The Dong Nationality

The Dongs, with a population of 2.51 million, are mainly distributed in Yunnan-Guizhou-Guangxi border areas. There is a spoken Dong language, and a formula for a new written system has been adopted. The Dongs mainly work on farms. They have a fine tradition of being courteous and friendly, respecting the old and loving the young. They also pay great attention to public works, building bridges and highways. Their music, a unity of multi-part harmonies is of great interest in both musical and literary circles, and is at the heart of traditional Dong culture

At the juncture of Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces is a mountainous area of lush-green vegetation where tea-oil trees along the river-banks give off an alluring scent. There, about two and half million people of the Dong Nationality live in villages of different sizes, scattered like pearls in green valleys.

The Dongs prefer to build their houses on hills and near rivers. Dong villages are usually bordered with huge old trees, which give an air of tranquility and peacefulness. The houses built of fir wood are of two or three stories with the family living on the top floor. The ground floor is used as animal sheds or for storing firewood and pieces of equipment. Most houses built on a slope stand on stilts so as to be raised above the ground. Clusters of such wooden structures like forests can be seen everywhere in the Dong villages, with paths of stones or cobble stones winding around to connect each household.

The pagoda-like drum towers, seen as a symbol of the Dong nationality, are very distinctive. In the center of almost every stockaded village a drum tower is built with double eaves and suspended corridors. The square in front of the tower serves as a public meeting place where the villagers either gather to celebrate holidays and festivals by sing and dancing, or assemble to discuss important issues concerning the whole community. Because of this, the drum tower becomes the essential political and culture center of their lives.

As a Dong saying goes, where there is a river, there must be a bridge. In fact, whenever the Dongs live in compact communities, there will be various bridges. The one that best reflects the Dongs' superb bridge-building techniques is the stone-based wood corridor bridge named Fengyu (wind-and-rain-shed bridge). It has several pavilions built onto it. The masterpiece of this style is in Chengyang, Guangxi province. It is 168 meters long, 10 meters wide and 15.20 meters high above the riverbed. Five pagoda-like pavilions stand along it. The bridge is tile-roofed and flanked by wooden railings and stools, so it looks like a long corridor. Not a single nail or screw is used in the construction of the bridge; instead, the whole wooden structure is held together by mortise and tenon joints The people's wisdom, creativity and hard work have gone into these drum towers and precisely constructed fengyu bridges. They represent the finest achievement of China's wooden architecture.

The Dongs wear clothing made of home-spun and home-dyed cloth. Dong women wear simple clothes mainly in green, blue, purple and white. Some wear tight trousers and high-shouldered blouses with big silver or pearl buttons, and some prefer knee-length front-buttoned blouses with narrow sleeves, and an apron covering the chest, short pleated skirts, waistbands and leggings. Others like loose-sleeved blouses buttoned to the side, or long skirts covering the knee and aprons. On important occasions women wear chokers of many strands, necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings and silver ornaments of fine and decorative designs.

Traditionally, the Dongs treat their guests to a specialty drink called youcha, or oil tea, prepared by pouring boiling tea into bowls containing a mixture of such ingredients as glutinous rice, fried peanuts, soybeans, chopped green onions, spinach, lean meat and so on. When ready, the first bowl of oil-tea must be presented to the eldest or the most distinguishing guest at table, and then to other guests and the host family. In fact, oil tea is not a pure tea but a gruel of five flavors--salty, bitter, pungent, sweet and aromatic. It has a refreshing effect besides satisfying hunger and thirst. After sharing the oil-tea, the host will usually invite the guests to join the singing and dancing around a fire.

The Dongs enjoy expressing their feelings by singing, as they believe "songs nourish the soul as food does the body." Young men and women meet and fall in love with each other on social occasions where songs in antiphonal style are a must. "Singing in the moonlight" is such a social intercourse. During the slack seasons when there is little farmwork to do, girls begin to gather at dusk in their stilt-legged wooden houses to wait for the lads who come to start dialogue songs.

The men carry home-make musical instruments with them such as the Pipa and a buffalo-leg shaped stringed instrument. When a young woman finds the partner of her heart, she beckons him in. Through the years this form of courtship was resulted in happy matches.

The Dongs' favorite musical instrument is the Lusheng, a wind instrument with a reed that has developed a fairly sophisticated form through the efforts of several generations of Dong musicians. Lusheng dance originated in a religious rite held before spring ploughing to pray for fine weather for crops and good harvests. Now it has become a very popular Dong recreation in which nearly a hundred participants dance to the music they are playing on the instrument.
The Dongs are good at singing. Among the "sea of songs" is the chorus named " Grand Song." It covers a wide range of subjects and is performed by trained male or female singers. In the performance, the singers join together in multi-part harmony, with the leading performer singing the part of soprano or tenor backed by the other singers of the chorus skillfully weaving them many parts together. Dong opera, which is based on the Grand Song and enriched by the various melodies popular among the Dongs inhabiting different areas, has survived with great popularity since its creation by the Dong artist Wu Wuweica in the Qing Dynasty.

With recent economic reform extending further into the region, its rich tourist and cultural resources have attracted people from all over the world. This has not only benefited the Dongs' economic development, but also has increased their cultural exchanges with other Chinese nationalities. The Dong people of tomorrow will continue to develop their rich cultural traditions, reading for a new epoch with a vigorous new national identity.