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Seeking Lost Codes in the Wilderness: The Search for a Hainanese Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Feng Chongyi
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Regional and provincial cultures have (re)emerged in China since the 1980s, regardless of their previous existence or articulation. Although it is not yet clear whether this represents the seemingly powerful trend of fragmentation or nothing but a superficial phenomenon generated by the unprecedented pace of economic integration throughout the country, there is every reason to believe that regional and provincial cultures, or identities, in China have been (re)shaped by the new process of modernization, decentralization and international interactions that have characterized the reform era. Competition for resources, markets and preferential policies have forced every locality to mobilize support from their local populations; reform, decentralization, marketization, internationalization, growing provincial autonomy and the decline of state ideology have combined to challenge some time-honoured traditions and provide an opportunity for the discourse of regional cultures and identities. While it is almost a common belief in China that a construction of a glorious past will inevitably lead to the self-confidence needed for a nation or community to build a better future, some see the current reforms as an opportunity to rid themselves of, or distance themselves from, the anti-commerce, anti-individual conservatism assumed to be inherent in the Chinese state ideology; others, those in the south-east coastal area in particular, find themselves natural heirs to the open and dynamic entrepreneurial culture suppressed by the centralized state in the past.

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Research Notes
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The China Quarterly , Volume 160 , December 1999 , pp. 1036 - 1056
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Copyright © The China Quarterly 1999

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References

1. Several series of monographs have been published in China on this subject. For example, Liaoning jiaoyu chubanshe published The Series of Regional Cultures in China aiming to cover 24 cultures such as Sanqin, Sanjin, Yanzhao, Qilu, Xiyu, Zhongzhou, Wuyue, Bashu, Jingshu, Lianghuai, Huizhou and Lingnan. Many publications on characteristics of provincial or regional cultures have also been produced for public consumption, including Xiangyang, Xin et al. , Renwen Zhongguo: Zhongguo de nanbei qing mao yu renwen jingshen (China in Human Terms: Humanism and the Character of South and North China) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui chubanshe, 2 vols., 1996)Google Scholar and Jinchuan, Chen et al. , Diyuan Zhongguo: quyu wenhua jingshen yu guomin diyu xingge (China in Geographical Terms: Regional Ethos and the National Character of Localities) (Beijing: Zhongguo dangan chubanshe, 2 vols. 1998)Google Scholar. For further discussion of the phenomenon, see Chongyi, Feng “Jiangxi in reform: the fear of exclusion and the search for a new identity,” in Hendrischke, Hans and Chongyi, Feng (eds.), The Political Economy of China's Provinces: Comparative and Competitive Advantage (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 249–276.Google Scholar

2. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the period of the Warring States before unification by Qin in 221 BC, the state of Qin was located in the area of today's Shaanxi, Jin in today's Shanxi, Qi and Lu in today's Shandong, Chu in today's Hubei, which was also the location for Jingzhou for a long period.

3. Whereas Zhongzhou (today's Henan) was the birthplace of Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao who played a key role in the creation of Neo-Confucianism during the Northern Song Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism was systematized and developed to a new stage during the Southern Song Dynasty by Zhu Xi who was an Anhui native. The promoters of Huizhou culture are also proud of Huishang (Anhui merchants) who are said to be very powerful during the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the models of Confucian merchants (rushang) who are good at making money, mastering Confucian scholarship and maintaining a high moral standard at the same time.

4. For a brief account of Hainan in English, see Chongyi, Feng and Goodman, David S.G., China's Hainan Province: Economic Development and Investment Environment (Perth: University of Western University Press, 1995)Google Scholar. See also Vogel, Ezra F., One Step Ahead of China: Guangdong Under Reform (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), pp. 275–309.Google Scholar

5. See Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983)Google Scholar. Anderson also challenges the idea of a fixed identity dominated by nationalism. According to him, people may have multiple and sometimes competing senses of identity. Thus most individuals may feel that they belong to a town, to a city, to a province, to a region and to a country.

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7. For the economic strength and political influence of the major communities, and the potential for communitarian conflict in Hainan, see Chongyi, Feng and Goodman, David S. G., “Hainan: communal politics and the struggle for identity,” in Goodman, David S. G. (ed.), China's Provinces in Reform: Class, Community and Political Culture (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 53–88.Google Scholar

8. There are those who argue that identities are objectively given marks of individuals and those who argue that identities are constructed and can be deconstructed and reconstructed anew. Both “objective” and “subjective” approaches to the definition of identity have their strong points and I tend to believe that one's identity or identities should be a combination of their subjective identification and their objective historical, material, social and cultural attributes. For discussions on the general issues of identity and issues of identity with regard to ethnicity and nationality, see Giddens, Anthony, Modernity and Self-identity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Smith, Anthony D., National Identity (London: Penguin, 1991)Google Scholar; and Eriksen, Thomas H., Ethnicity and Nationalism (London: Pluto Press, 1993).Google Scholar

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10. Hainan Lizu, Miaozu zizhizhou gaikuang (A Brief Account of the Hainan Li and Miao Autonomous Prefecture) (Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe, 1986), p. 45Google Scholar. See also Schafer, Edward H., Shore of Pearls: Hainan Island in Early Times (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), pp. 56–57.Google Scholar

11. For a detailed discussion of the topic, see Yunfeng, Su “Hainan zai Zhongguo bianjiang fazhan shi zhong suo chengxian de tese: yi Taiwan wei bijiao duixiang” (“A comparative study on the features of Hainan and Taiwan in the history of development in China's borderland”), paper presented at Conference on Regional Development in Modern China, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 22–24 08 1986.Google Scholar

12. For the most recent English account of life of the Li in Hainan, see Netting, Nancy S, “The deer turned her head: ethnic options for the Hainan Li,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol. 29, No. 2 (04 1997)Google Scholar. However, she misinterprets the Li legend “the deer turning her head” as the legend about the origin of the Li. It is true that the legend tells a story about a Li hunter chasing a deer to the beach where the deer changed to a charming girl and they got married. But the legend is centred around the name of a lock and the name of the location, without any indication that the Li are the descendants of the couple. The Li do have a legend about their origin: long, long ago the world was submerged by the sea and only one man and one woman survived. They caught a calabash gourd and floated to Yanwo Ling, Hainan Island. They decided to look for their relatives separately but meet at Yanwo Ling on 3 March every year. After futile attempts to find any of their relatives all over the world for many, many years, they made up their minds to get married before they were too old to have children for the continuity of humankind. They did succeed in having children and growing mango, cotton and other crops to support them, hence the continuation of the Li and humankind. 3 March of the Chinese lunar year is the most important festival for the Li, who gather for three days to commemorate their ancestors and, for young adults, to find lovers.

13. Baiju, Feng (1903–1973)Google Scholar was the most important communist leader on Hainan. In January 1930 he organized the Independent Division of the Red Army which later developed to a major force known as the Qiongya Column, fighting against the Nationalist forces as well as the Japanese invaders with little help from communists on the mainland and helping the PLA to “liberate” the island in 1950. With the establishment of the PRC, Feng Baiju and the local CCP movement thought that their proposal to establish a Hainan province might be well-received. However, the CCP Central Committee's accommodation of the Hainanese guerrillas – Feng Baiju had been appointed as Hainan's leading CCP cadre – rapidly disappeared in a welter of mutual suspicion and mistrust. Increasing numbers of Hainan's local cadres were replaced by members of the “Great Southbound Army” and its supportive Southbound Work Team, sent from the mainland to control Hainan at Beijing's direction. Resentment led to open complaints by local communists during the Hundred Flowers Movement of 1957, and even an armed uprising in Lingao County in late 1957, which in turn led to the repression of Feng Baiju's so-called “independent kingdom.” As a “localist chief” Feng was sent to the countryside in Sanshui county to do manual work and suffered from liver and heart disease from then on. In 1963 he was appointed to serve as a deputy governor of Zhejiang province without any real power. During the Cultural Revolution he was accused of being a “traitor” and “bandit chief” and put into prison. Several biographies of Feng Baiju have been published since the 1980s, with the most recent and emotional Zhi, Wu and Lang, He, Feng Baiju zhuan (A Biography of Feng Baiju) (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 1996).Google Scholar

14. Changzhi, Zhan, chief ed., Zhongguo renkou – Hainan fence (Population of China – Hainan Volume) (Beijing: Zhongguo caizheng jingji chubanshe, 1993), pp. 86–91.Google Scholar

15. Ibid.

16. Gittings, John, Real China: From Cannibalism to Karaoke (London: Simon & Schuster, 1996), pp. 220–21Google Scholar. It would be better to read this book as reportage rather than academic work.

17. Qiuyu, Yu, “Tianya gushi” (“Stories from the end of the earth”), Shouhua (Harvest), No. 2 (1994), pp. 116–126.Google Scholar

18. Elaboration of this claim is not yet available. The most salient symbols are The Dongpo Academy (Dongpo shuyuan) honouring Su Shi (Dongpo) and The Temple of the Five Lords (Wu gong ci) devoted to five mainland exiles, namely Li Deyu of the Tang Dynasty and Li Gang, Hu Quan, Zhao Ding and Li Guang of the Song Dynasty. They are singled out among hundreds of exiles to become posthumous “saints” in Hainan not so much because of their high positions in the government (though they did serve in posts as high as that of prime minister) but because of their literary abilities and their contribution to the development of local education. Judging from their essays and poems written in Hainan, it would be fair to say that their persecution and suffering never shook their absolute loyalty to the Court. It is even difficult to detect their hidden bitterness, let alone ideas of heretical or subversive belief. For English accounts of the lives and activities of exiles in Hainan, see Schafer, Edward H., Shore of Pearls: Hainan Island in Early Times (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), ch. 5.Google Scholar

19. Yihui, Zhu (ed.), Hainan tningren zhuanlüe (Brief Biographies of Eminent Hainanese), Vol. 1 (Guangzhou: Zhongshan University Press, 1992)Google Scholar; Vol. 2 (Guangzhou: Guangdong luyou chubanshe, 1993); and Vol. 3 (Hong Kong: Dongxi wenhua chuban gongsi, 1995). Zhu's publications in praise of Hainanese include “Lue lun Hainan wenhua zhi fazhan” (“On the development of the Hainanese culture”), “Fayang Hainanren de fendou jingshen” (“Carry forward the spirit of Hainanese to forge ahead”), and “Hainanren zouxiang quan shijie” (“Hainanese marching to the whole world”), all published elsewhere but also reprinted as appendices in Hainan mingren zhuanlüe.

20. Qiu Jun (1421–95) served as head of the Ministry of Rites (in charge of education and the selection of officials), head of the Ministry of Revenue and teacher of the emperor. Amongst his other achievements in administration, history, philosophy and economics, he is believed by many to be the first in the world to advance the theory of labour value. For his career see “Qiu Jun,” in Yihui, Zhu, Brief Biographies, Vol. 1, p. 13Google Scholar; see also Zhuyuan, Jiang and Zhiqian, Fang (eds.), Jianming Guangdong shi (A History of Guangdong) (Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe, 1987), p. 275.Google Scholar

21. Hai Rui (1514–87) enjoyed fame in Chinese history next only to Bao Zheng for being an exceptionally honest and upright official, particularly for his courage to criticize emperors. He is the subject of the play that had a central role in the emergence of the Cultural Revolution. See Goldman, Merle, “The Party and the intellectuals: phase two,” in MacFarquhar, R. and Fairbank, J. K. (eds.), The Cambridge History of China Vol. 14, The People's Republic, Part 1: The Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1949–1965 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp. 446 and 460.Google Scholar

22. Song Qingling, Song Meiling and Song Ailing from Wenchang county, married to Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kaishek and Hong Xiangxi respectively.

23. Yihui, Zhu, “Carry forward the spirit of Hainanese to forge ahead,”Google Scholar in Yihui, Zhu, Brief Biographies, Vol. 1, pp. 541–42.Google Scholar

24. As a matter of fact, the board of trustees and the University leadership brought together the best-known Hainanese elites in the academic circle and the Nationalist government, including Song Zi wen, the then premier of the Republic of China and governor of Guangdong; Chen Ce, the then commander of navy and mayor of Guangzhou; Han Hanying, the then deputy commander of the Fourth Group Army located on Hainan; Zheng Gaimin, deputy minister of defence; Chen Xujing, dean of the Faculty of Law and Business of Nankai University, internationally well-known for his promotion of “wholesale Westernization”; Yan Renguang, former deputy president of Guanghua University and director of the Communica tions Department of the central government; Liang Dapeng, formerly professorat Fudan and Zhongshan University; and Fang Huiguo, formerly professor at Zhongshan University, Fudan University, The Central University and other universities. For details of the old Hainan University, see Yunfeng, Su, Sili Hainan daxue (Private Hainan University) (Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 1990)Google Scholar. See also Runzhang, Zhou “Jing qian Hainan daxue de chuangban” (“The founding of the old and new Hainan University”), Hainan wenshi ziliao (Historical Accounts of Past Events in Hainan), No. 5, (1992), pp. 2–29.Google Scholar

25. Xin Hainan jishi (A Chronicle of New Hainan) (Guangzhou: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe, 1993), p. 27.Google Scholar

26. Shijie, Xu, chief ed., Dangdai Zhongguo de Hainan (China's Hainan Today) (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 1993), Vol. 2, p. 353.Google Scholar

27. Liangduan, Li “Haiwai Hainanren yu Hainan de kaifa jianshe jixi fazhan xushi” (“The development of Hainan and overseas Chinese of Hainan origin: past, present and prospects for the future”), paper presented at the workshop on The Development of Hainan and the Opportunities for Australia, 9–14 05 1994.Google Scholar

28. Tao, Zhang, “Hainan wenhua zhanlüe qianlun” (“An elementary discussion on the strategy for Hainan culture”), Hainan ribao, 8 12 1988Google Scholar; see also Heji, Fu, “Hainan wenhua de lishi yuanyuan yu ronghui fazhan” (“Historical origins, assimilation and development of Hainan culture”), Journal of Hainan Teacher's College, No. 4 (1989), pp. 9–14.Google Scholar

29. Guanghua, Wu “Hainan jingji tequ liyong waizi de xianzhuang yu zhanwang” (“The current situation and prospects for utilizing foreign capital in the Hainan SEZ”), paper presented at the conference on The Development of Hainan and the Opportunities for Australia, 9–14 05 1994.Google Scholar

30. Shijie, Xu, China's Hainan Today, Vol. 2, pp. 367Google Scholar; Liangduan, Li, “The development of Hainan and overseas Chinese of Hainan origin.”Google Scholar

31. For detailed analysis of the effort to establish Hainan as a Special Customs Zone, see Chongyi, Feng and Goodman, David S. G., “Hainan province in reform: political dependence and economic interdependence,” in Cheung, Peter, Chung, Jae Ho and Lin, Zhimin (eds.), Provincial Strategies of Economic Reform in Post-Mao China: Leadership, Politics and Implementation (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1998), pp. 342–371.Google Scholar

32. A Poem on the Red Leaf caters to the sense of pride for Hainanese. It is a typical Chinese story about love between a beauty and a “talented scholar,” but the latter is from Hainan. The leading female character was a national beauty and a daughter of a high ranking official. She was extremely disappointed with corrupt officials at the Court of the Southern Song Dynasty, content to exercise sovereignty over a part of the country with its capital in Lin'an (now Hangzhou). She composed a love poem on a maple leaf and dropped it into the West Lake, with the hope of finding an ideal lover. The poem was picked up by a handsome “talented scholar” from Hainan who came first in the highest imperial examination but was blocked by corrupt officials from taking a proper position in the government. They fell in love and their parents agreed to arrange a marriage for them. But they were out of luck when an uncle of the emperor selected the girl as his concubine and summoned her to the court. Without the opportunity to fulfil their love the couple committed suicide by jumping together into the West Lake.

33. Yuefeng, Wang, “Introduction,” in Yingbo, Su et al. (eds.), Zhongguo Lizu cidian (A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Li) (Guangzhou: Zhongshan University Press, 1994), pp. 1–2Google Scholar. The publications along this line also include Guangyin, Xing, Lizu (The Li) (Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 1985)Google Scholar and Zhichao, Xing, Lizu wenhua suoyuan (The Origin of the Li Culture) (Guangzhou: Zhongshan University Press, 1993).Google Scholar

34. Here I follow strictly the Gramscian notion of hegemony rooted in persuasion or consent as well as coercion. For an interesting discussion on Gramscian theory of hegemony, see Ransome, Paul, Antonio Gramsci: A New Introduction (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992), ch. 4 in particular.Google Scholar

35. According to Pierre Bourdieu's theory on symbolic power, by legitimating the official language, the policy of linguistic unification would subordinate those who knew only a local dialect to those who already possessed the official language as part of their linguistic competence. Bourdieu, Pierre, Language and Symbolic Power (English translation by Raymond, Gino and Adamson, Mathew, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991), ch. 1Google Scholar. For a brilliant elaboration of correspondence between a hierarchical ordering of languages and political power in Europe, see Grillo, Ralph D., Dominant Languages: Language and Hierarchy in Britain and France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), ch. 1 in particular.Google Scholar

36. Quoted in Xingrui, Wang, “Qiongya jianshi” (“A brief history of Qiongya”), Bianzheng gonglun (Forum on Administration of the Borderland), Vol. 5, No. 1 (07 1946), p. 5.Google Scholar

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38. For images created in this light, see the portraits of the mainlanders in Wei, Jiang (ed.), Tequ sheng de guanlizhemen (Administrators in the Provincial SEZ) (Beijing: Zhongguo jingji chubanshe, 1991).Google Scholar

39. Su Yunfeng, a Hainanese scholar in Taiwan, is particularly disappointed with the statement “Hainan University is a new university founded in 1983” made in a 1988 brochure Introduction to Hainan University. Yunfeng, Su, Private Hainan University, p. 128.Google Scholar

40. Wenzhang, Zhou, “Hainan de wenhua bankuai he wenhua fazhan” (“Cultural blocks and cultural development on Hainan”), Hainan ribao, 14 09 1989.Google Scholar

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44. During the Mao era, the most popular play about Hainan was The Red Detachment of Women and the most popular song about Hainan was I love Mount Wuzhi, I love the Wanquan River.

45. Pang, Keng-Fong, “Being Hui, Huan-nang, and Utsat simultaneously: contextualizing history and identities of the Austronesian-speaking Hainan Muslims,” in Brown, Melissa J. (ed.), Negotiating Ethnicities in China and Taiwan (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1996), pp. 183–207.Google Scholar

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52. The books published by the Institute include Zhongguo gufen zhi lilun yu shijian (Theory and Practice of Stock System in China), Shehui baozhang zhidu: waiguo jingyan yu Zhongguo gaige (Social Security System: Foreign Experience and Reform in China), and Lishi de xin qidian: Zhongguo zouxiang shichang jingji de lilun yu shijian (A New Step in History: the Theoretical and Practical Issues in China's Transition to a Market Economy).

53. Editorial Board, “Forward,” in Xin dongfang (The New Orient), No. 1 (01 1992), p. 1.Google Scholar

54. Chongyi, Feng and Goodman, , China's Hainan Province, pp. 23–25.Google Scholar

55. There is a suggestion that Chinese culture has disintegrated at the centre for a long time and it can only be revived from the periphery. See Wei-ming, Tu, “Cultural China: the periphery as the center,” in The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, Daedalus, Vol. 120, No. 2 (1991), pp. 1–32.Google Scholar