What would you ask a chinese mountain villager?

[philaw]

I've just come across a site called "mountainvoices.org" that contains a series of interviews with people from mountain communities around the world, where they're asked about life in their village and how it's changed, but also given a chance to voice concerns of their own.

I've been giving some serious thought to using my big wedge of free time this coming winter to going on some kind of 'expedidition', perhaps staying in a Chinese village and trying to learn some of the traditional skills that they still use. This site made me think that it could be interesting to do something like this in an organised way, interview people, ask lots of questions, take lots of pictures and record the answers. I think that seeing some bushcraft skills done in a different way, and a little more '3-dimensionally' than in a traditional book's pencil drawings could show people which things are done the same everywhere. Seeing how people do things differently might be enlightening, too. There are plenty of places that are relatively untouched, so I should be able to find one. Then I could go and stay there for a while, observe things, and learn whatever I could. A book like that would be interesting to write and to read. I was thinking it could look like this:

Outline of the village, history, people, religion, customs, geography, etc.
Details on their lifestyle, how it's different from in the uk, and what traditional skills they use
Detailed explanation of said skills with lots of shiny pictures.

Maybe I could spend a day or two watching each household going about their daily life.

Soooooooooo...

What would you ask them?
What would you want to see them do?
Has this been done before?

 

[Carcajou Garou]

Nothing I would look, observe, join in, live, enjoy. CG :yo:

 

[Eric_Methven]

I would identify common problems between two diverse cultures then observe how they tackle them. Observe how their construction methods differ from ours then learn as much as you can and have a go when possible. Pass on skills and techniques you possess and you'll be surprised at how forthcoming people are to show you how they do the same sort of thing - or different sort of thing to reach the same goal.

Interesting. I hope it goes well for you.

Eric

 

[Infragreen]

Eric, you sorta beat me to it...

1: What can I give to you? (knowledge, tech, stuff) or

2: How long can I stay and learn? or

3: Will one of you come and see how I live?

Thazzabout it.

 

[capacious]

1. Where is the nearest bar?
2. Where is the nearest toilet?
3. How old is your daughter?

Seriously, I would ask if he thinks that his life would be better living in a city with modern 'comforts'. I have had the opportunity to ask that question to a Saami 'herder, and he said his life would certainly be easier, but he would no longer be free. It would be be interesting to see if that was the response of someone living half-way around the world also. I find the similarities between cultures who have no idea of each others existence fascinating.

 

[philaw]

The plan is now for fairly conventional travels and hiking with my wife, rather than any kind of expedition, but I'm still going to make an effort to talk to some rural people about traditional skills. I'll also try to go get some good photos of the wooden houses, weaving, etc.

I think that herders and such here must be equally torn about leaving home to go to the city, though they don't have a massive choice in the matter. The culture here was always that you belong were you were born, and you don't leave, but that's changed now. In the village my wife's grandma comes from, apparently there are few young men left, because they've all gone to look for work in the city. I think the pattern is the same across the whole country, as they simply can't earn anything if they don't go. In the poorest villages people grow rice to feed themselves, because like in ireland with potatos, it produces the most calories per acre. They eat most of what they grow, and the rest fetches a low price. The only way to earn money is to raise a pig, grow some chillis to dry and sell, or grow some tea. Communist country or not, you need to pay tuition fees to attend state schools here, and medical care is neither state funded nor even cheap. You need to pay for everything. If someone in the family gets sick the only way they get treatment is if everyone in the family puts together all of their savings, or someone gets the kind of debts that you need a lifetime to repay. My wife recently pulled a muscle in her neck, then a chinese doctor at a 'good' hospital made it worse, and she had to spend two days in traction. Thankfully she's better now, but someone else on the same floor had to wait more than a month for urgent surgery because they didn't have medical insurance. A couple of other people are fighting for insurance payouts from bus companies, etc, and are in trouble if they don't get them. Almost no one here has medical insurance, or any other kind, and people get fired much more easily than back in the uk. In the countryside it's worse, and there's just a massive insecurity about people's lives. I've lived in China for two years in total, but it's only now that I'm finally seeing that the difference in living standards really is massive. If you just look at the surface you see well dressed people that eat better food than most brits, and live in reasonable accomodation, but the defining characteristic about life here is insecurity. Unless you've got millions, you've not got enough, because at any moment you can be fired or get sick and lose it all. Life in China is really just like a game of snakes and ladders.

I got a little off track there, but you get the point. I'll be looking out for stuff like these rain jackets woven from rice stalks, and all that kind of stuff. If I can find out more about people using that poison to stuff and capture fish, then I will.