Dongxiang Ethnic Group: Investigation in Hanzeling Village, Dongxiang County, Gansu

Author: Qin Zhen / Ma Guozhong, Editors
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: The Dongxiang ethnic group is a unique ethnic group in Gansu Province and one of the ten ethnic groups in China that largely practice Islam. Although they are both in western China, it still feels as if the Dongxiang ethnic group and Gansu are very far apart. The Yunnan members of the research team are accustomed to conducting ethnic studies, having experienced countless field investigations in their hometown of Yunnan. However, this ethnic survey took them to a distant and unfamiliar land. This time so "wild," this time full of passion, in the mysterious and remote western part of China, they took ethnographic fieldwork beyond their home province—this is a leap. On July 17, 2003, while flying to Lanzhou, we thought more about cultural experiences, cultural integration and collision, as well as cultural contrasts. The aerial journey shortened the spatial and temporal distance but also intensified the cultural comparisons.