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Courting the Baiyi way: visiting the Spring Chamber  by Zi Haiwei, translated by Xiao Kang
T he beautiful and imposing mountains of Heqing (鹤庆) county, north-western Yunnan are home to the Kua-nsi, or Baiyi, people.
The mountain peaks are covered with athick blanket of pine forests, cultivated fields and mountain pastures where herders graze their animals.

The Kua-nsi (literally, “People of Kua’n”) are a sub-group of the Yi minority people, known by their neighbors as the “白依 Baiyi”, originating from the Chinese for “white clothing”. The women wear blue and white tail coats and dark-colored leggings, with shoulder-length, blue and white head coverings, traditionally made from “firegrass”.

Pix
Dancing at a cultural festival.


White Rice
Bringing in the harvest.

The Kua-nsi have a unique courtship ritual of a young man visiting the “Spring Chamber” (“spring” refers to “youth”), or young lady's room, to court his beloved. Traditionally, Baiyi boys and girls began courting at the age of fifteen. Their parents could not interfere in the courtship process. Only after his marriage had been decided in the Spring Chamber could a young man ask a matchmaker to visit his future bride’s family to discuss the marriage proposal, taking with him cigarettes, liquor, sweets and other gifts. The discussions were always successful because the young man was free to choose his bride. A succession of many happy Baiyi marriages has had its beginnings in the Spring Chamber. Although the age of marriage has changed, many of the traditions surrounding courtship still remain the same.

In the Spring Chamber, Baiyi boys and girls can converse and become more acquainted. The girls arrange for two to ten of their closest girl-friends to sleep over at someone’s house which has a room big enough to accommodate the girls and their prospective suitors. This “Spring Chamber” becomes the exclusive territory of unmarried men and women. After their chores, the girls come to the Chamber at night-fall. They light a wood fire on the hearth in the middle of the room, then sit around the fire, singing songs and chatting while splitting hemp and spinning yarn. All the while, they wait for those special people on their heart.

Very often, the girls will plan for the Spring Chamber to coincide with Baiyi village festivals. After good food and raucous singing and dancing, young men are in the perfect mood for visiting the Spring Chamber. They come singly or in a group, playing the erhu (a traditional two-stringed instrument). In the olden days, a person entering a village secretly at night was usually a bandit. But no outsiders could imitate the graceful melodies of the erhu, so the young men would not be mistaken for robbers. At the entrance to the Spring Chamber, the young men knock lightly on the door, cease playing the erhu, and politely ask the girls to let them in.

The girls timidly cross-examine the newcomer before opening the door. Once the young man has satisfactorily answered their questions, the girls invite him to come in and sit by the fire. To begin with, everyone is a little shy and restrained. With flushed, bashful faces, the girls talk in hushed tones with the young men so not to disturb the parents. The youngsters try many topics of conversation – crops, harvesting, goat-herding, mountain springs, the constantly changing and endlessly fascinating outside world – to break the awkward silence. The young men’s voices are soft and low, trying to attract all the attention of their captive audience. At this moment, the language of the People of Kua’n becomes the most exquisite and expressive language in the world.

As their voices rise and fall in the firelight, the dim and tender starlight blankets the Spring Chamber, throwing shadows across the courtyard. Happy Baiyi couples are courting. Love is in the air.



Photos courtesy of Xiao Bai.
Note: Bai Yi and Bai musicians and dancers perform throughout the week at the Culture Centre in Xinhua (新华) village, 10-15 minutes from Heqing (鹤庆). Frequent buses run from Heqing to Xinhua.