Rubber Plantations and Transformations of Akha Society in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China: A Case Study of Baka Village

Rubber Plantations and Transformations of Akha Society in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China: A Case Study of Baka Village Jianhua “Ayoe” Wang Research fellow at RCSD, Chiang Mai University Email: ayuwang73@hotmail.com Mobile: 089-264-4828 Abstract: Rubber plantation in Xishuangbanna was promoted by the state for the sake of national security and defense industry. On the one hand, rubber was urgently needed strategic material for defense industry of the newly established People’s Republic of China, and on the other hand, the state needed to control over local natural resources and people particularly ethnic minorities in Xishuangbanna. More specifically, rubber plantation was promoted to replace local swidden agriculture, which was regarded “primitive” (unproductive in terms of taxability) and “illegible” (uncontrollable in terms of accountability) by the state. As local farmers were gradually forced to abandon swidden agriculture, those who live lower slopes adopted rubber trees to resist against the state’s control. Expansion of rubber plantation has brought economic and social transformations to local populations particularly Akha whose majority has become rubber farmers from shifting cultivators. Rubber plantation has not only brought unprecedented increase in cash income to Akha farmers, but also accelerated economic stratification within Akha societies. This increased cash income has improved living standards level of the Akha farmers and lifted their social status. The latter is indicated in significant increase in number of inter-marriages between Akha and more dominant Han and Dai ethnic members in last decade. However, increased cash income has also led to some social problems such as competitive consumptions, gambling, alcoholism and prostitution. Rubber plantation has also challenged Akha traditional belief system. All these transformations are exemplified through a case study of Baka village, anAkha community of rubber farmers. Key words: rubber plantation social transformation Akha Xishuangbanna Introduction Development of rubber plantations in China could be roughly sorted into three historical phases: I (1904-1950), II (1951-1984), and III (post-1984). The first phase is characterized as private enterprise with slow development, whilst the second phase is of large scale plantations predominated by state rubber farms and the third is highlighted by the private small holders’ rubber boom. A Dai Lord Mr. Dao Anren, bought 8,000 rubber seedlings from Singapore and planted them at Fenghuang Mountain, in today’s Xincheng Township, Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province, in 1904. This was the first plantation of the Amazonian rubber trees Hevea brasiliensis in China. In the following few years, more rubber plantations were established in Hainan Island by some oversea Chinese from Southeast Asia, and later in Guangdong province. However, large scale rubber plantations in China did not start until establishment of state farms in 1950s. Rubber was embargoed to China by the United States-led capitalist countries in 1950 as a direct result of China’s decision to involve in the American-Korean war. In order to break the US-led economic blockage and embargo policies, central government of China made a decision to expand rubber plantations at any possible places within its territories in 1951, to meet huge demand for national industrialization and defense building (Yunnan Agricultural Reclamation Cooperation Ltd. and Yunnan Association of Tropical Crops, 2005). Being the two national largest tropical frontiers, Hainan Island and Xishuangbanna were the main foci for the China’s efforts in achieving self-sufficiency in rubber, where numerous state farms were established in 1950s. In Xishuangbanna, these state farms were coalesced into ten county-level state farms in early 1980s. Since these mountainous areas, particularly in Xishuangbanna, were dominated by ethnic minorities whose economy was based on swidden agriculture, rubber trees were also perceived as a perfect crop by which the state could control over the local resources and people, through transforming “primitive” (unproductive in term of taxability) traditional swidden agriculture into “modern” (productive in term of taxability) rubber plantation. The latter was regarded as “legible” (accountable), controllable (taxable), and thus, “legitimate” landscapes by the state (Xu 2006). However, it had taken the state almost a half century to eliminate shifting cultivation through various policies and projects including the shifting cultivation ban in 1998, and in doing so, the local ethnic farmers were transformed into modern cash cropping farmers, particularly rubber farmers, in Xishuangbanna. These local ethnic minorities are so successful in rubber plantations that the total area of these small holdings surpassed that of the state farms by 2004 (Xishuangbanna Statistics Book 2004). Some of these small holders, particularly Dai (or Tai Leu) and Akha in Mengla County along Sino-Laotian border, have even become successful private entrepreneurs and outsource to development more rubber plantations across the border in Laos after China entered WTO in 2001 (Shi 2008; Sturgeon 2009). Same phenomenon could also be observed in Xishuangbanna along Sino-Burmese border where some successful local Dai and Akha farmers outsourced to develop more rubber plantations in northeast corner of Eastern Shan State, Myanmar. Proliferations of these small holders’ rubber plantations within Xishuangbanna and across borders have created “chaotic landscapes” that are neither expected by the state nor under the state’s control (Sturgeon 2009). The current paper aims to examine the dynamic/dialectic process bywhich the Akha have become rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna through a case study of Baka village. Social, cultural as well as ecological consequences following the economic transformation of Baka village through rubber plantations are analyzed, in order to discuss sustainability of these transformations. Using households as units of analysis, differentiations within the community are emphasized, which aspect was not well addressed in relevant previous studies (e.g. Sturgeon 2009). 2 StudyArea and Subject Although it is neither the first nor the most important place of rubber plantation in Southeast Asia, Xishuangbanna is a pioneer and prominent place for experiment, establishment, and expansion of rubber plantations in highlands of Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which serves as an appealing model for the current rubber boom in its neighboring highlands of Laos (Shi 2008), Myanmar, and even Northern Thailand. Thus, it remains as a very interesting place for studying rubber plantation and its related social, cultural, political, economic and ecological/environmental issues in highlands of GMS. Located between 21082236 N, and 995610150 E, with elevations ranging between 475— 2429.5 meters above sea level, Xishuangbanna covers a total area of 19,125 square kilometers (Xishuangbanna Forestry Bureau 1998, p26). Lying at southern tip of Yunnan province, it borders with Laos at its east and southeast and with Myanmar at its west and southwest. Mekong River (Known as Lancang Jiang in China) runs across Xishuangbanna from its northwest through southeast (see fig. 1). Historically, this region was run by a Dai state, known as Sipsong Panna 1 —literally meaning “twelve thousand-paddy-fields” in Dai or Tai Lue language. Rulers of Sipsong Panna paid tributaries to both Chinese and Burmese states, and maintained a kind of brotherhood relationships with other ancient Tai states in today’s Laos, Shan state of Myanmar, and Northern Thailand (Hsieh 1995). Xishuangbanna2 Dai Autonomous Prefecture (XDAP) was established in 1953, after this region was officially integrated into the P.R. China in 1950. Fig.1 Geographic location of Xishuangbanna 1 Panna or “thousand-paddy-fields” is an administrative unit of the Dai feudal state. 2 Xishuangbanna is a Romanized Chinese transliteration of Sipsong Panna. 3 Xishuangbanna is a mountainous area with small flat valleys and basins, which make up only 5% of its total land area. Such basins are called “Meng” in Dai or “Bazi” in local Chinese. Historically, Dai (Tai Leu) people had settled at these basins and turned these flat lands into irrigated paddy fields, while the rest vast mountainous areas were occupied by other ethnic groups such as Akha (identified as part of Hani Minority Nationality in China), Lahu, Bulang, Yi, Jinuo, Yao (Mien), and among others whose economy was mainly based on swidden agriculture. Traditionally, there were forest buffer zones between the lowland Dai and these highlanders surrounding the basins, and the state farms were established exactly at these buffer zones. Since the flat lowlands were permanent paddy fields, expansion of the state farms were achieved through appropriation of the most favorite fallow lands of swidden fields below 800 meters above sea levels, which pushed local swiddeners to farm on less desirable lands with either higher altitudes or greater degrees of slope. Another consequence of establishment and expansion of state rubber farms is demographic shift in its ethnic makeup in Xishuangbanna (see table 1). There were only 5,000 Han Chinese in Xishuangbanna in 1949, which was 2.5% of its total population. However, Han population soared to 17,905 in 1956, 185,894 in 1982, and 289,181 in 2000, which made up 6.9%, 28.3%, and 29.1% of its total population respectively. Most of them were recruited as workers in the state farms from other parts of China. As a result, Han Chinese has become the second biggest ethnic group from a small minority in Xishuangbanna. In contrast, proportion of Dai population had dropped from 52.1% in 1949 to 34.3% in 1982 and further to 29.9% in 2000. Although they are still the biggest group, but no longer the majority. Table 1 Populations of Xishuangbanna (1949—2000) Ethnic groups Dai Han Hani-Akha Lahu Bulang Yi Jinuo Yao others total 1949 % 1956 105000 52.1 128700 5000 2.5 17905 30000 14.9 46514 13000 6.5 16203 15000 7.4 19368 4500 2.2 6365 4000 2.0 5491 2500 1.2 6519 22440 11.1 11575 201440 100 258640 % 1982 % 49.8 225485 34.3 6.9 185894 28.3 18.0 129198 19.7 6.3 33336 5.1 7.5 27664 4.2 2.5 16495 2.5 2.1 12405 1.9 2.5 10958 1.7 4.5 15890 2.4 100 657325 100 2000 % 296930 29.9 289181 29.1 186067 18.7 55548 5.6 36453 3.7 55772 5.6 20199 2.0 18679 1.9 34568 3.5 993397 100 Sources: —1949 data is from Yunnan Provincial Government 1990 (p.141). —1956 data is from China’s first national census. —1982 data is from China’s third national census. —2000 data is from China’s fifth national census. 4 I chose Akha as my study subject on this topic for the following reasons. First, being one of the major highland groups in Greater Mekong Subregion with estimated population of 655,000—705,000 persons3, the Akha, a Tibeto-Burman group whose traditional economy was based on swidden agriculture, are one of a few agents who have been driving the current rubber boom in Nothern Laos (Shi 2008; Sturgeon 2009) as well as in Eastern Shan State of Myanmar and Nothern Thailand. Second, roughly three quarters of the China’s Akha population are living in Xishuangbanna, whose majority has become rubber farmers. Since the Akha are the biggest highland group in Xishuangbanna, their stories could represent well the transformations of highland communities in this area in general. Third, being born and having grown up in an Akha village in Xishuangbanna, I have personally experienced and witnessed socio-cultural, economic, and ecological transformations of Akha societies in last three decades. My membership of the Akha community, knowledge on Akha culture and language skill would allow me to take a deep insight into Akha societies and provide comprehensive understanding of those changes from emic (insider’s) perspectives. For this reason, I chose Baka, my own native village, where about three quarters of its total lands have been planted by rubber trees, as the main research site. Administratively speaking, XDAP governs one municipality (Jinghong) and two counties (Menghai and Mengla), while the ten county-level state farms (Jinghong, Dongfeng, Mengyang, Ganlanba, Dadugan, Liming, Mengla, Mengpeng, Mengman, and Mengsing) had been state-subsidized enterprise governed directly by the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau of Yunnan Province until 2003, when they were hived off into private companies belonging to the Yunnan Agricultural Reclamation Cooperation Limited. This reform of the administrative system of the state farms was a result of China’s entry into WTO in 2001, which requires curtailing state subsidies to industry. Baka village belongs to Menglong Township, Jinghong Municipality. Jinghong 3 The Akha people in China are identified as a branch of Hani Minority Nationality. The fifth national census shows there were 1,424,990 Hani in Yunnan in 2000, which includes about 186,000 Akha in Xishuangbanna and 60,000 Akha in Lancang and Menglian counties of Pu’er (previous Simao) Prefecture. Considering other Akha populations dispersed in other parts of this country and its natural growth in last decade, it is quite reasonable to estimate the total population of Akha in China is about 260,000. According to Mr. Zalanq Mazev, director of Association of Traditional Akha in Myanmar (ATAM), there is about 250,000 Akha in Myanmar. But, Mr. Artseir Ghoeqlanq, an Akha cultural expert from Kengtung, Shan State, informed that the Akha population in Myanmar might reach 300,000. According to the Directory of Highland Communities in 20 Provinces of Thailand, Department of Social Development and Welfare, Ministry of Social Development of Human Security of Thailand, there were 68,653 Akha in 271 villages in Thailand in 2002. This information is available at website: http://www.cesd-thai.info/maps/mapthai.html. Considering dispersed Akha populations in towns and cities, it is quite safe to estimate that there are at least 70,000 Akha in Thailand. When I was doing some fieldworks in Northern Laos in 2002, I was informed by the governmental officials from Phongsaly and Luang Namtha pronvinces that there were about 36,000 Akha in Phongsaly, 28,000 in Luang Namtha, and about 6,000 in Udomxay and Bokeo. According to Mr. Yang Youyi from Cultural Department of Lao Cai province of Vietnam, there are about 26,000 Hani (including Akha) in Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces, Northwestern Vietnam. I was informed by some Akha villagers and officials in Phongsaly of Laos that there are some Akha villages in Lai Chau province of Vietnam along the border with Laos. Based on the information, I estimate that there might be about 5,000 Akha in Vietnam. 5 ... - tailieumienphi.vn