Frontiers, nations and religions: If you can't sing the national anthem, you're not Chinese

I was born in Yunnan and have never left here for more than 20 years. In my impression, I don't think this place is very big. I just measure it by where I live. I feel that there are several small places between the mountains that make up Yunnan .

We are introduced in the middle school geography textbook. Mountains account for about 84%, and plateaus and hills account for about 10%. From this, it is conceivable that more than 48 million Yunnan people live between river valleys and basins, which only account for 6%.

Most of the cities here are scattered, and perhaps the best way to get around is by plane. But because the economy can't keep up, most of the airports are located in tourist cities. Like my parents, they have never been on a plane. Before I went to college, I had never taken a train, and I couldn't tell the difference between a high-speed train and a train, but I also remembered the "Eighteen Monsters of Yunnan" printed on the mineral water bottle, "The train is not as fast as the car". Our main means of travel is the car.

Before I came to Tengchong, the map of Yunnan that was automatically formed in my mind was completely blurred. There were only two points from home to Kunming, and at most I remembered passing through Yuxi. Even when traveling, I only know that I landed from one point to another, and then I went to Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-La, and I don't know how they are connected on the map.

The trip to Tengchong made me know that the "Western Yunnan Ring Road", which has long been like thunder, partly goes through Chuxiong, Dali, and Baoshan, and finally arrives in Tengchong. If it weren't for the epidemic, it might be possible to connect Mangshi and Ruili.

Along the way, I looked at the green and narrow water of the Nu River, so I couldn't help but imagine where I would go if I drove along this road, or down the river. A friend of mine told me that following the direction of the Nujiang River, you can reach his home, Gongshan, and eventually the river will flow into Myanmar.

At this point, the most unfamiliar links in the Western Yunnan Ring Road appeared - but due to the barrier of Gaoligong Mountain, I could not continue to move forward. I could only turn back from the original road of Tengchong, return to Dali as the junction point, and then pass through Lijiang, Shangri-La goes to the remaining cities: Deqin, Gongshan, Fugong, Lushui. This is the complete West Yunnan Ring Road.

The reason I'm not familiar with it may be that I have never been to the Nujiang River - the Nujiang River here no longer refers to the green river flowing between the canyons, but refers to Nujiang Prefecture, the full name of which is Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture , the only Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in China. It is on the map and my hometown, just at the two ends of a diagonal line, which should be considered farther away from me.

My friend from school was the Bai people who lived in Nujiang. She told me that in Nujiang, every Lisu family had a wild cherry tree in front of the door. Home, because the local custom is that whoever has the cherry blossoms will celebrate the New Year. And a new friend is a Lisu who lives in the Tibetan area, and usually speaks Tibetan and Lisu. He told me that the Tibetans in Nujiang will take the names in the Bible, Mary and Mary, and they usually call out these names in Tibetan.

But after Tengchong, someone mentioned to me the impression of the Nujiang River separated by a mountain, saying that the city is long and narrow, with mountains and valleys everywhere, very narrow, steep, and often rainy, if not for good friends Now, it feels depressing to live there.

This is the only not-so-romantic impression and memory I've heard of the Nujiang River, but even with both sides, I still don't know this place and often imagine it alone. Sometimes there are some confusions in the relationship, and even to the point of nostalgia, I miss a place that I have never been to.

According to the Encyclopedia entry, it is located in the middle reaches of the Nujiang River. It is named after the Nujiang River runs through the whole territory from north to south. It includes Lushui City, Fugong County, Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County, Lanping Bai and Pumi Autonomous County and two counties. Two ethnic minority autonomous counties. This is an autonomous prefecture with the most ethnic groups in China and the largest population of ethnic minorities in China. There are also the Dulong and Nu peoples with a small population.

My impression of the Dulong people is that some old people with Chinese face in the photos, they have the habit of writing face since they were girls, and then wearing that "mask", before appearing in the world's astonished eyes, they have already turned white hair old people, as if they were born that way. After being shocked, he couldn't find out where those mysterious eyes were looking.

Under the entry in Nujiang Prefecture, I read the relevant introduction. The last line is: "The Dulong people believe that all things have spirits, worship natural things, and believe in ghosts. " This last sentence hit me hard, and my heart began to thump. The thumping, thumping and thumping made me uneasy all night. It seemed like a very short spell, which made me connect with the beliefs of this nation in an instant, constantly recalling the various ghosts and gods my parents used to warn us when we were young, and their names.

There are a total of 25 border counties in Yunnan , of which there are three in Nujiang Prefecture, including three cities in the Western Yunnan Ring Road, Gongshan, Fugong, and Lushui. For the first time, Fugong appeared in public. The investigation results showed that the woman's name was Xiaohuamei, and she was from Fugong in the Nujiang River, but it was always difficult to tell whether it was true or false. Some investigative reporters went to Fugong. It is also impossible to confirm that "Chain Girl" is Xiaohuamei in the official notification. Lushui, on the other hand, was on the hot search list in another way. A rap from a Lisu guy quickly caused the entire Internet to follow suit. Gongshan is my friend's hometown. He wrote a sentence that has left a deep impression on me to this day: Looking at the world from the Nujiang River.

When I was writing the first part of the "Frontier, Ethnicity and Religion" series, I was reading a book about the sixty-year changes of a village in Dulongjiang. Later, I found out that the village was located in Dulongjiang Township, Gongshan. Like "Nujiang", "Dulongjiang" can be used both as the name of a river and as the name of an administrative division.

Locally, this is so common that people even name their families after where they live. A church in the village was named "Srizo", also because the name of the church is called Srizo, which is also the same as the family name near the church.

There is a message in the catalogue of this book that Christianity was introduced to this village where the Dulong people live in 1999, which is somewhat different from my perception. Because Christians call the whole Nujiang "Gospel Valley", Christianity has already blossomed and fruited there in the time of missionary Fu Nengren. But before I read this part, I first found traces of Christianity in an incident of "border people fleeing."

The main group of people who have fled this time are local religious believers. When the author interviewed John, a first-generation Christian in Dulongjiang on January 9, 2002, John recounted an event about himself that shaped his life. The impact of this incident is not only John himself, but also involves many people who share the same religious beliefs as him. John tells his story this way:

In 1957, he was exchanged by the local Christian church to "teach" for half a year in the areas of Mukemugang and Kuxue in what is now Myanmar. After he came back, he still lived in Mabili (now the Mabili villager group in Bapo Village) where he used to live, and collected five or six backs of firewood every day. On the third day after his return, he came back to collect firewood, and the work team came to his house, forced him with guns, took him to Bapo and locked him overnight, and was taken to Gongshan County the next day.

After that, John spent 31 years in prisons in Gongshan, Lijiang and Kunming (6 years in Gongshan, 9 years in Lijiang and 16 years in Kunming). According to John, in August 1958, there were as many as 600 or 700 people in Gongshan Prison. Later, there were too many people in Gongshan Prison to hold them, so they were transferred to Lijiang, where 10 people lined up with their arms tied, and reached Lijiang via Weixi.

The "John Arrest" incident in 1957 directly led to a large number of Christian believers in Bapo and Maku areas of Dulongjiang fleeing to Myanmar in 1958. According to estimates by local Christian Di Xinsheng, there were about two to three hundred people who fled to Myanmar in 1958 from Dulongjiang. This was by no means a small number for Dulongjiang, which had a population of just over 2,000 at that time.

At that time, China implemented a "direct transition" policy for the areas where the Dulong people lived. According to relevant information, the "direct transition" policy was carried out in 1952 by the (Yunnan) Provincial Ethnic Work Team to the Jingpo people's residential area in Dehong. On the basis of the work, it was proposed in August 1953 by Ma Yao, Secretary-General of the Provincial Frontier Committee, after a special investigation on Xishan, Luxi. After the provincial party committee reported it to the central government for approval , it was first piloted in the Dehong area in 1954, and then gradually promoted in the minority areas with the same situation throughout the province. In addition to the eight ethnic minorities in Yunnan (Jingpo, Lisu, Dulong, Nu, De'ang, Wa, Blang, and Jinuo), it also involves the Li nationality in Hainan and the Oroqen and Ewenki nationalities in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia and other provinces (regions).

According to local historical records of Nujiang Prefecture: In May 1954, the (Yunnan) Provincial Party Committee proposed that the Jingpo, Lisu, Dulong, Nu, De'ang, Wa, Blang and Jinuo people live in areas where the class differentiation is not obvious, and some Lahu, Hani and Yao people live in the area. In the areas with a population of 660,000, there is basically no internal land reform, but should take "unity, production, and progress" as a long-term work policy. , gradually eliminate the factors of national backwardness, and ensure a direct but gradual transition to socialism through the road of agricultural and handicraft co-operation.

A detailed description of this policy can still be found in the Dictionary of Chinese Ethnic Minority Culture. The relevant entries on Baidu Encyclopedia are probably excerpted from here, and the specific methods of “direct transition” are introduced. The first one is “ Propaganda of the Party’s Ethnic equality and unity policy, and patriotism and socialist education .” Most of the others are described from the perspective of the work and performance of the Chinese people’s government. No fault can be picked up, but it is always confusing.

However, combined with what happened to the previous Christian John, it reflects a tension between the peoples living here and the emerging countries of the time, people's sudden change in such a social system and the great socialism. Transformation, feeling at a loss, even breeds a sense of fear, so that such a complex social mentality will eventually turn into concrete actions.

Similar incidents are not uncommon in other border areas in Yunnan. From these events, one can directly perceive the political atmosphere at that time, as well as a thorough cleansing of folk beliefs that are inconsistent with the mainstream ideology.

There is also a statistic that strikes me in the notes, and I've included it here as well.

 According to relevant data, in 1958, the number of migrants from Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County in southern Yunnan was 14,639, accounting for 21.4% of the county's population. "Instructions" said, "Since the beginning of the year, border exodus and relocation incidents have continued to occur. Compared with previous years, its main features are that it is wider and larger in scale.
By the end of March, a total of 644 households and 2,433 people had fled. Since April, not only has it not stopped, but there has been new development.” On April 16, 1958, the telegram from the Simao Frontier Defense Command to the Military Region stated as follows: Since 1958, the number of people fleeing from our region has been serious, and more than 3,000 people have fled. There are 1600 people in Lancang, 998 people in Menglian, 70 people in Mengjun, 166 people in Mengla and 10 people in Jiangcheng. The situation is still developing.
The escape is characterized by:
1. Universality. But Lancang and Menglian districts are the most serious;
2. Continue to develop in depth from within the second line. It started from Menglian and Nuofu districts, and now it has penetrated into the interior of Lancang and Menglian;
3. 65% of the fleeing people are our basic masses, led by key activists, party members and government cadres, and only a small number of landowners and rich peasants escaped;
4. Entire households and villages form teams with guns, openly confront each other, and do not listen to dissuasion;
“After the Great Leap Forward began, there has been a large increase in the number of people fleeing. In Jinghong County, which belongs to Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture alone, from September 1958 to the beginning of 1959, there were more than 7,000 people in the Shanba District of the county, including more than 6,900 people in Menglong District. In the spring of 1959, after implementing some loosening policies of the central government, most of the expatriates returned. In the autumn of 1959, after the anti-rightist movement and the re-implementation of the leftist policy, a large number of border residents fled again.
Excluding the returnees, from September 1958 to November 1960, a total of 3,411 people fled from the eight dam areas in the county.
The Lijiang Prefectural Party Committee and Military Sub-district at 22:00 on April 16, 1958, "Instructions to the Bijiang Armed Forces Department's Telephone Instructions to Send Troops to Help Dissuade Border Residents from fleeing" revealed the following:
On the evening of April 15, 1958, 35 people were found fleeing in Lianhe Township, District 1, Bijiang County. After the county learned about it, it organized a team to go to the village on the morning of the 16th to dissuade it, but did not catch up due to the long distance. During the return, they encountered 18 more fugitives. The working group immediately shouted to dissuade. The other party didn't listen and kept walking towards the work team. The militia immediately fired two shots into the sky. The escapees fired poison arrows at the militia, injuring one militiaman. Clashes started at 9 am and ended at 4 pm. I consumed more than 200 rounds of bullets and wounded 7 opponents. I sacrificed 1 and injured 1.
On December 6, 1958, the Dehong Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China said in the Inspection Report on the Fleeing of Minorities: From January to November 20 this year, 56,267 people had fled, accounting for 14% of the total population of border counties. Among them, 27,626 people of the Dai people are in the peaceful land reform area, and 24,886 people are in the direct transition area of the Jingpo people.
Among the escapees, there are 189 state-supplied cadres, 62 working cadres, 46 primary school teachers, 75 township cadres, 3 state-directed cadres, and 3 central ethnic language investigation teams. 181 rural party members fled, accounting for 16.1% of the total number of party members.

Judging from the total number of people who fled and the complex personnel structure, perhaps the "John Arrest" incident was just the tip of the iceberg during the "direct transition" period of the Dulong River.

Just a small flaw in these data is enough to remind people of the sad documentary "Murder on the Snowy Mountains", in which the photographer of the European mountaineering team accidentally recorded the shooting of Chinese troops on the border between Tibet and Nepal trying to escape. Pictures of Tibetans in China, as the climbers in the film put it, " people are dying in search of a better life ". But even with the footage, the Chinese government claims it's just " normal border management ."

In a recent BBC report on Xinjiang, the documents disclosed by hackers are very similar to the records of the "direct transition" policy in the Dictionary of Chinese Ethnic Minority Cultures. Perhaps because of the historical experience of several minority groups, including the Dulong River, it has evolved a more complete response plan. During a press conference on the Hong Kong crisis, Richard Bilton, a reporter for the BBC's Wide Angle Mirror, asked the Chinese ambassador to the UK about the camps in Xinjiang: "...as far as I know it's an internment camp, why didn't you tell us The truth about these camps?" The Chinese ambassador to the UK replied: " First of all, let me say that there are no so-called labor camps as you describe, we call them vocational training centers, and their purpose is to prevent terrorism. "

Just like it used to cover up the cruel past that happened in the "Straight Crossing District" with its work and political achievements, when the fact that "believers fled" and "border residents fled" could not be denied, it fabricated "foreign forces" to come in (Dulongjiang)" Rumors", "It said that foreigners who preached in Gongshan in the past transported a lot of supplies abroad from the plane, and they couldn't finish food and clothing, so the believers in Nujiang should hurry to move abroad to enjoy it." Such words sound incredible, those who fled abroad The narrator does not elaborate on why believers believe in such "rumours" despite the difficulties and dangers to travel long distances to Myanmar.

But we can already see the truth from the first-generation Christian John's personal experience of his arrest. After John's arrest, he spent 31 long years in prisons in Gongshan, Lijiang and Kunming. What he saw was utterly devastated, and the number of people detained was so high that Gongshan Prison "couldn't hold it". What did they do wrong? I am afraid that this is the real reason that directly led to a large number of Christians in Dulongjiang fleeing to Myanmar.

When the "Straight Crossing District" became history, I went to Dulong River in 2001, and I would see local teachers in the school teaching and singing "The National Anthem of the People's Republic of China" in the first class: as a Chinese, you must be able to sing The national anthem, other songs can not be sung, but the national anthem must be sung. "If you can't sing the national anthem, you're not Chinese!" Although the teacher kept saying it, he always sang the lyrics of "Arise, people who don't want to be slaves" to the key of "The Internationale".

(My friend told me that an old reporter who went to the Nujiang River for interviews told him that many ethnic groups on Gaoligong Mountain still sing the Internationale today, and each village sings a part. If you ask them, they say that it is passed down from the older generation. Yes. Maybe the Internationale mastered by that local teacher was also taught by his grandparents)

As early as 2019, witnesses of the Xinjiang concentration camps described a detail that the detainees would stand up and sing the national anthem three times every hour—“If you can’t sing the national anthem, you’re not Chinese!” When the pole is inserted to the end, there must be a straight line of thinking that sees blood, and there is no accidental match.

But I can only write here, my mind buzzing with Fei Zizhi's words, Yunnan is a peculiar case, and it is a touchstone to test the overall development of Chinese culture and political expansion. It can be seen as a model, if it is politically feasible, further expansion will follow; or it can be seen as the possible limit of China's annexation of otherwise non-Han regions.

 This is the fifth article in the "Frontiers, Peoples and Religions" series, thanks for reading.

related articles

(1) My religious experience as a child

(2) Thank God for coming to church in the rain

(3) Pure enclave of Han culture

(4) Burmese brides in the "Marriage Fraud Case"