Stories - firsthand encounters taking you right into the lives of China's ethnic peoples.


Courting the Baiyi way - Zi Haiwei, translated by Xiao Kang
The beautiful and imposing mountains of Heqing (鹤庆) county, north-western Yunnan are home to the Kua-nsi, or Baiyi, people...

Sweeping Ancestors’ Tombs - Qiu Li Min
As we walked along the muddy path from our Zhuang neighbors’ family home in their ancestral village into the surrounding countryside...

Toasting by a fire — Qiu Li Min
When I first saw these upended woven baskets on sale in Du’an, Guangxi Province, I thought, “Surely this can’t be a cage for birds or animals?”...

Cuiping Hill — Chen Wei Yin
From my bedroom window, I can see Cuiping Hill (翠屏山) beyond the bus station (which is across the street)...

Changing Facades - Qiu Li Min
When we first saw privately-built homes in Guangxi some 6 years ago, they mostly fell into the same pattern...

Holiday Herbal Market - Mo Rui Qiu
While the rest of the country is hosting dragon boat races, and telling the story of the poet Qu Yuan during the Dumpling Festival...

Nuosu Yi New Year: Slaughtering the Pig — Mother of Brook Song
We were invited to our Nuosu friend’s house to celebrate Yi New Year. He slept with us in town the night before...

Terraced fields in Luchun
Sunlight bounces off the glass like
surfaces of the terraced rice fields in Luchun, Yunnan.

A Dongxiang Wedding Feast — Babo Smith
Late yesterday evening I got back from a trip up to the mountains, whereI got to see a minority-culture wedding among the Dongxiang people...

No medicine needed for teething babies — Liu Shan Shan
It was a cold, bone-numbing winter day in Mao Xian, Sichuan...

Talbiuq:A Naxi Holiday— Jacqueline Pinson
“What’s Talbiuq?”
“I guess we’ll find out tomorrow,” I answered...