Preface
Twenty years ago one of us (Zhao Zhunwang) commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the Long March by retracing the route and creating a major work of art, “Ten Thousand Crags and Torrents.” Now on display in Beijing Museum, this 20-meter by 2 meter scroll depicts the Natural terrain through which the Long March proceeded from Jinggangshan Mountain, Loushanguan, Chishuihe, Jinshajiang and Daduhe Rivers to the Great Snow Mountain and the high grassland prairie of the Songpan Plateau and culminating in Yan’an.
A book was also published chronicling the journey and his preparation of Mural.
(“Ten Thousand Crags and Torrents:” Selections of Zhao Zhunwang’s Sketch Paintings Drawn on the Road of Long March” PLA Publishing House, 1986, Distributed by Beijing Distributing House of Xinhua Bookstore).
Now, he has decided to revisit the route 20 years later. This time focusing on the cultural Landscape, the village life and its people along the route of the Long March. Knowing of his love, interest and writing of China and its peoples, another (David Sutton ) was asked to collaborate on the present volume.
Together we have had a wonderful experience creating these impressions of village life along the Long March. We enjoyed it immensely; we hope that you will too.
This is the first in what we hope will be a series of like volumes. Please give us your comments and suggestions for how we might make them better.
Beijing August, 2006
Zhao Zhunwang
David Sutton
Sample Chapter: (complete version upon request)
ANCIENT TOWN ON THE RIVER: Fenghuang, Hunan
Fenghuang lies at the western edge of Hunan on the eastern part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. To the Southeast of Fenghuang is a hill raising like a flying phoenix from which, according to local legend, its ancient walled Phoenix Town gets it name.
A more formal explanantion is provided by the fact that in Chinese, “Fènghuáng” are mythological Chinese birds that reign over all other birds. The males are called Feng and the females Huang. In modern times, however, such a distinction of gender is often no longer made and the Feng and Huang are blurred into a single feminine entity so that the bird can be paired with the, Chinese dragon which has male connotations. The fenghuang thus symbolizes the union of yin and yang– a symbol of high virtue and grace. It appears in peaceful and prosperous times but hides when trouble is near. The Chinese considered the dragon and phoenix symbolic of blissful relations.
On the bank of the Tuojiang River, this ancient town is an outstanding example of small town construction in the country’s early beginnings. Flagstone streets and alleys crisscross the ancient town between the East and North Gate connecting the remaining city wall.
Traditional local dwellings and unique stilted houses bustling with local residents in their colorful traditional dress complete this alluring cultural landscape.
The “Rainbow Bridge,” a 300 year old ‘wind and rain bridge’ connects the two sides of the Tuojiang River and is made of local red and white sand stone.
A Wind and Rain bridge provides shelter and is also a community meeting place — an ideal place to spend a humid summer afternoon. Below children shriek and splash in the shallows. Downstream women scrub clothes and men labor in the submerged rice paddies while in the village you can hear the sounds of pipes playing and the rhythmic thump of drums and dancing feet.
Fenghuang is regarded as one the most beautiful small towns in China being declared a “Famous National Historical and Cultural Town’ by the State Council in 2001.
Many of the local people are of the Miao national minority – one of China’s largest national minority group (over 9 million as of the 1990 census). They inhabit areas in Guizhou, Hunan, Guangdong, Yunnan, Sichuan and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southwest China. Miao people have been living in western Hunan and southeastern Guizhou since the Han dynasty (206BC-AD220). They mainly live by agriculture on mountain slopes.
The Miao and the Tujia people love to sing and dance. They honor the traditions and customs of their ancestors through songs and festivals such as “Dancing around flowers in the Moonlight,”(a festival on lunar April 8th), “Singing Festival,” (on lunar June 6th), “Songs for Marrying (Crying Song),” Dragon Dance…etc.
Throughout the day, young Miao women sing from their boat anchored in the middle of the river to those passing by in their own small boats – the boatmen reply with their own song.
Preparing for her Wedding
It is said that a young Tujia girl is taught between the age of 7 and 12 to cry.
What is meant by that I suspect, for I am sure that long before with the first bruised knee she knew how to cry, is that she is taught the traditional “cry song and dance” that she will do at her wedding. There she must enact a scene where shes cries when she has to leave her mother. This learning needs to occur early because traditionally the girl must be married by the age of 15.
Their religion is a form of animism with a strong emphasis on supernatural beings, unusual events attributed to the spiritual world. No house is built directly in front of another in order to allow ancestrial spirits a clear path homewards.
Life here has remained seemingly unchanged for centuries, yet traces of the modern age can be found at every glance. Satellite dishes grace many of the houses as do solar panels. From every corner one can hear pop music coming from the latest stereo systems.