Preserving a Fading Culture in the Mountains of China

The Akha people live high up in the mountains of Yunnan, one of the most ethnically diverse regions of China, but their culture is under threat as younger people choose to leave their villages and adopt mainstream Chinese culture. One artist hopes to change that by preserving the traditions of his people for generations to come.
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#china #minority #culture
Producer: Edward Columbia
Director: Edward Columbia
Videographer: Christine Schindler
Editor and Mastering: Joel Roche
Music: Audio Network

[@bobh3394]

He is to be commended for his efforts and thank you for sharing. This is why I subscribed to Goldthread!

[@kylin3197]

culture is precious, hope *all* the Chinese ethnicities can preserve/revive theirs That separate sleeping part is so awesome hahaha

[@Greenverse88]

Hmong/Miao are the same. We dont have a written language. Experiences are embroidered on our clothes too!

[@Dtzeo503]

Same with Mien and Yao people. There are Yao people who speak the same dialect as Mien people. There are certain Yao people who speak differently and Mien people can barely understand them. I am a fellow Mien person btw.

[@jeremylinah8078]

There culture is more our african culture good foyy smokeweed as wel

[@SidRabid3]

Manuel Delgado their language is spoken and has no script. Do you understand what that means? It’s like you speak English but the English alphabet doesn’t exist.

[@JohnLee-vi7us]

We do, it got destroyed.

[@st4r444]

@@jeremylinah8078 we wuz kangz

[@bparrish517]

Enjoyable, valuable work, Goldthread. Your exploration of China and its cultural depth helps me appreciate the country more than possible than when confined to hearing what the central government promotes.

[@serenelee3559]

He is doing wonderful work in preserving the Hani culture and tradition. He is proud of his roots.

[@serenelee3559]

I have visited a Akha village in the mountain of Northern Thailand. They are friendly people. They can speak Mandarin too. They plant vegetables and keep chickens.

[@blueberrychocolate4238]

This is very unique and beautiful! How could anyone be ashamed of a culture like this?!

[@lekwanduh]

more videos like this please! i feel like there are sooo many minority groups in china that we don't see in mainstream media. would love to learn more!

[@xxxlye]

i want to chat with you

[@Ju2000lo]

I stumbled across a Akha guy on Chinese tik tok but he's from the Kachin state of Myanmer, surprisingly they speak Chinese very well

[@arbs3ry]

Akha from Kachin state speak Chinese-- I'm a bit surprised, If I was not wrong, only ethnic groups from Kokang、Mongla and the Wa state in Myanmar speak Chinese.

[@ricasears5910]

Thankyou for sharing this, I found it very unique and beautiful, it really is amazing to see how the other side of the world live, and passing down their knowledge and culture to their children is wonderful. 🌍🙏

[@patriciafrancis9134]

Thank You for sharing this.

[@rekostarr7149]

Making culture fun is very great to slow down its decline. Very nice. Very nice! Looked at all these beautifully tanned people by the way! lol Healthy, soulful, extroverted.

[@ivysn13]

im chiu chow chinese but chinese ethnic minorities have always interested with the traditions with embellishments, attire, hair ,etc... they are so cool! but i always noticed a similarilty with them bc alot of minority Chinese ethnic groups who also might not agree to idenity as a chinese ethnic group... have a specific sino last name like yang or vang or gao etc. a lot of diaspora into south east Asia north of Vietnam like my mom told me and Thailand too. the scenic footage and landscaping is so beautiful.

[@kongpayumnam]

I'm from the Mangang clan of Meetei from Manipur northeast India.Meetei have seven clans and Mangang is biggest clan of all.Ancient name of Manipur was Lai Ram Land,Lai Lam Land,Lai Pham Land,Mee Ram Land,Lai Pham,Tin Pham,Lai Ram,Lai Lam,Tin Lam,Kang Lam,Tai Pang Paan, kangleipak,Laireipak,Meitrapak etc.

[@suomotophoenix3450]

Akha tribe is in arunachal pradesh 😮

[@nuna1627]

Well done 👍👍👍

[@jeannettemarts8994]

Pretty cool.

[@scotth5988]

Este canal es una maravilla

[@jadenights9808]

Whooaa, i found my people

[@lawrencechin3400]

All ethnic Chinese groups should keep and preserve their heritage, including traditions and cultures, including their mother tongue. They should be proud of themselves instead of feeling inferior. Time to teach them to keep their traditions and cultures

[@craigrumbal6811]

Kia Ora from Aotearoa. (New Zealand)

[@darwinvickers2987]

Inspiring

[@0animalproductworld558]

I have ~20% Chinese Dai and the rest South Chinese with unknown ethnicity 🦝 I also know Ngai ( a small dialect of ~Hakka ), Cantonese, Vietnamese, English, and very little Mandarin 🫎

[@timothymolsomtuisum9848]

Their dress design looks like the Kuki-Zo-Chin Tribes group of Manipur, mizoram state India, border to Myanmar and Chin state of Myanmar...n the metal, coin like ornaments looks like the Bru or the Reang Tribes of Tripura and mizoram state

[@junweihe8229]

NZBZ- Hani Baby great song

[@amandarodriguez1752]

太棒了

[@Dtzeo503]

There are also Akha people in Thailand.

[@Goldthread]

Interesting! Are they working to preserve their culture too?

[@st4r444]

Laos

[@Tamerlane33]

@@Goldthread there are also aka in India. (not akha)

[@tempest031]

5:37 basically they were more cultured than those with written script 😝.

[@Bluedog92403]

At least there not alone many native american tribes in the united states are facing the same problem

[@thingthewanghop]

Im also from northeast india and our cultural trait are similar in many fields .

[@theasianwitch]

Love this...thank you for sharing. I especially like the "knock to see if I can have sex tonight" in respect of the woman and man sleeping in another bed lol.

[@maxlai9137]

I'm from Mang-Ngang clan of Meetei from Manipur formerly known as Lai Ram Land/Lai Lam Land/Lai Pham Land/Lai Pham/Tin Pham/Lai Lam/Tin Lam/Tai Pong Paan/kangleipak etc.

[@arshad1647]

Yunan province is most diverse place in china

[@bettablue2660]

These videos are great for the deaf, but for the partially blind, we can’t read the videos. I’m partially blind, so when the subtitles are on, I’m totally lost.

[@kylin3197]

out of curiosity, what can these videos be like so can assist the blind? (I'm partially blind too! but can fully see in 1 eye and not the other)

[@ann7609]

Superb! 😊.....(GIRL IN THE KITCHEN)

[@ColoniaMurder20]

they're getting more chinese than any average of Austronesian people.. only in Philippines and Indonesia have pure Austronesian looks, culture and language.

[@KevinVang1000]

The Akha people look similar to the Hmong people. Do they have a language of their own?

[@Weeping-Angel]

Yes they do

[@KevinVang1000]

@@Weeping-Angel OOOoooh. I wanna hear it!

[@vehutoludomeh318]

This is exactly like negative traditions.

[@Clee-os6pv]

Very interesting? I would my people and culture the "Hmong". Had some? Influence by Hani people and their culture. Some of ours seems a little bit similar too there's. The silver coins for example. I wonder if Hmong and Hani interacted with each other. Before? We were banished from China!

[@zeitgeistx5239]

The Hmong and Tai peoples are spread out from SW China to throughout Indochina.

[@arbs3ry]

There‘re 789, 702 Hani people and 326,141 Miao(Hmong) people in Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture Yunnan Province alone, according to census in 2010. So sure the two interact with each other. But I don't think the tradition of Miao was influenced by the Hani since Miao people originated around the Yangtze river before they moved southward and met the Hani in Yunnan， Today Miao people from around Yangtze river such as Hunan province have silver decoration on their traditional costume too.

[@user-yl4uy4wu2y]

The Miao nationality in southeastern Vietnam is very similar to the Miao nationality in China

[@loerkue]

Great, but we are all one. Close the divide.

[@r.lipenthunglotha7587]

Like nagas in india and myanmar

[@GodsWheat]

it's sad I think Zhuang culture will be dead within my lifetime nobody can speak the language in terms of young people nobody knows ANYTHING about their culture it's all very looked down upon they don't know their culture at all such a shame....

[@Kitty294_]

It really is ☹️ I’m Zhuang and adopted which doesn’t help 😔 I’m thankful I was given a family but it’s sad I won’t be able to learn much about my roots since there are very limited resources about us and other ethnic minorities

[@tardwrangler]

-10 Social Credit

[@hokiyeassumi2458]

Doysngsems lotha

[@mousumsonowal5983]

Singpho

[@fassadine6352]

Ethnic means black. Indigenous native chinese are black.

[@radiokunio3738]

Ethnic comes the word Ethnicity, Ethnicity is the genetic pool you come from, The Ahka live in Thailand, Thailand is in southeast Asia. Black or African people came from Africa and spread to West Eurasia, then later some were taken as slaves in European colonies, vary few lived in southeast Asia till the advant of modern transportation, the Ahka predate modern transport.

[@st4r444]

We wuz kangz

[@user-yl4uy4wu2y]

Impossible, the black genes of indigenous Chinese are not as dense as those of Japan. There should be only a small number of Australian aborigines or South American aborigines, and the black genes are far lower than those of Malaysian yellow people