Road,interact And Identity

Benzilan,a village at the border of Sichuan and Yunnan Province,is a strategic point on the Yunnan-Tibet road.The change and development of Benzilan is closely related to road construction.Since 1950 s,by the country’s different philosophies concerning road Benzilan has undergone several waves of road constructions,through which roads in Benzilan have acquired the connotations of liberation road,resource passageway and development path.The thesis intends to explore the social connotations of the Yunnan-Tibet Road in the varying backgrounds,using diachronic and synchronic methods and focusing on how the national consciousness embodied in road penetrated the local communities,and on how the road shaped local culture.The Yunan-Tibet Road,serving as a bridge between local communities and the state,has multiple connotations.On the state level,road construction in southeast China is part of the efforts to build a national-state,the intentions of which include promoting national consciousness and shaping national identity in ethnic minority groups.On the local level,roads,as the embodiment of localization of state power,have huge impacts on the subsistence and social relations of local ethnic groups.Modern roads bring changes to the social structure,leading to modernization and globalization in the Tibetan area in Diqing autonomous prefecture.The mobility and interaction brought forth by road constructions forge tighter bonds between different parts of this area.Local cultures benefit from cultural absorbing and borrowing.Meanwhile,more mobility also means more challenges,such as changes to subsistence,relocation of resources and competition between ethnic groups.The openness and inclusiveness of the local cultures help stabilize the situation and eliminate the challenges.In the context of the current large-scale road construction,this paper explores the impact of local road construction in different times on the local society and how the ethnic minorities respond to it through field investigations in Benzilan Village.Thus,it explores the significance of the road as a medium of interaction between the state and local society for the relationship between the two,and reflects how road construction should better meet localsocieties so that the construction of the road from state-led to state-local society will be linked.