Chinese researchers are building an electronic data base on the
Nu minority in Yunnan Province to ensure its unique culture and
customs are preserved.
A team of six experts are currently spending three years with
the ethnic group whose total population numbers only 28,000.
Feng Weixiang, director of the ethnic affairs commission of
Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County, said the group was
currently collecting literature and conducting research on Nu
customs.
As one of the country's smallest ethnic groups, the Nu minority
mainly live in remote and steep mountainous areas in nine Yunnan
townships.
Previously, the group, which has no written language, were known
for making bamboo ropes for getting across rivers and for wearing
swords and bows for hunting.
Today, however, those traditions were going by the wayside as
the group were being engulfed by modern society.
"Some of the customs are disappearing as their life has been
increasingly affected by modern life," Feng said.
He cited the roads and bridges built by the local government to
improve the Nu's living conditions, making the use of bamboo rope
less frequent.
The data being prepared by the experts are from Yunnan
Nationalities Museum, Yunnan Nationalities University and the
Gongshan Ethnic Affairs Commission. It will feature text, pictures,
video and audio recordings.
In addition to a Chinese-language book, the team will also
publish a picture book about the Nu with descriptions in English
based on the research, Feng said.
The project funded by the Yunnan Provincial Ethnic Affairs
Commission, costs an estimated 150,000 yuan (20,270 U.S.
dollars).
(Xinhua News Agency, December 11, 2007)