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VS.ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

PROTECTION OF ETHNIC CULTURES

In November 2004, an international symposium was held in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, on economic development vs. protection of China's ethnic cultures. Participants agreed that the gathering came in good time in view of the fact that economic development is posing a growing threat to the very existence of ethnic cultures.

Article by Zheng QianPhoto by Li Xiaoqin For "Charcoal" in "Snowy Weather"

"Send charcoal in snowy weather" -- one participant, an ethnic Hani, cited this time-honored Chinese proverb when commenting on the symposium, which came as an intellectual attempt to find a theoretical solution to the growing tension between economic development and protection of ethnic cultures. By doing so, she expressed a desired shared by all her fellow participants to seek a theoretical solution to the problem.

The Chinese economy has been expanding at an amazingly fast speed and the country is now recognized as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Nevertheless, participants noted, the modernization fervor is changing China's traditional values. Erosion of the Chinese culture is becoming increasingly serious and, as time goes by, the Chinese culture may be reduced to oblivion eventually.

Nothing irregular can be hidden from the view of the participants. Just one example: for milleniums, ethnic Miaos in Guizhou Province, southwest China, have followed the tradition of ancestral worshipping at elaborate, mysterious ceremonies that should be held once every 13 years. Nowadays, the rite is staged almost day after day as a show to attract tourists. "Few people know that village elders are weeping in their huts while the show is being staged," one participant said.

None of the 56 ethnic groups in China can be free from "cultural conflicts" of this or that sort that are being caused by economic development. Not even the ethnic Hans, the ethnic majority who accounts for 91.96 percent of the Chinese population and represent the country's mainstream culture. Participants noted that those ethnic minorities, in general, are even more vulnerable economically and culturally and, even so, they have to cope with a double challenge from modernization and globalization.

As the process of modernization and globalization gathers momentum, participants asked, do people have to sacrifice their cultures for the sake of economic development? This question is being asked across China, not only by the scholars but also by the local government officals, bear the brunt of the ever-intensifying impact generated by modernization and globalization. Because of this, half of the participants at the symposium came from the lower stratum of society.

The symposium, as a matter of fact, was meant to find "charcoal" for China when "weather" is "snowy." And for the same purpose, a three-year research program was launched. The program has been progressing under the joint sponsorship of the Faculty of Law in University of Oslo, Norway, Institute of Law under the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Law under Yunnan University and Institute of Ethnic Affairs of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. It culminated in the symposium with participation, among others, of more than 100 Chinese and foreign experts, as well as officials from the National People's Congress, China's highest legislature, and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

Human Development plus Human Rights

It would be unfair to assert that the Chinese Government turns a blind eye to the tension between economic development and protection of ethnic minority cultures, according to Dr. Zhou Yong, a research fellow at the Ethnicity Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Zhou has worked as a guest researcher at the Faculty of Law in University of Oslo for a long time. He cited the political program of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2003 to justify his argument.

The program calls for "building a society of relative prosperity in an all aspects" and "attaching paramount importance to the interests of the people." "The report delivered to the congress defines the 'society of relative prosperity in all aspects' as one in which the national economy is better developed, democracy improved, cultural undertakings more thriving, society more harmonious, and the living standard enhanced," Zhou said. "This approach toward development is new in China. It aims at achieving development in a well coordinated, all-round and sustainable way, in a way that can ensure prosperity for all."

"To invest in human development and develop human capabilities - that's the ultimate purpose of the Chinese reforms," Zhou concluded.

Then the scholar discussed what he called the "latest trace of change" in China's official approach and policies for economic development. The Chinese Government has begun shifting from a one-sided emphasis on economic growth to effort to address problems affecting the well-being of the Chinese people - problems facing agriculture, the rural areas and the rural population, employment, and problems with education and public health, etc. In Zhou's opinion, this in facts indicates a shift from a pursuit of economic growths at any cost to work to make China achieve an all-round, well-balanced and sustainable development. "For well over two decades," he said, "taking economic construction, or the growth of GDP, as center of all work has been the policy guiding China's reforms. The new approach toward development results from a review or rethinking of this policy, suggesting that in striving to modernize, China is shifting from the model of EG (economic growth) to the model of human development (HD)."

According to Zhou, there are three models for development and development policies and strategies, namely, EG, HD and HD+HR (human rights). "Changes that are taking place in China's development policies and strategy prepare the Chinese Government to change the center of its work from economic construction to institutional improvements," he said. "That falls in line with the internationally accepted approach toward the development of human society."

"Examining ethnic minority cultures in light of HD+HR," he continued, "we should stress the need for cultural liberty, not only the protection and preservation of these cultures. Liberty is the ultimate objective of human development, and it is to be realized through a process of the development chosen by the individual on his or her free will. Because of this, what merits our study and analysis is the importance of cultures to the freedom of the individual to choose and to the upholding by the individual of his or her dignity."

Fortunately, China has adopted the development strategy characterized by paramount importance attached to the people's welfare. In implementing this strategy, Zhou noted, China is meeting some technical problems. "Our three-year research program is designed to find a solution to these problems," he said.

Dr. Maria Lundberg from the Faculty of Law in University of Oslo elaborated on the internationally applicable standards for development. Like her colleague, Dr. Zhou, she stressed the importance of cultural liberty when speaking at the symposium. "Cultural Liberty is seen as a very important part of the endeavor to achieve human development," she said. "It calls for freedom of the individual to choose his or her cultural identity without losing a due respect for any fellow individual. Neither will the individual lose any other alternative of choice in this process."

The Norwegian scholar has been a keen student of the Chinese system for regional autonomy of ethnic groups. "This system," she told the symposium, "takes human development as an instrument of human rights. The official commitment to democracy and equality is written down into the People's Republic of China Law on Regional Autonomy of Ethnic Groups, thus providing such areas with a unique instrument for realization of human rights-based development."

Meanwhile, she took note of the complexity of China's ethnic minority areas - the diversity of ethnic minority cultures, plus the vast differences in conditions between different areas and, moreover, the complex nature of the demands raised by different ethnic groups. In her opinion, these challenge the Chinese Government in its effort to ensure that the law is carried to the letter, hence the need for the State Council and its working departments to take them into full account when formulating administrative rules and regulations and policy measures with regard to ethnic minority areas.

Liberty of Cultural Choice

Participants at the symposium agreed that Dr. Zhou and Dr. Maria Lundberg were discussing questions deeply seated in protection of cultures. Seen from perspective of cultural liberty, they said, protection of cultures should be taken as an indispensable right, and freedom invariably determines the complex nature of choices. By following this rationale, society should not try to seek economic development to the benefit of the majority while sacrificing the interests of the minority. Economic development is the means, not the end, for achieving economic development, and participants at the symposium expressed the belief that this will hold true forever. What is the subject of development? And what is its ultimate purpose? It seems that answers can be found in China's new strategy that calls for all-round, well balanced and sustainable development. Participants at the symposium went further to note that development would be meaningless if it is devoid of rights for the minority.

While investing heavily in areas with people of ethnic minority groups living in compact communities, the Chinese Government has, since the 1950s, allowed a range of policy privileges to help them stand on their own. This has become the envy of many Han Chinese. Nevertheless, asked Dr. Maria Lundberg, what would become of it if, without the voluntary consent of the affected ethnic minorities, settlements were built for those who used to live on hunting or slash-and-burn farming, even though the new homes were modern and comfortable to live in?

Wu Xiangwang, a Chinese participant, shared her argument. Back in the late 1970s, he said, China introduced a reform that allowed farming to be done on a household basis, a breakaway from the old practice of collective farming under the people's commune system instituted in the late 1950s. Farmers all over the country welcomed the reform. The ethnic Jinos, however, disliked it. They used to live deep in primitive forests in Yunnan Province, where they had led a life of primitive communism. Though their life has changed much since New China was founded in 1949, their time-honored tradition, characterized by collective labor and equal sharing of whatever is available, has died hard. "With tears in their eyes," Wu recalled, "the Jinos sang: now that the collectively owned land is tilled individually, our ties of fraternity is broken."

The example is thought-provoking, indeed. Even if a policy has proved successful nationwide, the results of its implementation may not necessary be as good in areas inhabited by people of ethnic minority groups as its makers anticipated. Nevertheless, things may turn for the better if the academic community becomes keen to problems of this sort and if decision-makers and officials willingly sit down and pay sufficient heed to criticisms and suggestions. This understanding prompted participants to agree that with officials from China's highest legislature attending, the symposium represented a good step taken toward this direction.