LuGuHu (LuGu Lake)
The ticket calls it the last pure matriarchal society. If this is true or not, I have no idea. The guidebook has very little detail on this area so we just hopped on a bus and went. Lucky for us, we happened to see Tony, a Taiwanese guy we met in the Kodak shop in Dali, on the same bus. Tony has a Chinese guidebook with a lot more information. (He actually recommended it to us, but seeing as we are all illiterate, it wouldn't be that useful.)
The lake is quite pretty. It looks a bit like Crater Lake because it is so blue and is surrounded by mountains. We stayed one night in the first village whose name I have forgotten. This was a dull evening since we were tricked into buying a 70RMB fish and went to a bonfire party thing. The "party" started out with traditional line dancing by the Mosu people. The audience was invited to join but we didn't know the steps and there weren't enough Mosu dancers to teach us. I finally got a guy to come and help us because in China, I'm a foreigner and can do anything I want (not exactly, but I've got no shame here anymore). The thing then degenerated into a karaoke contest where different tour groups would come up and sing. Especially bad was the Bai minority group screeching. No offense to anyone of that group, but their singing is of eardrum bursting quality. Their traditional outfits are quite pretty though.
The next morning on our way to pick up people we stopped by a different Mosu village on the lake. The Taiwanese girl we picked up earlier at the horse ranch introduced us to a hostel where I could use the facilities as I had stomach problems yet again. The man who owns the hostel is somewhat famous because of his horseriding skills and because he is good looking, so I'm told. Actually he is pretty good looking (more so when he was younger, he's like 40+ now) but more than that he is charming. He was also a Buddhist monk in training when he was young, but apparently left that path. He told us a bit more about the Mosu culture. Instead of marriage (jie hun), they have what they call a walking marriage (zou hun). The man and women enter a committed relationship where they have children but do not live together. The two remain in the relationship as long as they both have interest in it. When we asked if people would just sleep around then, he said no, because that is not how the human heart is, that is not being human to do so. The children live with their mother their whole lives with the men helping to raise their sisters' children. Thus, the children are closer to their uncles than they are to their fathers, though they know who their fathers are. His feeling is that this system is better than marriage because it offers the same benefits without the messiness of money. Two people can stay together as long as they want, but if they want to split then they don't have to worry about splitting property because they don't share anything (except if you include children, but the children belong to the mother automatically). Things are changing now that China is trying to make this area more touristy. Outsiders come in, but they rarely do the walking marriage, they mostly actually marry because our friend says they feel no security in the walking marriage. Unfortunately we had to leave in the middle of the conversation because the bus was leaving.
I'm not sure what we expected before we got there. Probably that it would be like the Amazon women, where the women lived in fantastic houses and the men had to sleep outside the village. No, I don't think any of us expected that. I don't think we really thought about it, but for some reason we expected to be able to see the matriarchy, which is really quite silly, because how can you see a social structure like that without it being something extreme? So if not for my stomach problems we might not have met anyone so happy to discuss their culture and we would have left without learning anything. In the end it was too bad we only scheduled a day for the lake.
The lake is quite pretty. It looks a bit like Crater Lake because it is so blue and is surrounded by mountains. We stayed one night in the first village whose name I have forgotten. This was a dull evening since we were tricked into buying a 70RMB fish and went to a bonfire party thing. The "party" started out with traditional line dancing by the Mosu people. The audience was invited to join but we didn't know the steps and there weren't enough Mosu dancers to teach us. I finally got a guy to come and help us because in China, I'm a foreigner and can do anything I want (not exactly, but I've got no shame here anymore). The thing then degenerated into a karaoke contest where different tour groups would come up and sing. Especially bad was the Bai minority group screeching. No offense to anyone of that group, but their singing is of eardrum bursting quality. Their traditional outfits are quite pretty though.
The next morning on our way to pick up people we stopped by a different Mosu village on the lake. The Taiwanese girl we picked up earlier at the horse ranch introduced us to a hostel where I could use the facilities as I had stomach problems yet again. The man who owns the hostel is somewhat famous because of his horseriding skills and because he is good looking, so I'm told. Actually he is pretty good looking (more so when he was younger, he's like 40+ now) but more than that he is charming. He was also a Buddhist monk in training when he was young, but apparently left that path. He told us a bit more about the Mosu culture. Instead of marriage (jie hun), they have what they call a walking marriage (zou hun). The man and women enter a committed relationship where they have children but do not live together. The two remain in the relationship as long as they both have interest in it. When we asked if people would just sleep around then, he said no, because that is not how the human heart is, that is not being human to do so. The children live with their mother their whole lives with the men helping to raise their sisters' children. Thus, the children are closer to their uncles than they are to their fathers, though they know who their fathers are. His feeling is that this system is better than marriage because it offers the same benefits without the messiness of money. Two people can stay together as long as they want, but if they want to split then they don't have to worry about splitting property because they don't share anything (except if you include children, but the children belong to the mother automatically). Things are changing now that China is trying to make this area more touristy. Outsiders come in, but they rarely do the walking marriage, they mostly actually marry because our friend says they feel no security in the walking marriage. Unfortunately we had to leave in the middle of the conversation because the bus was leaving.
I'm not sure what we expected before we got there. Probably that it would be like the Amazon women, where the women lived in fantastic houses and the men had to sleep outside the village. No, I don't think any of us expected that. I don't think we really thought about it, but for some reason we expected to be able to see the matriarchy, which is really quite silly, because how can you see a social structure like that without it being something extreme? So if not for my stomach problems we might not have met anyone so happy to discuss their culture and we would have left without learning anything. In the end it was too bad we only scheduled a day for the lake.
posted by wchien at 10:29 PM
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