Venturing Into Barbarous Region And Mine Field For Living:A Study On Population Mobility And Frontier Society Change In Modern Yunnan

As an important province located in the southwest frontier of China,Yunnan has been the important channel for population mobility and migration since ancient times.It is precisely because of the mobility and migration of population that Yunnan has become the most representative multi-ethnic inhabited area in China.After the Ming and Qing Dynasties,with the changes of social and economic conditions in Yunnan and the increasingly frequent inter-regional economic and cultural exchanges.The population flow in the border areas of Yunnan further developed,resulting in large-scale population flow phenomena such as "Venturing into Barbarous Region and Mine Field for living".This "Venturing into Barbarous Region" echoes with the "Moving Westward" and "Making a Living to Northeast China" in northern China,it has become one of the most important population movements in Chinese history since the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Since modern times,the development of "Venturing into Barbarous Region and Mine Field" in Yunnan borderland has entered a peak period,which is not only the product of economic and social changes,but also further promoted the process of social changes in frontier ethnic areas.Since modern times,with the development of the capitalist world system,the border areas of Yunnan have taken place in deep changes.The social governance of the frontier ethnic areas in Modern Yunnan was accompanied by the process of "inland trend" brought by " people living in faraway places gravitate to one of the protective areas around the imperial capital",and was gradually involved in the process of "globalization" because of the colonial expansion of imperialist countries in South and Southeast Asia during this period.As a result,the border governance was intertwined and affected by various domestic and international factors,showing unprecedented complexity.The essence of the process of "Venturing into Barbarous Region and Mine Field" in Modern Yunnan is the process that the traditional Chinese rural agricultural society is increasingly connected with the industrial and commercial economy.At the same time,because of the process of "inland trend" and "globalization" of the borderland during this period,it is increasingly closely linked with the world economy.In this process,"Venturing into Barbarous Region" is mainly associated with the industrial and commercial economy,while "Venturing into Barbarous Mine Field" is associated with the industrial and mining economy.During modern times,the population mobility of "Venturing into Barbarous Region and Mine Field for living" had a great impact on the social changes in the frontier ethnic areas of Yunnan in modern times.Firstly,it promoted the transformation of Modern Yunnan’s traditional rural society focusing on agriculture to a social form paying equal attention to agriculture and commerce.The main body of the "Venturing into Barbarous Region and Mine Field for living" are mainly the poor farmers at the bottom of the society or bankrupt handicrafts-men.At the beginning,they began to "Venturing into Barbarous Region" because of poverty and participated in a long-distance cross regional or even cross-border population mobility.In this process,the industrial and commercial activities they participated in brought about the transformation of their own identity.This change in economic status also led to social changes in the areas where they lived and promoted the transformation of rural society in frontier ethnic areas.Secondly,it promoted the communication and exchange between the frontier ethnic areas and the outside world,strengthened the national unity and national identity of ethnic minorities,and maintained the unity of modern China.As a relatively mobile and open concept,the evolution process of "Venturing into Barbarous Region" is the process of ethnic communication and integration.For people who "Venturing into Barbarous Region",they go to the "Barbarous Region" at a time,they can be regarded as the contact and exchange between the frontier ethnic minorities and the Han and along with other non-frontier ethnic minorities.Every time,such contact and exchange,with the mutual acceptance and influence among ethnic groups and cultures,In fact,it has continuously strengthened the centripetal force and identity of the frontier minorities to the central dynasty and the Han culture,thus,it promoting the stability of the border and national unity.Thirdly,it has promoted the innovation of the social governance mechanism in the border areas and played an important role in the economic and social governance in the border areas.Due to the needs of the regional risk of the floating population,civil society organizations such as guild,guild hall and guest leader system have developed rapidly,which is not only the need of self-management and development of the floating population,but also an important auxiliary force for local governments to strengthen border governance.Especially in the case of frequent population flow and weak state power in Modern Yunnan frontier,as an important organizational form to mediate the contradiction between officials and people and the contradiction between soil and tourists,it has become an extension and supplement of Frontier social governance and provided an important guarantee for the stability and development of Modern Yunnan Frontier economy and society.Finally,it promoted the border ethnic areas of Modern Yunnan to further integrate with the international market,and was involved in the tide of globalization.As the folk spontaneous cross-border economic activity,"Venturing into Barbarous Region and Mine Field" have promoted the formation of a regional market of cross-border economy between Yunnan and Southeast Asian countries to a certain extent,and connected it with the world market,thus further strengthening Yunnan’s position in the regional economy,and making Yunnan played the central role in economic and cultural exchanges between China and Southeast Asian countries.From the traditional view,the frontier is often regarded as a marginal and backward area.However,when we examine history through the folk traditions of "Venturing into Barbarous Region and Mine Field for living",we can find that Yunnan which located in the southwest border of China,is actually a region full of vitality and changes in modern history.As a kind of population mobility and economic activity across the border,ethnic and cultural system,the "Venturing into Barbarous Region and Mine Field for living" in Modern Yunnan frontier area has distinct frontier ethnic characteristics,and it has profoundly affected the overall process of social change in Yunnan frontier ethnic areas.