So, I have maybe five people who read this blog. To you happy few, Happy New Year. I hope that 2013 treats you well.
A few days ago, I had occasion to witness, record, and participate in the making of chang. I would like to eventually turn this into a little fieldwork article, so I won't go into too much detail here, but if you're interested in seeing a very rough description with some photos, please check out a post I made on http://qinghaiwhiskeyproject.weebly.com/qwp-blog.html That post documents the first steps of making chang, and this process is not yet completed. Unfortunately, this is very much a dying art. There is very little place in China's gift economy for things that have no market exchange value, and "hand-made" or "artisan" are not catch-words for authentic or genuine, but rather for a lack of prestige. As a result, people are not exactly falling over themselves to continue these practices... unless they get recognized as parts of "cultural heritage" in which case there is money in these practices. For my informant, he had earlier stated that this would be the last time he would make chang.
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About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |