The strangers Yis

20040712

The Yi are one of the most interesting and populous minorities of China. Nevertheless they are one of it the least know out of the region in which they live. Perhaps stem from his evasive character, to live on top of the mountains, or from the zeal with which they have got into debt in supporting his culture.

The ignorance of the Yi has political connotations, since along the history they defended fieramente his independence of the Chinese invaders. In fact, which live in the Liangshan prefecture, to the south of Sichuan, never became dominated by the Chinese emperors. Only after the communist victory of 1949 it was possible to carry out a slow conquest that managed to integrate the most accessible part of his territory in the Chinese administration.

The ignorance of the Yi also owes partly to the complexity of his culture. Since under this denomination "yi" a few dozens of branches are included at present. It is supposed that they all had a common origin, but someone have been separated during more than 1.500 years, what has provoked so much cultural, linguistic, religious and historical differences, as to make his identification as the only people impossible for the proper Yi.

At historical level, while some Yi, like those of Liangshan, remained shut up in his mountains kingdom, others were receiving an increasing influence of the Chinese, taking part, generally with marginal character, in the big historical currents of this country.

The Yi are located fundamentally in Yunnan, as well as in the south part of Sichuan and the area Guizhou west. They concentrate on a score of autonomous administrative entities.

The population of the Yi was, according to the census of the year 2000, of 7.762.000 persons. A slow growth and supported, since in 1990 they were 6.572.000 persons and in 1982, 5.453.000. The problem is that between them there are numerous ethnic, some groups with populations that the million persons overcomes, but others scarcely are several thousands.

The absence of a clear identification and protection of the diverse ethnic groups considered to be Yi, it can put in danger the survival of the culture and language of the smallest.

In fact they are autonamed themselves of a lot of different forms, what reflects this enormous ethnic variety that is under this name "Yi".

The complexity of the world yi is reflected also in his language. Since it is considered that the Yi speak six different languages with numerous dialects. They have a proper writing, but the way of writing was different between Yi de Sichuan and those of Yunnan, there being local differences even between those of this province.

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