An Ethnological Study On The “Zhouqu Post -Debris Flows Reconstruction”

My dissertation analyzes the natural, ethnic cultural and social factors pertinent to the post-debris flows reconstruction in Zhouqu County, by doing fieldwork toward the natural environment and humanistic environment in the sites like Sanyanyu valley and Luojiayu valley and the resettlement areas like Xinyuan residential areas, Fengdie residential areas and the relocated sites in Lanzhou New District, and also by analyzing the historical literature about debris flows disaster of Zhouqu County located in the geographical junction of the Tibet-Yi Corridor and the Hexi Corridor. Based on the in-depth interview of victims with different occupations and ethnic identities, here goes a further analysis of their post-disaster problems in terms of livelihood, housing, community, faith and so on with a careful study of the role of local government and various social forces playing in the post-disaster reconstruction process, as well as material production restoring, social order adjustment and residents’ physical life and spiritual adaptation; in order to propose policy suggestions for Zhouqu County’s post-disaster reconstruction through the ethnological perspectives. I’ve argued my perspectives through following aspects.First, to discuss the interaction mechanism of environmental problem, public policy and cultural interaction, I’ve adopted methods including the primary resources analysis, historical analysis, alongside conceptual ideology, theoretical approach and spheres of practice technically.Secondly, under the careful scrutiny of Zhouqu County’s natural environment and the humanities environment, it is no denying that special climate and geological conditions with the heavy rainfall in summer in Zhouqu are the critical environmental factor resulted in the debris flow; however, I argue in the process of economic development, the fierce pursuit of GDP growth, excessive mining of forest with vegetation destruction, soil erosion from human activities also boost the natural deterioration and lead to urgent and unintended consequence towards the local community.Third, with historical analysis of Zhouqu’s natural disasters, I selected the debris happened in Three Valley, Luo Jiayu, Suoertou in August 2010 as the case studies, which caused the greatest damage on life and property. I’ve focused on the damage of this disaster and interpreted its impact within the social and cultural context.Fourth, Zhouqu County is an ethnic community with Tibetan and Han ethnic groups. Religions as Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism, Taoism have great impact on the local ethnic and religious culture. Based on the field research and analysis of demographic characters like social status(occupation as farmer, vendors, etc.) and ethnicity(Tibetan, Han and Hui ethnicity), I’ve furthered the study of the cultural-environment interaction in the post-disaster-reconstruction, and argued the theoretical approach for community planning in Diergo district and remote Lanzhou District and the old city of Zhouqu Xinyuan District, whereby the change of household’s livelihood, the post disaster family structure, interpersonal relationship, psychological trauma, social relief, memory construction and other social issues, alongside of the religious belief change among victims are studied.Fifth, I’ve discussed the government role and the policymaking mechanism of the post-disaster construction, based on the analysis of the interaction among government, the non-governmental organizations(NGO), religious groups, the victims and volunteers. I’ve stated that this disaster in Zhouqu attracts a wide pubic attention and the government’ successful approaches to address the post-disaster issues achieves the public credibility.Furthermore, I argue that, when facing the powerful natural disasters, human beings always choose to conform and adapt to the nature with cultural system as a frame of reference. The ethnic groups of Zhouqu County mainly depend on religions to deal with their relationships with the nature: with Taoist thought, they respect nature; with Confucian thought and Buddhism, they deal with the problems of life and death; on local “Popo” religion, they promote their spiritual hopes. These behaviors are their social norms to address the relationship between man and nature, just as their selected residential sites are the concentrated expression of their localized knowledge systems.In a nutshell, in terms of public policy inspiration, the interaction mechanism of ethnic culture, environment and society indicates the importance of adaptation to natural environment and treat the victims as the nexus to deal with the post-disaster reconstruction down to earth. Additionally, the adaptation of local cultural, like learning from local resident’ experience of post-disaster reconstruction historically, will also contribute to establish the mode of the government policymaking and the well-being of the ethnic communities physically and spiritually.