Cultural Impacts on Infrastructure: If only I understood more Chinese!

Friday, July 25, 2008

If only I understood more Chinese!

On Lijiang TV, the words "Yu long shui" or Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Water (whose glaciers supply Lijiang) caught my attention. Faces of worried men (and one woman)--maybe Lijiang's Water Authority?--surveyed a severely low-looking lake. The word wenti (problem) popped up over and over again. Looks like the water problem of Lijiang is becoming a reality. If only my Chinese was good enough to actually fully understand the report! That's been my biggest complaint these days.

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About Lijiang

Since its founding in 1270 CE, Lijiang--in China's Yunnan Province--has relied on an ancient, aquifer-fed canal system, which has acted as the primary clean water supply of the town. Significantly, the system has remained successful for over 700 years, overwhelmingly due to the Naxi community. Over eighty percent of Lijiang's residents are of Naxi ethnicity, one of China's 55 recognized ethnic groups, with their own religion, language, and vibrant history.

The Naxi religious tradition venerates nature; it is the worship of natural spirits that influences their management of their environment. More specifically, their respect for water has kept the watershed and canals unpolluted, enabling the ancient water system to prosper. However, in the past decade, Lijiang has seen an explosive amount of domestic tourism. Once so integral to Lijiang's identity, the canal system is now finding itself obsolete; it can no longer compete with the growing, tourist-induced water demand. Propelled by the thriving economy, new water engineering projects are replacing the faltering system.

The management of natural resources is crucial to Lijiang's Naxi community, primarily as a result of their religion. While many practice Taoism or Buddhism today, the most prominent religion of the Naxi is Dongba, which is based on nature worship. The Naxi venerate "Shu" spirits living in the mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, and springs. Until just recently, Lijiang's centuries-old system supplied the area with clean, fresh water—primarily due to the Naxi's diligence in water quality preservation, in honor of the Shu spirits (Yang 2004).

In the ancient system, primary springs emerge from a carbonate rock aquifer and feed into Black Dragon Pond. From this pond, water follows the Jade River and then divides into three canals to provide water to the Old Town of Lijiang. The east canal was built in the Yun dynasty (1271-1368), the central canal follows the Jade River's course, and the west canal was built in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Canals further subdivide into the city. Additional springs and bored wells provide supplementary access to water in the town (Murphy and Chen 2007).

Historically, the canal water was used for drinking and cooking in the early morning, for washing food in the late morning, and for washing clothes and household items in the afternoon. Recently, the canal water is still used for washing clothes and other household purposes, but no longer for drinking water (Murphy and Chen 2007).

Working Bibliography

Modernization in China
--The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence

China & the Environment
--The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future by Elizabeth Economy
--"The Great Leap Backward?" by Elizabeth Economy. (From Foreign Affairs, Sept/Oct 2007)
--China's Past, China's Future: Energy, Food, Environment by Vaclav Smil

Tourism in China
--Tourism Economics, the Environment and Development: Analysis and Policy by Clem Tisdell
--Tourism and China's Development: Policies, Regional Economic Growth and Ecotourism by Julie Jie Wen

Community Management of Natural Resources in China
--Communities, Livelihoods and Natural Resources: Action Research and Policy Change in Asia by Stephen Tyler
--Community Participation in China: Issues and Processes for Capacity Building by Janelle Plummer and John G. Taylor

Naxi Culture and Reactions to Tourism and the Environment
--Forgotten Kingdom by Peter Goullart
--Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China by Stevan Harrell
--A History and Anthropological Study of the Ancient Kingdoms of the Sino-Tibetan Borderland--Naxi and Mosuo by Christine Mathieu
--"Authenticity, Ethnicity and Social Transformation at World Heritage Sites: Tourism, Retailing and Cultural Change in Lijiang, China" by Takayoshi Yamamura. (From Tourism and Transition: Governance, Transformation, and Development, edited by Derek R. Hall)
--"The Epistemological Concept of Nature Conservation and Human Activities as seen from the Dongba Religion of Naxi People of Southwest China" by Yang Fuquan. (From Bridging Scales and Epistemologies Conference March 2004)
--"Conflict in Resources Management of Ecosystem Services: Water in the Lashi Watershed, Lijiang, Yunnan, China" by Yu Xiaogang. (From Globalization and Indigenous Peoples in Asia: Changing the Local-Global Interface, from SAGE Publications)

Water Quality in Lijiang
--"Water Chemistry in the Ancient City of Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China" by Rui Chen and William Murphy. (From The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, 2007).

Cultural Impacts on Infrastructure

Friday, July 25, 2008

If only I understood more Chinese!

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