I finally acquired and began reading Henry Glassie's Passing the Time in Ballymenone. It's rather late in the game for me to be reading this, but I've been wanting to get my hands on it for quite some time, and (having finally found it in my possession) I can't help but read it.
Glassie has been quickly added to my list of academic "crush"es. He's quite the wordsmith, and his writing makes me want to be a better and simpler descriptor of everything around me. There are numerous problems to this goal, though it in no way negates the burning desire to do so. First, a number of basic terms that are important to his community need little explanation. There's no need, for example to explain a rosary or the image of the Virgin Mary. Indeed, it would be seen as awkward to write something like "the Virgin Mary is a protective deity often found in the homes of Catholics in the region," though similar turns are necessary for explaining issues of culture in Western China. The issue of cultural foreignness in Western China is too great to overlook. Secondly, Glassie was fortunate enough to write in a simpler time, when there was no need to devote pages upon pages to issues of intertextuality, self-reflexivity, globalization, or discussions of how one's work fits into colonialist or post-colonialist research frameworks. It was also an era in which not every article or book had to examine political implications of any act. This is perhaps placing too much of the blame on modern academic practice, and denying Glassie some of the brilliance he deserves. Indeed, it has been long since I read a book written in such a way that made me want to be better at what I do. I'm finding myself increasingly drawn to scholarship on Northern Ireland. Glassie, Cashman, Jarman, and others all provide vivid accounts of life in a corner of the world that is coming to modern conveniences much later than many other parts of Europe, and in communities that are trying to live meaningful lives in circumstances that are largely outside of their control. Put in this way, the potential parallels with Western China seem obvious. Glassie's Ballymenone of 30-40 years ago experiences technological changes not dissimilar to the plateau over the last 20 years. Indeed, many nomadic communities have just received lined electricity, but still collect dung on a daily basis to be used as fuel in the stove. Cashman's Terramognan of 10-15 years ago similarly is a place in which the memory of a difficult recent past, and painful interactions with another group with whom they are also often attempting to live peacefully, inflect speech and living patterns. Hopefully, as I learn more and read more, I can learn much to apply to my current and future studies. As an interesting sidenote, as I write this, I can hear the sounds of the old folks performing circle dancing at the nan men tiyu guan (South gate gymnasium) across the street from me. The dancers I have seen in the past are mostly Han Chinese, but this was the first morning I noticed one of the songs to which they were dancing. It seemed strange to me to to hear Tib. singer Shir brtan's warbling voice crooning thun sgril byos a thun sgril byos a "Be united! Be united!" (a popular anthem encouraging Tib. people to unite and not be divided by petty differences or to let disputes overcome them) accompanying the morning exercises of Han retirees.
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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 |