10.6092/issn.1973-9494/5439
application/pdf
1973-9494
5439
2
en
Hua Fan
Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage
modern function
A Case Study of the Cultural Ecological Protection in Wa Ethnical Willage, Wengding
Text.Serial.Journal
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/
14
Articles
2014-12-30
2015-09-23
2014-12-30
2016-06-14
33-40
CSCH
Hua Fan
2014/12/30
10.6092/issn.1973-9494/5439
33
School of Literature in Yunnan Normal University Kunming, China
1973-9494
2
modern function
en
40
A Case Study of the Cultural Ecological Protection in Wa Ethnical Willage, Wengding
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/article/download/5439/5152
14
A     CASE STUDY OF THE CULTURAL ECOLOGICAL PROTEC-
      TION IN WA ETHNICAL VILLAGE, WENGDING

   Fan Hua
   School of Literature in Yunnan Normal University
   Kunming, China


   Keywords: Wongding village, aboriginal culture, protection, modern function


   1.Introduction

    The inheritance of minority nationality culture is the continuation of cultural tradi-
tion, not a simple repetition of the tradition. It will change along with the changes in
the internal and external environment and to varying degrees corresponding to the
degree of changes in the environment. In the process of building a culturally rich re-
gion, Yunnan province is demonstrating its differential advantages in minority national-
ity culture rooted in the rich minority nationality culture resources in its cultural industry.
Countless facts have proved that the development of the cultural resources in minority
nationality minority areas is of great significance in speeding up the pace to get rich
while avoiding pitfalls in blind industrialization. But at the same time, under the condi-
tion of market economy, some problems come out. Because of the differences in the
character of cultural and natural resources, minority nationality culture turns out to be
in the category of living and growing resources that will not be reduced or lost due to
research or use, but may change or even disappear as a result of the changes in its




                                                                                                       CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
environment. Facing such a situation, though living protection in the community life of
minorities has received increasing attention both practically and theoretically, protect-
ing minority cultures in the market economy has turns out to be more difficult than ex-
pected. The author find in research and field study that the initial success of Wongding
village in Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County in its recent experience has the potential
of shedding further light on the issues discussed above.


   Part A: Wongding “China’s last aboriginal Wa minority nationality culture village”

    Located on the border of China and Myanmar, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County
has made great achievements in promoting minority nationality culture development.
For example, the Wa singing and dancing performances as represented by the abo-
riginal singing and dancing musical play “Dazzling Color - Wa mountain” has received
widespread attention in China’s culture market. Another example is a celebration by
the name of “Cangyuan Wa Sigangli Touch You Black Carnival” held every early May
since 2004 that has attracted large crowds and has been awarded China’s highest
award for exhibition the “Gold Dolphin Award at the Fifth China International Exhibition
Culture Festival. From 2008 to 2009, this same festival has become one of China’s top
ten charming festivities. By the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, income from Cangy-
uan’s tourism as characterized by its “aboriginal minority nationality culture tourism on

                                                                                                  33
                                                                the border” makes up as high as 14.2% of Cangyuan’s GDP. That is why Cangyuan
                                                                county is ranked among strong county tourism economies in the Eleventh Five-Year
                                                                Plan of Yunnan Province and has made the list of Yunnan’s ten counties selected for
                                                                representative cultural promotions.
                                                                    Wongding is an important window for advertising and branding the Wa culture. It
                                                                is also positioned as “China’s last aboriginal Wa minority nationality culture village” in
                                                                the cultural tourism industry. Although some traditional customs have changed or even
                                                                disappeared over the years, Wa minority nationality’s traditional culture as embodied
                                                                in such fields as social morality, diet and daily routines, festival activities and religious
                                                                beliefs have either evolved or been retained, attracting many tourists even before the
                                                                beginning of tourism in this area. Given the essential value of Wongding Wa Village in
                                                                the research of Wa minority nationality’s original religion, social economic status, the
                                                                art of singing and dancing, cultural psychology and the importance in tourism devel-
                                                                opment, it was classified as the aboriginal Wa minority nationality culture village for
                                                                protection in 2001.
                                                                    We can assert that if we had not taken any protective measures, many conventions
                                                                of the Wongding Wa culture would have disappeared in a very short time. In the year
                                                                of 2004, the villagers’ annual net income only reached 520 Yuan. In order to shake
                                                                off poverty, more than 100 young adults or a quarter of the population in the village
                                                                went out to the cities to work all the year round. Young people are very quick to accept
                                                                modern information but hardly aware of the importance of protecting their traditional
                                                                culture. Now only a small number of old men in the village know the history, legends
                                                                and stories of the local WA people and how to perform the unique local Wa etiquette.
                                                                If we do not save it by guiding the protection in time, this minority nationality culture
                                                                will very likely disappear. Compared to the inexpensive daily necessities in the market
                                                                that are used for modern life, minority nationality handicrafts are more costly and labor
                                                                intensive. That is why the young people in the village do not want to make them. For
Fan Hua - A case study of the cultural ecological protection




                                                                instance, a set of traditional Wa clothing values over thousands of Yuan, much more
                                                                expensive and inconvenient to wear than clothes of the Han people. Most of the villag-
                                                                ers only wear their minority nationality clothes during festivals. Other traditional crafts
                                                                are also facing the same problem. Beautiful natural sceneries and traditional residence
                                                                were once characteristic features of Wongding. But as a result of population growth,
                                                                some villagers are turning their thatch fields into forests or grain fields to increase pro-
                                                                duction and income thus reducing the amount of thatch needed building original thatch
                                                                roofed stilted houses. More and more villagers would prefer to spend more money on
                                                                modern houses because thatched roofs are easy to catch fire. As a result, more than
                                                                30% of the houses in the village are now tiled with asbestos shingles and some ad-
                                                                ditional houses covered with asphaltic felt before protection is implemented.
                                                                    In order to protect this important tourism attraction, Cangyuan established the
                                                                Wongding Protection and Development Management Committee. To maintain
                                                                Wongding’s original features, development plans different from other scenic areas
                                                                have been designed. For example, some original minority nationality villages in The
                                                                Valley of Cangyuan Petroglyph have already applied a new look to their houses by
                                                                using modern building materials such as red tiles while Wongding started their protec-
                                                                tion by “recovery of thatch-roofed houses”. Due to the denial of the villagers at the
                                                                beginning of the project, the management committee has to organize a residency team
                                                                to do the persuasion. With the help of village cadres, the residency team started by
                                                                chatting with the senior citizens who were local opinion leaders. Then they visited the


                                                           34
villagers from door to door and explained the development ideas of the county using
the examples of Lijiang getting rich through tourism. Besides this, local government
also provided support in materials and fund for the “recovery of thatch-roofed houses”.
Of course, “recovery of thatch-roofed houses” addresses only the exterior protection.
In the August of 2005, Wongding was listed on the first directory of county traditional
culture protection and “Interim measures for preserving the Wa traditional culture” was
issued by the county government. Now work teams could begin a thorough investiga-
tion on the traditional culture in Wongding and use it as guide for the scientific protec-
tion and management of Wa minority nationality culture in Wongding. By May 2006,
Wongding was included in the first group of intangible cultural assets for protection
in Yunnan province after years of efforts. In 2007, it was recognized as a renowned
historical and cultural village in Yunnan province. In recent years, with the help of the
Sigangli Carnival, tourists traveling to Wongding keep increasing each year. Because
of their participation in the festivity, the villagers’ material wellbeing has been consider-
ably improved hence manifesting the initial economic benefit of developing tourism.


   Part B: True Authenticity or Simulation: A Reflection on the Authenticity of the
   Original Wongding Minority nationality Culture

    Authenticity is the direct statement contained in the living Wa aboriginal minority na-
tionality culture as well as the highlight of Wongding in the cultural market. Hence the fol-
lowing description appears in Cangyuan’s promotion of Wongding to the outside world:
    The Wa people have lived on this wonderful land of Wongding for more than 200 years.
Therefore, Wongding is the place in China where the Wa culture and the Wa history are
best preserved and the traditional Wa architecture technology remain most intact.
    Wa Minority Nationality in Wongding lives in traditional stilted houses built with thatch-




                                                                                                      CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
es and bamboos. Most of their daily commodities are made from bamboos too. Here
you may see village gate, village column, Sara house, worship chamber, dragon pond,
ancient banyan and newly constructed wood drum chamber, cow head pile, totem pole,
King’s palace of Wa etc. The houses of the village are arranged according to family
names. All the residents here are Wa nationalities who keep a tribal chief in the village as
it was in the patriarchal society. Here you may encounter unique old marriage customs
such as Combing Festival, experience the bustling atmosphere of the Sowing Festival,
the New Rice Festival, and the Village Guarding Festival. The Wongding aboriginal vil-
lage is very rich in history and culture.
    Aboriginality was not a phrase very often used untill 2004 when a big aboriginal show
“The impression of Yunnan” was staged. After that the use of the phrase has really picked
up. If you do a web search on Baidu, you will easily get over thirty million results. The most
prominent phenomenon is that aboriginality has turned into a great cultural selling point
in the market. There are now the aboriginal travel website and the aboriginal shopping
website. More examples would include aboriginal decoration, aboriginal diners, aboriginal
clothes, and aboriginal beauty even. Now the use of aboriginality is so indiscriminate that it
is not only suspicious of being abused and hyped but scrutinized by many scholars.
     From the point of etymology, there is some connection between aboriginality and
ecology. Ecology studies the characteristics and principles of organisms and natural ob-
jects. It pays special attention to the interdependence among organisms and between
organisms and their environment. When watching the world from the view of ecology, we


                                                                                                 35
                                                                may gain a unique perspective. On the one hand, what aboriginality shows is the original
                                                                or even primitive status of things in their particular natural environment not affected by
                                                                the modern civilization. On the other hand, aboriginality stresses the harmonious inter-
                                                                dependence among people, between people and land, and between people and God
                                                                when social components are not well delineated and man’s self-consciousness is not
                                                                well developed. The fact of the matter is that there is no culture that can exist retaining
                                                                its unique characteristics while isolated from outside cultures. In Wongding’s history of
                                                                200 years as a village, it has had a lot of communication with Dai people who live around
                                                                them. Most of the villagers believe in Saima (which belongs to the Southern Theravada
                                                                Buddhism). This is most directly reflected in the soul of the village – the village pile which
                                                                takes on a shape greatly different from the traditional “Y” shape. Because of its location
                                                                on the edge of A Wa mountain, many customs of the Wa people such as cutting human
                                                                head, dragging wood drum and poking cattle had already been abolished before the birth
                                                                of P. R. China. After the adoption of the open door policy and subsequent reforms, the
                                                                power of cultural inheritance gets so strong that many changes have taken place in the
                                                                land of aboriginal minority nationality culture thus undermining the base upon which the
                                                                Wa minority nationality culture depends for its existence.
                                                                     When making further inquiries on “aboriginality”, we encounter two aspects of the
                                                                problem, namely, original authenticity and simulation. When it comes to the much dis-
                                                                cussed concept of original authenticity, it is very important to point out that we are refer-
                                                                ring to the living culture as being lived by the aboriginal minority nationality in their native
                                                                community. From our field work we know that the villagers of Wongding preserve their
                                                                tradition very well in their daily life. Minority nationality culture still plays a very important
                                                                role in enhancing the bandage among minority nationality members by providing mean-
                                                                ing for existence as a minority nationality. Second, original authenticity is also embod-
                                                                ied in the harmonious relationship among people as well as between people and land.
                                                                Cangyuan County is embraced by Mount Woken, the highest mountain in the county,
Fan Hua - A case study of the cultural ecological protection




                                                                Mount Wenghei, and Mount Gonglao. It is foggy all the year round on the tops of these
                                                                mountains. At the foot of the mountains, there is a river named Xinya and a reservoir
                                                                by the name of Xinya River Reservoir or Baiyun Lake. The land here is fertile, with an
                                                                annual average temperature of 24 °C and 900-1000 mm rainfall, suitable for a variety
                                                                of animals and plants to live and grow. Here, vegetation coverage is over 90%, and the
                                                                natural ecological status is good. It is a harmonious picture of man and nature specifi-
                                                                cally composed of rich minority nationality customs and beautiful natural sceneries.
                                                                     From the perspective of tourism development, aboriginality is also a selling point
                                                                for Wongding to target city citizens in modern times. The rural culture tourism market is
                                                                mainly composed of people from the cities. They afford to travel a long distance to satisfy
                                                                their desire of getting back to nature and to experience original culture. They could visit
                                                                the aboriginal village, God’s forest, village pile and King’s palace of the Wa and experi-
                                                                ence ancient and primitive Wa customs in person by joining in all kinds of activities. Dur-
                                                                ing Sigangli Carnival, dragging wood drum, poking cattle, dage dance, arrow shooting,
                                                                ritual name giving, beating spinning top, getting new fire and parade in the village will be
                                                                hosted in the village. Though most of the activities come from the villagers’ lives, visitors
                                                                decide when the activities will take place. Activities like dragging wood drum and poking
                                                                cattle have been turned into complete commercial performances. And things like King’s
                                                                Palace of the Wa and stakes for hanging human head are also added simulations.
                                                                    In modern tourism industry, especially the rural culture tourism market, seeking au-
                                                                thenticity is an appeal common among tourists. As a result, a large number of simula-


                                                           36
tions are constructed to meet the imagination and demands of tourists. That is why the
marketing of minority nationality culture is often criticized by many people.
    In the tourism market, the most popular practice in featuring minority cultures is the
attempt to strengthen formal characteristics and emphasize their cultural heterogeneity
so as to cater to the curiosity of most culture consumers and maximize profits. Simulated
performances, excessive package have already led to the creation of quite a number of
fake tourist attractions designed for the sole purpose of catching tourists’ imagination com-
pletely neglecting the original intent to promote minority culture. In promoting the develop-
ment of the culture industry based on minority nationality culture resources, the gravest
danger lies in the market assimilation of the industry as dominated by economic interests
to the degree that it will eventually sink into appendage of popular culture and even turn
into cultural trash. Moreover, under the influence of the market, the modified so-called mi-
nority nationality culture will in turn affect the protection of the aboriginality culture.


   Part C: Multiple functions served by the protection of minority nationality cultures


    Through the above analysis, it can be seen that due to the increasing openness of the
society, traditional values and behaviors among minority nationality members are losing
ground. Together economic forces and powerful external cultures have produced and
are still producing a strong simulation impact on traditional minority nationality cultures.
The result is that a large number of the minority culture forms have been utilized while
their meaning are alienated and being discarded. Even in their native community, abo-
riginality is rare to see. Now given a more flexible internal and external environment in
the modernization process and the more complicated involvement of combined multiple
forces facing minority nationality cultures, how to ensure the survival and inheritance of
true and authentic minority nationality cultures has become an inevitable question.




                                                                                                             CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
    No culture can survive without a dynamic mechanism. The same is true of the protec-
tion of aboriginality in Wongding village that has involved various forces including the many
levels of governments, the market and cultural experts. In modern society, the “use” of
minority nationality cultures has become increasingly diversified. For instance, minority
nationality cultures are gradually evolving into an exploitable resource whose exchange
values or role in enabling minority regions to get rid of poverty and become rich are start-
ing to show more obviously. So has the practical value of minority nationality cultures. The
first such value is to the minority nationality cultural entity. Minority nationalityity is an entity
of common cultural values. In the process of long historical development, an minority na-
tionality group develops its own group character, a value system and ethical practices as
accepted by all its members which will help stabilize and guide the development of this par-
ticular minority nationality group. Second, as the carrier of the traditional culture, minority
nationality culture is the cultural root for its cultural experts from which minority nationality
artists obtain nutriments and theorists renovate cultural concepts by the dialogue between
different cultures in order to meet the spiritual need of human beings. Third, getting tired
of the boring life in the city and plagued by the conflicts of modern ideology, people from
the city find their dreamland of nostalgia on the land of living aboriginality. Furthermore,
in order for a modern nation to enhance the soft power of culture, resist the impact of for-
eign cultures, reduce the influence of cultural homogeneity, and promote the harmonious
development of a holistic and diverse Chinese culture, the protection of minority national
cultures is now incorporated into the development plan of the government at all levels.

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                                                                    Accordingly, different value considerations call for different approaches to protec-
                                                                tion. Those who first get involved in this field are those cultural elites. Back in 1993,
                                                                composer Tian Feng established his Culture Heritage House in an abandoned farm in
                                                                the suburb of Kunming. He gathered some seniors and young people gifted in singing
                                                                and dancing from remote areas for the teaching of endangered minority nationalityal
                                                                songs and dances. In 1994, musician Chen Zhe, launched a project as part of the
                                                                “Plan of Chinese Music Going West” to save the traditional Pu Mi culture. After that,
                                                                governments of different levels have introduced a series of policies on minority nation-
                                                                ality culture protection. In 2007, a learning class of traditional culture was launched in
                                                                Cangyuan’s neighbor county Ximeng by the county government. Two cultural masters
                                                                were invited to teach dozens of young people recruited from villages in the county. On
                                                                the Fourth Session of the Music Council of UN, these young people presented their
                                                                learning in the aboriginality art module. In the year 2008, the government of Yunnan
                                                                province stipulated explicitly in “The Implementation Suggestions for Building A Prov-
                                                                ince of Strong Minority Nationality Cultures” that to enhance the protection of minority
                                                                nationality cultures, Yunnan province should establish minority nationality culture pro-
                                                                tection zone for the systematic protection of cultural heritage and the maintenance of
                                                                integrated nature and minority nationality culture ecology. The plan aims to establish
                                                                sixteen minority nationality culture zones, nine distinctive culture protection zones, fifty
                                                                homes of folk arts, and cultivate 100 masters to spread non-material culture.
                                                                    In more than ten years, the protection of minority nationality culture has switched from
                                                                culture protection only to both culture and culture inheritor protection as well as from closed
                                                                protection to living protection. Take the example of Tian Feng whose goal was to save origi-
                                                                nal art forms from extinction. For the purpose of reducing the influence of the commercial
                                                                community, he selected a site in the remote area for his Culture Heritage House which was
                                                                run with the donation from society. Television, broadcast and popular music were forbidden
                                                                for the kids there. As their influence spread, market forces stepped in. Tempted by eco-
Fan Hua - A case study of the cultural ecological protection




                                                                nomic interests, those kids broke in an extreme way with Tian Feng after seven years. The
                                                                Culture Heritage House fell victim to the commercial community. As a contrast, Chen Zhe
                                                                preferred to protect minority nationality culture in a living way. In his opinion, the protection
                                                                in the past is static. But if we want minority nationality arts to last a long time, we must not
                                                                only preserve the environment but also protect and guide the culture inheritor pumping
                                                                fresh blood into traditional culture. What we need to do is to help all minority nationality
                                                                members build their confidence in their own culture through communication with other
                                                                cultures and by getting the minority nationality members to know the mainstream society.
                                                                They should not be complacent nor nihilistic about the mainstream culture.
                                                                    Though it is of great practical significance that Chen Zhe has attempted to address
                                                                the inheritance of minority nationality culture in an open and dynamic environment, coor-
                                                                dinated support from the government, cultural elites, minority nationalities and even the
                                                                market are necessary. In reality, shocks caused by external cultures can be defused by
                                                                diverse forces representing the government, society and individuals by way of enforcing
                                                                confidence of minority nationality members and saving cultural heritages by investment.
                                                                Although these measures are proved to be effective, the influence of the needs of minority
                                                                nationality members and the role the market plays will be even more revealing as theo-
                                                                retical research continues and more effective protection measures are enforced. For the
                                                                tragedy of Tian Feng to be avoided, great attention should be paid to both of these forces.
                                                                    In August 2008, I did a questionnaire survey in Wongding village. This survey fo-
                                                                cused on the existence of Wa traditional culture and the value orientation of villagers.


                                                           38
Judging from the result of the survey, the inheritance of minority nationality culture has
been undermined by the invasion of external cultures. A lot of their traditional behav-
iors and values have been changed. Different from ten years ago, out of thirty-eight
interviewees, eight of them think they do very well in maintaining their traditional Wa
lifestyle and four of them think that there are not many changes in their lives while
twenty-six think there are great changes. In terms of living conditions, only ten people
like conventional house while twenty-four like the flat-roofed brick houses of the Han
people. Four elementary school students prefer to live in tall buildings seen in televi-
sion. All the interviewees like modern household appliances. Twenty-three of them
would rather live a modern life and half of the interviewees like Han clothes. A look at
the daily recreation and entertainment activities of the villagers shows that the young
generation of Wa likes watching videos, playing internet games in addition to minority
nationality dancing, chatting and dinking tea. Mass media like broadcast or television
have a great influence on the life of the villagers. Though there are still many differ-
ences regarding the extent of pursuits between the young people in the city and young
people in the village, there are more and more similarities in the content.
    It is safe to say that if this trend continues, the traditional culture of Wongding will
soon disappear. For example, the eventual successful implementation of the “recovery
of thatch roofed houses” mentioned above has a lot to do with the wills of the villagers
to enjoy modern life and shake off poverty. Wa people is an typical minority nationality
group who have directly stepped into modern society from the tribal society. When the
People’s Republic of China was founded, the central area of A Wa mountain was still at
the last stage of primitive communes. Since the thorough transformation of the Wa so-
ciety after the founding of P. R. China, traditional culture kept losing grounds essential
for its existence. After the adoption of the open door policy and reforms, the powerful
consumer culture has produced strong assimilation impact on the minority nationality
culture. Shock caused by external cultures is only the external reason; the transforma-




                                                                                                    CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
tion of minority nationality culture in the modern time is the root cause for this change.
And appeals to minority nationality members are the direct cause.
    Though the support from all levels of governments and the guidance of cultural elites
is very important in the protection of minority nationality culture, two more points should
be emphasized. First, minority nationality groups are the subjects of development and
protection. No matter what we do, we should never break away from those who really
live the culture unless we want the culture to be shown only in the museum. That is to say
culture cannot be protected just by the forces coming from the external world. Sustain-
able development will be out of the question in this case. Second, by the use of minority
nationality culture, we mean the multiple values in the modern society and the exchange
values of minority nationality culture. In the market economy, the principle of the more
minority nationalityal you are, the more you earn applies not only to merchants seeking
exchange values but to different levels of governments. Now for promoting economic
development, poverty alleviation by culture has been incorporated into the planning of all
levels of governments. Because of their participation in the culture market, many minor-
ity nationality people have greatly improved their material lives. The practical function
mentioned above is not only the basis of living protection but also an important means to
facilitate the sustainable development of minority nationality culture.
    Clearly, there are problems in building the Wonding aboriginal village especially when
there is conflict between use value and exchange value, or in other words between protec-
tion and development. Staying away from the market forces may seem to be a solution to


                                                                                               39
                                                                steer clear of the above mentioned conflicts. Now there are some cultures that have been
                                                                sealed up only to declare the death of these cultures leaving behind only specimen for
                                                                later generations to ponder. The lesson learnt from Wengding lies in the living protection
                                                                participated by governments, cultural elites and above all minority nationality members.
                                                                To be specific, the leading role played by all levels of governments, respect shown in the
                                                                selection of minority nationality participants, the organization of cultural elites to do the col-
                                                                lection and saving, financial support from the governments and the market platform built
                                                                by the government all devoted to the living protection and the multiple use of minority na-
                                                                tionality culture. As a unit of non-material culture, the simulation effort at Wongding values
                                                                the recovery of aboriginal culture. In its plan for the future, workshops of aboriginal art and
                                                                crafts, exhibition of folk tradition and folk customs, minority nationality sports facilities and
                                                                minority nationality museum will greatly enrich the content of Wongding culture. It will lay
                                                                a solid foundation for the development of Wa culture. To gain exchange value is the basic
                                                                law of the cultural market. However, the key to success in the market is to satisfy the needs
                                                                of consumers. After the improvement of education comes the differentiation in consumer
                                                                needs. In addition to the visual or physical entertainment, tourists are demonstrating in-
                                                                creasing interest in the cultural value of tourism products. For precisely the same reason,
                                                                those cultural products whose sole purpose is to satisfy the cultural curiosity of tourists will
                                                                be short lived. Only those products which embody the most real and beautiful emotions of
                                                                human beings can survive the test of time and the market.
                                                                    In everyday life at Wongding, tradition and modernity keep evolving or get intertwined. For
                                                                example, most villagers prefer to dress in simple, convenient Han clothes. But on important
                                                                occasions like celebrations, they are fully dressed in their traditional clothes. It is not unusual
                                                                in this remote area to hear people talk fluently in mandarin Chinese, Dai and even English in
                                                                addition to their mother tongue of Wa. The head master of the primitive religion in Wongding,
                                                                Damoba Xiaonibule, told us,” Wongding means the place where two rivers join in the Wa lan-
                                                                guage. It foretells the fact that Wongding is to grow in the process of continuous selection.＂
Fan Hua - A case study of the cultural ecological protection




                                                                   Biographical notes

                                                                   Fan Hua is a professor in the School of Literature in Yunnan Normal University. This
                                                                paper is a progress report for the project “Technical Research in the Protection and
                                                                Inheritance of Wa Culture and Its Demonstration” (2013BAJO7B02) sponsored by the
                                                                National Science and Technology Department.


                                                                   Summary

                                                                   How to survive in the context of new developments is a major problem confront-
                                                                ing minority nationality cultures in the process of modernization. This paper is a case
                                                                study of Wongding, an aboriginal Wa minority nationality culture village listed among
                                                                the first group of intangible culture units in China’s Yunnan Province. The research
                                                                emphasizes giving balanced attention to both protection and development, focusing
                                                                on the living inheritance of culture in community life and the development of cultural
                                                                tourism by utilizing the market platform and diverse forces to promote the development
                                                                of minority nationality cultures.



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