A Case Study of Miao Village in China: Cultural Identity, Change and Conservation

Abstract

With the accelerating process of modernization, the existing space of traditional culture is narrowed increasingly, which is the general trend of contemporary social economy and culture development. The Miao village in this thesis is unexceptionally affected by the modernization of outside world. For instance, tourism development has changed their traditional culture. However, for some reasons, the Miao village still maintains the primitive religions and burial customs such as tree worship and tree burial. Such precious traditional cultures as the Swing Festival, the village marriage custom and the characteristic costume and hair style, etc. are still seen in the village that is honored as the “living fossil” of the traditional culture of the Miao people. The survival of traditional culture always depends on the social demand; after the society opened, the survival or disappearance of traditional culture is always affected by the mainstream society.