I love stereotypes. I don't particularly enjoy using them or making them. But I do love learning about them. I think that there a fantastic way of learning the way one group sees another group (and itself in relation to others).
Here are some for the plateau: 1)Ethnic --Hui people are good at business --T people are rich (and within this, Nomads are rich) 2)Regional 1)There's an old adage that Dbus gtsang is the land of religion, Khams is the land of people, and A mdo is the land of horses. This adage has more recently been updated to be more like "Dbus gtsang is the land of politics, Khams is the land of wealth, and Amdo is the land of scholars." 2) When people from Dbus gtsang fight Khampas will help them. If people from Amdo fight, Khampas will help them. When people from Khams fight, the people from Dbus gtsang and Amdo run away. (from a Khams informant) 3)People from Khams don't speak pure Tibetan and are violent (from an A mdo informant) 4)The beautiful woman and handsome boys mostly come from Yushu (from an Amdo informant) Sub-regional 1)People from Khams are violent, but it's the people from Sde dge and Nangchen who are really scary (an informant from Skye dgu mdo) 2)Nomads are rich and bad (says a farmer) 3) I have heard at least one person from Rebgong (Amdo) level accusations against clergy in Mgo log (Amdo) and Yulshul/Yushu (Khams) for deliberately seeking out wealthy patrons in Inner China and even deceiving them about religious doctrine in order to gain patrons. This is, in all actuality just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure I've heard others, but I can't remember them at the time of writing.
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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 |