A Study Of Cultural Change And Reconstruction Of She People At Chitu Ethnic Town, Ganzhou City

The She people are a scattered ethnic minority with long history which is widely distributed in mountain areas in southeast China. By taking an example of Chitu township—a She township in the south of Jiangxi province, this paper analyse the cultural transition of Chitu based on the life of people and some historical documents.The majority of people in Chitu are from Nanxiong, Heyuan, Guangdong province, belong to the descendants of Da Yilang,belong to the descendants of Nian Wulang and Nian Qilang. They live in Futian, Heba, Huayuan She village and restore their status in1988, most of their family name are Lan.The main content of this paper is the cultural transition of Chitu She township. In chapter2, through describing religion, traditional festival, born etiquette, education, folk belief, construction, diet culture, cloth, handicraft and so on, it presents the history and reality of Chitu She township and makes a comparation between Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong province. In chapter3,it analyzes the return of national identity and the building of She township, in the further, the culture of Chitu is rebuilt by local government, elites and She people.From the research, I make a conclusion. Firstly, the cultural transition of Chitu She township is result from history and reality with historical continuation. In the other hand, compared from She culture of Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong province, it has remarkable division. Secondly, after the restoration of group consciousness, the She elites realize the insufficient of its culture, so they try to rebuild the culture. Especially in the construction of new rural areas and villages, the local government, elites and She people pay more attention to the divide She culture, such as the adoration to phoenix. What’s more, they start to bring in the She culture of Fujian, Zhejiang province to rebuild Chitu She culture.