Preparing peppers for the market in Kunming.

Yunnan Transformed

Yunnan, with a population of about 3.5 million, is the most ethnically diverse province in all China. Like its capital, Kunming, it is currently undergoing considerable economic transformation as capitalism is replacing a socialized economy. These changes are giving enterprising families among the minority populations, including the Dai, the opportunity to show ingenuity and energy in many kinds of entrepreneurial enterprises.

Most Dai combine indigenous animistic beliefs with Buddhist precepts. Buddhism itself was derived from Hinduism in the sixth century B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha. It then diffused north and south from southern Nepal to Southeast Asia and East Asia. That form of the religion practiced by the Dai peoples is known as Theravada Buddhism, and many villages have their own temples where young men spend a period of their youth as monks studying the Buddhist texts.

                                                                                                                         - D.H.

Thus, the characters of Yange and Yukan are not explored in any depth. Nor is love itself the most important element in the story.

But if the lovers’ characters are only sketched in the second story and actually eliminated in the first, why should we consider these love stories at all? Myths, almost by definition, are stories that account for the origins of natural phenomena and humanity. Might not the two tales, which after all explain the origins of certain phenomena, be more aptly seen as myths? Or, since they offer moral and philosophical instruction, why not regard them as morality tales?

The reason these two stories are more appropriately considered love tales than myths or morality stories is that their lessons are suffused with romance, a quality that finds a sympathetic ear with Dai audiences.