self-Administered Division (Special Region 2) in the northeastern Shan State in Myanmar, and Ximeng Wa Autonomous County, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County, and Wa ethnic townships in northern Lancang Lahu Autonomous County in southwestern Yunnan Province in China. Ethnically, it is a diverse region with numerous Native highland peoples, who share common characteristics such as language, ancestry, and cultural beliefs that provide the foundation for a nation (ethnic), and of whom the Wa constitute the majority group (75 to 80 percent) with a population of approximately one million people. These so-called cross-border ethnic groups often have potential contradictory implications: they may be seen as both a source of threat and support for nation and state-building efforts. As such, they are simultaneously brought together and yet also kept apart.

The paper is divided into four sections – the first is a consideration of material collected on ethnic groups in China and in Myanmar. The second section provides an overview of Chinese and Burmese ethnopolitics, that is, the state’s mode of administering and governing frontier ethnic minority areas, and China’s territorial expansion and border policies since economic reforms in the 1970s and, in particular, in the three decades since the early 1990s. The third section focuses on the case of the Wa people in the Wa Hills, which is illustrative of the situation that exists across the Sino-Burmese border. Finally, the last section examines in more detail the effects of China’s transformation on cross-border ethnic groups and ethnic autonomous territories both locally and beyond the border. I suggest that, in the case of the Wa, the process of ‘opening up’ has involved a shifting of the border and brought about an increasing asymmetry in relations between the two sides.

在當代中國尋找祖先- 人類學、歷史學與考古學的交會

• 主講人：王舒俐（中研院民族所助研究員）
• 主辦單位：中研院民族所「世界化中國研究群」
• 時間：2021年7月30日（五）15：00-17:00（請於7/25前報名 https://forms.gle/iHYVAnyRPzkzbLo99）
• 地點：本演講將以「線上會議」的方式在「Webex」舉行​​
• 摘要：

        相傳誕生於五千年前的黃帝，被視為中華文明的開創者、中華民族的祖先。在當代中國大陸，改革開放之後各地開始有零星的黃帝崇拜活動，兩千年之後地方政府開始舉辦祭典、修建廟宇、塑立雕像與紀念碑以及各種節慶活動，其中以河南、陝西與浙江最為大規模。筆者自2017年開始在河南與陝西進行田野調查，到河南新鄭G山上採集流傳於當地農民之間的黃帝傳說，並幾度參加各地官方舉辦之黃帝祭典。我在田野過程中發現：這些地方各自引述不同的歷史文獻來佐證其地區與「黃帝文化」的關聯，並透過獎勵地方的考古發掘來佐證，並以文化遺產的登錄加強其合理性與地域建構的論述，有趣的是，這些祭典都已申報為不同層級的官方無形文化遺產。這個演講試圖藉探討當代中國大陸的黃帝熱，闡述全球化的遺產論述的建造(heritage making)、神話製造(myth making)與地域建構(place-making)之過程；其次，我將透過自身之田野經驗來反思學科方法論與界線的不同，如何影響與呈現不同的「歷史真實」。