Globalization and People on the Cultural Fringe:
The Lives of Miao Migrant Workers
Author: Fang Lili
Translator: Luoyifei
【Abstract】:
Even in a remote mountainous area in GuizhouMiaoVillage, the impact of globalization is felt everywhere. The establishment of the Ecomuseum accelerated the opening up process of these villages. Young males and middle-aged labourers have gone out to work in the cities , They left their traditional cultural envirorments and entered into a new modern cultural envirorment, so they became the people on the cultural fringe. They had to adjust to the new cultures and had to change their traditional cultures as well. This was not easier for them, so they hoped the new generation can adjust to new cultural enviroments. In order to enter the system of Modern globalization, even in remote rurals in china, especially the minority ethnic groups which can’t read and speak Mandarin, they are trying to rapidly accept modern education. In these areas, social changes are taking place，culture and social structure are changing, and reconstruction and reorganization are taking palace now.
【Key words】: Globalization、People on the Cultural Fringe、Worker、Study
一 Establishment of the Ecological Museum Among Isolated Villages
In this Article, the author will discuss a cultural phenomenon occurring in remote villages in China inhabited by a minority group, specifically people living in Suogia (梭嘎) in Guizhou Province, once an extremely isolated mountainous area closed to the outside world. What kind of relationship would these people have after coming into contact with the outside world and why put the two together in a discussion?
Before starting this discussion, we first need to define the concept of globalization. Globalization signifies the compression of the world and a corresponding increased awareness of the integration in the world. The word “globalization” was made popular only recently: before the 1980s, academia did not acknowledge it as an important concept. In contrast, in today’s environment, whenever we discuss problems or issues, we cannot do so in isolation. We must relate them to the world, because the effects of globalization are felt in every corner of the world.
Globalization’s influence is felt even in remote mountainous villages where people who have lived and worked the land all their lives have started to migrate to the cities. These villagers leave behind their familiar cultural systems and immerse themselves in a new, completely unfamiliar cultural system where they are the cultural outsiders. On the one hand, the uprooted people must adapt to the rules of the new culture, while at the same time, they want to let go of parochial restrictions imposed on them by their traditional culture. Not knowing exactly how to make these adjustments, they tend to place all their hopes on the next generation.
This author’s research focuses on a mountainous village inhabit