The reconstruction of the Sichuan earthquake: fieldwork observation and examination of the news coverage of the Qiang ethnic group
Date
2017
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The massive earthquake struck the southwest of China leaving more than 87,000 people dead and millions of homeless. Many of the victims are Qiang, an ethnic minority group in China. In the years since the catastrophe, the Chinese government has undertaken the enormous task of rebuilding homes, infrastructure, industries as well as restoring ethnic culture. Eight years after the earthquake, the author revisited several sites in the quake zone, focusing on the reconstruction work, lives of survivors, and the impacts on Qiang culture. Through comparing the fieldwork observation with media reports, this study aims to unfold a rich image of the lives of people in these reconstructed sites. As a majority of the news coverage focuses on positive coverage of the reconstruction work, the fieldwork result indicated that these affected sites varied on their economic statuses. Moreover, tourism has played a critical role in the economic recovery in these sites. Stimulated by the demand of tourism, places that retain the purest ethnic culture pay more attention to maintain their heritage and cultural practices; while communities assimilated into the majority culture have witnessed a revival of ethnicity as a new source of income. Furthermore, the catastrophe is neither the main cause of rural-urban migration among Qiang people, nor the dying out of the intangible culture of Qiang. It is more likely to be an accelerator of cultural integration process that is already underway in the context of modernization and urbanization. The earthquake, in fact, called unprecedented attention to the endangered Qiang culture and brought an amplified level of respect to the Qiang people.