It is also important to note that ethnic boundaries in Xishuangbanna are very much shaped by its recent history in what we could perhaps call a colonizing process, or what Stevan Harrell calls a civilizing process In an effort to understand local representations of the Tai in Xishuangbanna, here I present a few of the images of minorities. A contemporary belief among other ethnic groups in Xishuangbanna is that the Tai are the most intelligent, clever, and enterprising of the minority ethnic groups.
They have culture tamen you wenhuaunlike the Bulang or the Lahu, because the Tai possess a written language based on ancient Pali-Hindu texts and are practicing Theravada Buddhists who train young males in the old traditions. The concept of "eating bitterness" begs further explanation. To eat bitterness in China has multiple meanings, but here it means that one must work hard and suffer in order to reap the benefits of one's labors at a later time.
When outsiders say the locals don't know how to eat bitterness, they mean that they do not know how to delay gratification. It now to Luzhou in Girl fuck Tai have in fact become economically and socially marginalized in urban Jinghong because of their absence from one of the main businesses, that of selling sex.
Local Tais explained their absence in the sex industry as linked to their strength in maintaining cultural values and traditions. Here the local Tai read themselves as superior to the Han who have forgotten traditional Confucian notions of fidelity. But while in the Tai villages people upheld notions of traditional culture that read against images of sexual promiscuity, in the city of Jinghong local Tais often internalized their inferiority.
Many local Tai entrepreneurs who were engaged in business similarly mentioned how their friends and family members didn't like or know how to work hard. While locals joke about Han living in spaces formerly reserved for the pigs, the situation of the locals is very precarious because the government may crack down on illegally registered tenants at any time Evans These tenants are often immigrant youths who migrate to Jinghong from China's hinterland in search of employment and the good life.
