Qiang Culture and Language Preservation
Submitted by natesims on Tue, 12/08/2009 - 02:48.
Last updated on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 23:18.
Vital Stats
ongoing project
09/01/2007
10000
25
5,147 for Haiti Earthquake relief
Project Photos
.JPG)
Project Video
The Problem
I am an American living in Sichuan China and have attended Chinese public school since first grade. I started my project my first year of Chinese High School when I met a classmate named Yang Xing Xu , a member of the Qiang minority group. The Qiang are a minority people group in the mountains of Sichuan, China, with a long history and complicated multi dialectal language. In recent years, due to increased use of Mandarin Chinese coupled with the fact that the Qiang have no written script, their language and culture has experienced a rapid decline. Yang Xing Xu and I played on the same basketball team and as we became good friends, I became interested in his language and culture. He offered to take me to spend my spring break week in his village, herding goats in the mountains. There I met his relatives and learned about the circumstances of the Qiang people. I began learning the language and talking with several local Qiang people interested in seeing progress and development take place in their culture. I started thinking about how I could help their situation.
A year later, on May 12th 2008, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake hit Wenchuan County and surrounding areas. The earthquake killed over 80,000 people and created billions of dollars in damage. Close to 10% of the Qiang population was killed in the earthquake. In the aftermath of the earthquake both the Chinese government and local communities felt a great sense of urgency and increased need to protect Qiang culture from fading out.
Why It's Important
The Qiang people's struggle to keep their culture and language from dying out is important to me because I come from a multicultural background and I have a great interest and appreciation for cultural diversity. I was born in Germany and lived in Romania for seven years before my family moved to China. Helping the Qiang people's situation is also important to me because I have many Qiang friends who have asked me to help them in preserving their culture and expressed their concern about the future of their language. I have spent a significant amount of time in and around their culture, learning the Qiang language and history.
The Plan Of Action
As a result of the earthquake and the heightened cultural awareness, I found opportunities to meet with people interested in Qiang culture. I worked with a group of Qiang people in Wenchuan County who actively promote their culture through video documentation of cultural activities and religious ceremonies. I helped to start the website www.qiangzu.com, providing information about Qiang culture, language, religion and how people (both Qiang and Han Chinese) can get involved. These co workers were very helpful in putting me in touch with Qiang scholars and cultural experts who had experience in the area of cultural preservation and who encouraged me to work to prevent cultural loss. Through these connections I am able to actively promote the Qiang culture to outsiders.
Through a contact with an expert on Qiang languages, Dr. Randy LaPolla, I was able to help work on a Qiang Dialect Map project. The purpose of this dialect map was to survey the different dialects of Qiang and to study the mutual intelligibility of those dialects. I learned how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet to transcribe Qiang words and also recorded those words with a digital recorder. Working with Qiang friends from several different counties, villages and dialects, I documented dialects with which I was unfamiliar, as well as the variety of Qiang that I had been learning. This collected data was put into a specific wordlist format so that it can easily be compared to other Qiang dialects and be readily available to other people working on documenting Qiang and related languages. The end result of this wordlist will be a map showing which dialects are spoken where and which dialect speakers can understand one another. The more that is known about the Qiang language, the more can be done to help preserve it, adapt written systems for the language, and integrate it into the rural school systems.
Another way in which I helped was by volunteering for earthquake relief work through Red Cross and acting as a translator for Hua Mei International. I also introduced others to the language and culture by leading teams and translating for foreigners on week-long trips to the affected areas. These guided visits gave outsiders, interested in the Qiang minority, an opportunity to help with earthquake relief and cultural preservation.
How Can Others Get Involved?
People can help the Qiang rebuild their houses after the earthquake by donating to the Earthquake Relief Fund through the International Red Cross or through Habitat for Humanity.
Project Updates
12/15/09
Update: This week I started working on my third Qiang dialect wordlist. This one for a variety spoken in northern Heishui county. Have got 125 of the total 450 transcribed and recorded so far. I‘m still working on the Chibusu dialect wordlist (250 words to go), and organizing/correcting my data from the Yonghe township dialect.
When I'm finished, these lists should tell me a good deal about the similarities between these three dialects and possibly how well the speakers can understand each other.
Am hoping to post a rough sketch of the dialect groupings based off previous survey of Qiang dialects as well as some more pictures on here soon.
All for now,
NateAdditional hours volunteered: 10
Additional people involved: 6
12/26/09
Update: Attended the Chinese National Intangible Culture Preservation Committee Meeting on Friday the 24th. The meeting's focus was preservation of endangered cultural practices in Sichuan China and had a emphasis on Qiang culture in particular.
I had the chance to meet with Qiang cultural experts and representatives from Maoxian and Wenchuan counties to discuss preservation of Qiang intangible culture.
I also met with native Qiang linguist 余晓平, who had helpful advice and suggestions for language survey and revitalization. Additional hours volunteered: 7
Additional people involved: 3
01/6/10
Update: Last week I had the opportunity to attend both a Qiang traditional wedding and funeral. The entire trip lasted five days and while there I got to experience a lot, met new people, and started recording a Qiang folk story for later linguistic work. I'll post pics of the trip on this website but until then you can find them at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=176583&id=525849879&l=27b82de3c4
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109322&id=525849879&l=900e346352
enjoyAdditional hours volunteered: 80
Additional people involved: 10
01/12/10
Update: Today I met with native Qiang linguist Zhou Fa Cheng to ask questions about language research and Qiang culture in general. I also made arrangements to meet with someone from Lapu village to help me translate a traditional story i recorded last time while there.Additional hours volunteered: 4
Additional people involved: 2
01/19/10
Update: This week qiangzu.com raised a total of 5,147 $ for Haiti earthquake relief. We showed pictures of both the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake as well as the recent disaster in Haiti in Wenchuan city square. This raised both awareness and funds for the Haiti earthquake.Additional hours volunteered: 5
Additional people involved: 2
Location
Related Causes:
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See map: Google MapsWhat's the problem you are trying to solve?: I am an American living in Sichuan China and have attended Chinese public school since first grade. I started my project my first year of Chinese High School when I met a classmate named Yang Xing Xu , a member of the Qiang minority group. The Qiang are a minority people group in the mountains of Sichuan, China, with a long history and complicated multi dialectal language. In recent years, due to increased use of Mandarin Chinese coupled with the fact that the Qiang have no written script, their language and culture has experienced a rapid decline. Yang Xing Xu and I played on the same basketball team and as we became good friends, I became interested in his language and culture. He offered to take me to spend my spring break week in his village, herding goats in the mountains. There I met his relatives and learned about the circumstances of the Qiang people. I began learning the language and talking with several local Qiang people interested in seeing progress and development take place in their culture. I started thinking about how I could help their situation.
A year later, on May 12th 2008, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake hit Wenchuan County and surrounding areas. The earthquake killed over 80,000 people and created billions of dollars in damage. Close to 10% of the Qiang population was killed in the earthquake. In the aftermath of the earthquake both the Chinese government and local communities felt a great sense of urgency and increased need to protect Qiang culture from fading out.
Why is it important to you?: The Qiang people's struggle to keep their culture and language from dying out is important to me because I come from a multicultural background and I have a great interest and appreciation for cultural diversity. I was born in Germany and lived in Romania for seven years before my family moved to China. Helping the Qiang people's situation is also important to me because I have many Qiang friends who have asked me to help them in preserving their culture and expressed their concern about the future of their language. I have spent a significant amount of time in and around their culture, learning the Qiang language and history.
What's your plan of action?: As a result of the earthquake and the heightened cultural awareness, I found opportunities to meet with people interested in Qiang culture. I worked with a group of Qiang people in Wenchuan County who actively promote their culture through video documentation of cultural activities and religious ceremonies. I helped to start the website www.qiangzu.com, providing information about Qiang culture, language, religion and how people (both Qiang and Han Chinese) can get involved. These co workers were very helpful in putting me in touch with Qiang scholars and cultural experts who had experience in the area of cultural preservation and who encouraged me to work to prevent cultural loss. Through these connections I am able to actively promote the Qiang culture to outsiders.
Through a contact with an expert on Qiang languages, Dr. Randy LaPolla, I was able to help work on a Qiang Dialect Map project. The purpose of this dialect map was to survey the different dialects of Qiang and to study the mutual intelligibility of those dialects. I learned how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet to transcribe Qiang words and also recorded those words with a digital recorder. Working with Qiang friends from several different counties, villages and dialects, I documented dialects with which I was unfamiliar, as well as the variety of Qiang that I had been learning. This collected data was put into a specific wordlist format so that it can easily be compared to other Qiang dialects and be readily available to other people working on documenting Qiang and related languages. The end result of this wordlist will be a map showing which dialects are spoken where and which dialect speakers can understand one another. The more that is known about the Qiang language, the more can be done to help preserve it, adapt written systems for the language, and integrate it into the rural school systems.
Another way in which I helped was by volunteering for earthquake relief work through Red Cross and acting as a translator for Hua Mei International. I also introduced others to the language and culture by leading teams and translating for foreigners on week-long trips to the affected areas. These guided visits gave outsiders, interested in the Qiang minority, an opportunity to help with earthquake relief and cultural preservation.
How Can Others Help?: People can help the Qiang rebuild their houses after the earthquake by donating to the Earthquake Relief Fund through the International Red Cross or through Habitat for Humanity.
Total hours volunteered (to date): 1060Start Date: 09/01/2007Money Raised: 5,147 for Haiti Earthquake relief
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Through a contact with an expert on Qiang languages, Dr. Randy LaPolla, I was able to help work on a Qiang Dialect Map project. The purpose of this dialect map was to survey the different dialects of Qiang and to study the mutual intelligibility of those dialects. I learned how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet to transcribe Qiang words and also recorded those words with a digital recorder. Working with Qiang friends from several different counties, villages and dialects, I documented dialects with which I was unfamiliar, as well as the variety of Qiang that I had been learning. This collected data was put into a specific wordlist format so that it can easily be compared to other Qiang dialects and be readily available to other people working on documenting Qiang and related languages. The end result of this wordlist will be a map showing which dialects are spoken where and which dialect speakers can understand one another. The more that is known about the Qiang language, the more can be done to help preserve it, adapt written systems for the language, and integrate it into the rural school systems.
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See map: Google MapsWhat's the problem you are trying to solve?: I am an American living in Sichuan China and have attended Chinese public school since first grade. I started my project my first year of Chinese High School when I met a classmate named Yang Xing Xu , a member of the Qiang minority group. The Qiang are a minority people group in the mountains of Sichuan, China, with a long history and complicated multi dialectal language. In recent years, due to increased use of Mandarin Chinese coupled with the fact that the Qiang have no written script, their language and culture has experienced a rapid decline. Yang Xing Xu and I played on the same basketball team and as we became good friends, I became interested in his language and culture. He offered to take me to spend my spring break week in his village, herding goats in the mountains. There I met his relatives and learned about the circumstances of the Qiang people. I began learning the language and talking with several local Qiang people interested in seeing progress and development take place in their culture. I started thinking about how I could help their situation.
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How Can Others Help?: People can help the Qiang rebuild their houses after the earthquake by donating to the Earthquake Relief Fund through the International Red Cross or through Habitat for Humanity.
Total hours volunteered (to date): 1060Start Date: 09/01/2007Money Raised: 5,147 for Haiti Earthquake relief
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Get some cash to get your project to the next level. Weekly grants are available.
Comments
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a well thought-out plan being put into action by a remarkably adventurous and dedicated young man! keep up the good work and you'll go far, nate!
"neglect not the gift that is in you"
"every good and perfect gift comes from above"
btw, AWESOME pictures!!
=)
haha i made an account so i could comment on this.
okay nate. this is amazing. u are amazing. the fact that u are doing this at age 17 is inspiring. seriously nate. ugh! its so amazing.
im so proud of u brotherrrr
and haha i love the pics. especially the last one. very stylish coat i must say haha.
miss u! and thanks for sharing this with me, i love seeing things like this.
Nate-- keep up the amazing work. you are being used and your talents are coming into play. I look forward to seeing where this project leads. Please keep me up to date. Great pics, great work, and great story.
Hi Nate- We are friends of your mom and dad's. Your dad was actually in our wedding, way back when. I so enjoyed reading your letter that your dad sent out and then getting another letter telling me how go online and learn more about your project. VERY COOL, Nate!! Impressive. Congrats on IU too!! Shalom.