Acknowledgments

The content of this book is to a large extent based upon fieldwork carried out in Yunnan Province in southwest China in 1994–95. My first and foremost thanks are therefore directed to the nearly two hundred teachers, students, parents, peasants, monks, and cadres in Kunming, Lijiang, and Sipsong Panna who agreed to tell me their stories and who often went far beyond my expectations in their friendliness, helpfulness, hospitality, and concern. They taught me a lot and made my fieldwork possible and enjoyable. It is impossible to name them all here, but there are some people and institutions in China who deserve special mention. During fieldwork I was accompanied by three assistants (peitong): Li Yunping, Mu Rongping, and Yila. All were very young and were given sometimes arduous tasks, such as arranging interviews in villages, dealing with high cadres for the first time in their life, and walking in the mud for hours to reach a village where the teacher might not even have time to talk. However, they all accepted this with good humor, and I am grateful for their help and friendship. At my host organization (danwei) in China, the Yunnan Institute of the Nationalities, Wang Ningsheng and his wife Wang Yunhui were extremely helpful in all matters while also providing scholarly inspiration and advice. I am grateful to the authorities of the institute and the Office of Foreign Affairs, represented by Hu Maoxiu, for accepting my way of doing fieldwork while providing their assistance. I also especially thank the local governments in Lijiang and Sipsong Panna for making possible my research in schools and temples. The conclusions I draw, based upon my own interpretations of the stories told to me in China and my experiences in schools and villages, may not be accepted by all of the people mentioned here. Nevertheless, I hope that my presentation and interpretation of data will contribute to the continued discussion in China about the education of ethnic minorities and about the minority people’s own perceptions of and responses toward education.

During the process of researching, writing, and revising this book, I have been fortunate to receive excellent supervision, comments, and critiques from several people. I am especially grateful to Stig Thoegersen for his detailed comments, expert suggestions, and continued engagement in the project; to Mikael Gravers for broadening my narrow local interest in China; and to series editor Stevan Harrell, two anonymous readers for the University of Washington Press, and editor Lorri Hagman for their invaluable comments and suggestions for improvement of the manuscript. A number of other colleagues and friends in and outside China have provided me with all kinds of scholarly, personal, and practical help, encouragement, and inspiration over the years. I especially want to thank Amei (Yang Xueying), Jackie and Nagib Armijo-Hussein, Chen Suofen, Greg Kulander, Rune Svarverud, Yinangiao, Zheng Yuerong, and colleagues and friends at the Centre for Development and the Environment as well as the Department for East European and Oriental Studies at the University of Oslo. Endless (and mostly enjoyable) discussions with Koen Wellens, his well-informed criticism, and encouragement during fieldwork have been crucial for the whole research process and the final product of it. Finally, I should like to thank Sine and Nele for putting up with all the travel and making me see China with new eyes.

Financially the project was made possible by a three-year grant and generous support for fieldwork from the Danish Council for Development Research in 1992–96. Material from chapters 3 and 5 has previously been published in Kjeld Erik Broedsgaard and David Strand, eds., Reconstructing Twentieth-Century China: Social Control, Civil Society and National Identity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); and Gerard Postiglione and Regie Stites, eds., Education of National Minorities in China (New York: Garland Press, 1999). I thank the publishers for permission to use that material.

Of course all interpretations and conclusions in the book are entirely my own, as are any mistakes or shortcomings.