Naxi Dance
In 1996 Lijiang suffered a devastating earthquake. Much to the government's surprise it was not the buildings in the old section of Lijiang that crumbled but the buildings with newer architecture. After the quake, the Chinese goverment built up this old section using the same ancient Chinese architecture to create what is now Lijiang's touristy "Old Town". This development inevitably took farmland from the surrounding Naxi people, so as part of the government's compensation, the government pays Naxi individuals (mostly women) to perform traditional dances for and with tourists in the streets of Lijiang. Gut reaction might tell us that no one is ever happy when their land is taken then overrun by tourists, but a friend informed us that many Naxi women prefer the life of working in the tourist industry and performing, to the back-breaking labor of the fields. Food for thought.
For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A... ... read more 
