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The De'ang ethnic minority
 The number of De'ang people in China totals 15,500.
Small as their population is, the people of this ethnic group are
quite widely distributed over Yunnan Province. Most of them dwell in
Santai Township in Luxi County of the Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous
Prefecture and in Junnong Township in Zhenkang County of the Lincang
Prefecture. The others live scattered in Yingjiang, Ruili, Longchuan,
Baoshan, Lianghe and Gengma counties. Some De'angs live together with
the Jingpo, Han, Lisu and Va nationalities in the mountainous areas.
And a small number of them have their homes in villages on flatland
peopled by the Dais. The De'ang language belongs to the South Asian
family of languages. The De'angs have no written script of their own,
and many of them have learned to speak the Dai, Han or Jingpo
languages, and some can read and write in the Dai language. An
increasing number of them have picked up the Han language in years
after the mid-20th century.
In the mountainous areas of Gaoligong and Nushan ranges in western
Yunnan Province, the De'ang people have been living there for
generations. The climate here is subtropical, and there is fertile
soil,  abundant rainfall, rich mineral resources and dense forests. The
dragon bamboo here grows very long and has a stem with a diameter of
10 cm to 13 cm. The Zhenkang area has been famed for this kind of
bamboo for the past 2,000 years. It is used to build houses and make
household utensils and farm implements. Bamboo shoots are a famed
delicacy.
The De'angs, who took to farming since very ancient times, grow both
wet and upland rice, corn, buckwheat and tuber crops as well as walnut
and jute. And they have learned to cultivate tea, cotton, coffee, and
rubber after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.
The De'angs have been great tea drinkers since very early times, and
now every family has tea bushes growing among vegetables, banana,
mango, jack fruit, papaya, pear and pomegranate trees in a garden
around the house.
History De'ang was a
name given to this ethnic group in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Before that time the De'angs along with the Blang and Va ethnic
minorities speaking a south Asian language inside Yunnan Province were
called "Pu people," according to historical records. In those bygone
times the "Pu people" were distributed mainly in the southwestern part
of Yunnan Province, which was called Yongchang Prefecture in the Han
Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220). Their forefathers settled on the banks of
the Nujiang River (upper reaches of the Salween that flows across
Burma) long before the arrival of the Achang and Jingpo ethnic
minorities.
 Development of De'ang society has been uneven. Since the De'angs have
lived in widely scattered localities together with the Han, Dai,
Jingpo, Va and other nationalities, who are at different stages of
development, they have been influenced by these ethnic groups
politically, economically and culturally. Dai influence is
particularly strong since the De'angs had for a long period lived in
servitude under Dai headmen in feudal times. However, some traces of
the ancient clan and village commune of the De'ang ethnic minority are
still to be found in the Zhenkang area.
The production unit of the De'ang ethnic group is the family, and
there is marked division of labor according to sex and age. The farm
tools used are bought from Han and Dai regions. Generally speaking,
the De'angs practice intensive farming on flatland and on farms near
the Han and Dai regions or in paddy fields.
In De'ang villages in the Dehong area, the cultivated land used to be
communally owned. The wasteland around each village was also
communally owned, but people could freely open up the land for
cultivating crops. If the land was left uncultivated, it automatically
reverted to communal ownership again. In later times, the selling or
mortgaging of paddy fields and gardens led to the emergence of private
ownership. As a result, most of the paddy fields came into the
possession of Han landlords, rich peasants and Dai headmen.
Without either draught animals or funds, and burdened down with taxes
and debts, the De'angs could not open up hillside land and gradually
became the tenants or farmhands of the landlords, rich peasants and
headmen. Many cut firewood, burned charcoal and wove in the off-hours
to make ends meet.
In the Zhenkang Prefecture, which had plenty of dry land and little
paddy land, private ownership of land and usury had been uncommon. Yet
feudal ownership and tenancy show such traces of communal ownership of
land as strict demarcation lines between the land of different
villages and clearly-marked signs between communally owned land, woods
and small privately owned plots. Communal land in each village was
managed by headmen. And anyone, from other villages who wanted to rent
the communal or private plots, had to get the permission of village
headmen.
Some De'ang people still retain some traces of the communal system in
the way they live. A clan commune was formed by many small families
with blood relations. Usually thirty to forty people shared one
outsized communal house, but each individual family had its own
fireplace and kept its own account. Primitive distribution on an equal
basis was practiced in farming. But exploitation had appeared with
some families owning more cows and working less.
 The De'ang people everywhere used to live under the sway of the feudal
lords of the Dai ethnic group. De'ang headmen in the Dehong region
were either appointed by Dai chieftains or were hereditary. To control
and exploit the De'ang people, Dai chieftains granted official titles
to De'ang headmen and let them run the villages, impose levies, and
collect tributes. Some De'ang people who lived in or near areas under
the Jingpo's jurisdiction had to pay "head taxes." This constituted
another burden for the De'angs who were bled white by heavy taxes and
rents collected by Dai chiefs.
Landlords and rich peasants of the De'ang ethnic group made up only
two per cent of the population. Many of them were appointed headmen of
Dai chiefs. Being tenants or farmhands of either Han landlords and
rich
peasants or Dai headmen, most De'angs lived in dire poverty. |
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