In the last blog, I mentioned that I couldn’t go to Xishuangbanna for my project due to the dengue virus, so I went to Yunnan Nationalities Village with my family yesterday.

I remember the last time I visited Yunnan Nationalities Village was when I was in primary school. I especially remember the teacher saying “Culture shapes the future, and heritage should not be forgotten”. It would be terrible if our generation forgets the national culture of our country.

The purpose of Yunnan Nationalities Village is to persist in leading culture and delivering happiness. Under the introduction of the manager, we entered Yunnan Nationalities Village for a visit. He proudly introduced to us that Yunnan Nationalities Village has always implemented the concept of “two origins and two truths” (two origins: aboriginals and original ecology / two truths: true folk customs and true architecture). Since its establishment, Yunnan Nationalities Village has attached great importance to the rescue, protection, inheritance and display of the cultural heritage of various ethnic groups, especially the intangible cultural heritage. The national-level folk intangible cultural heritage festivals on display, such as the Torch Festival of the Yi Nationality, the Water Splashing Festival of the Dai Nationality, etc., the purpose is let tourists have fun while “protecting and conveying” such culture.

Then I came to the Dai village in Yunnan Nationalities Village. The Dai bamboo house village is an important carrier of Dai cultural traditions, where people inherit and promote traditional cultural elements such as Dai language, music, dance, and handicrafts. The architectural style of Dai villages usually retains the traditional wooden structure. The architectural style is simple and elegant, with upturned roofs, carved beams and painted buildings, reflecting the unique architectural art and traditional culture of the Dai people.

This visit to the Yunnan ethnic villages made me realize the importance of ethnic culture. In this magical land, every ethnic village is like a vivid history book, recording ancient and precious traditions, culture and values. Each ethnic group has unique language, costumes, music, dance and religious beliefs, which together constitute their unique cultural context. By visiting different ethnic villages, I deeply appreciate the diversity and richness of ethnic culture, and cherish the inheritance and development of these traditions in contemporary society. Through exchanges with different ethnic groups, I have experienced the tolerance and symbiosis of culture. In the exchange of ethnic cultures, we can learn, draw lessons from and absorb the excellent cultural achievements of other ethnic groups, and at the same time, we can better protect and inherit the cultural heritage of our own ethnic group and realize the prosperity and development of cultural diversity.

I discussed the issue of cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation with people from 12 local villages. Because it was raining outside, no video or filming was done that day. The vast majority of the interviewees believed that they hoped that their ethnic culture could be spread, but the way to spread it should not violate the principle of tradition (that is, not to arbitrarily change the dance/text/music of the culture, etc.). According to them, if their ethnic minority culture is spread to the world in a spoof way, they would rather protect their own culture and not want to show it to the world. Some interviewees told me that the Yunnan government now hopes to attract more tourists to visit the Yunnan ethnic villages, so there is a trip shoot service. However, when tourists who participated in this service rented clothes, many people did not realize that mixing clothes from different ethnic groups together is not a way to reflect diversity. This makes people feel that it is forced integration and does not respect their culture. They hope to attract attention.