A Leap of Civilization

The Overseas Editon of People's Daily published an article yestoday written by its staff reporter Li Chunlei. It reads as follows:

In late August, rain was pattering. We set off from Xichang City, capital of Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Liangshan in Sichuan Province to Puge County to the city's south.

On the way to our destination, we saw a new village of Yi ethnic group, which moved down from the mountains. There are blocks of new houses and cement-paved clean streets. As we entered the house of a villager, we found a neat and tidy courtyard, tap-water pipes and vegetables on the open ground. The spacious bright room is furnished with sofas, TV set and a sound system. A responsible person of the village told us that the village embraces 198 households with 771 members. In recent years, the per-capita annual income has been close to 800 yuan, and per-capita share of grain, 598 kg. Power supply is available in all the three natural villages and most families have their own TV sets.

Such living conditions were unthinkable five years ago for the Yi people living in this village and many other hamlets. The huge social progress has enormously accelerated the civilization process in the depth of Liangshan Mountain.

In the greater and lessor Liangshan mountain area in southwestern Sichuan Province, which is the largest area inhabited in compact communities by Yi people, numerous mountains and peaks rise one upon another and deep valleys and rivers crisscross the area. The Yi people living here did not liberate themselves from the oppression of slave-owners until after the Democratic Reform was launched here in the 1950s.

In 1956, Democratic Reform was carried out in the area inhabited by Yi people of the Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Liangshan. This led to the emancipation of the exploited and oppressed slaves and the distribution of simple houses and plots of land to them. In order to lift Yi people out of poverty at the earliest possible date, the People's Government tried everything possible to give them support and thus greatly improved their living standards. However, influenced and fettered by the centuries-old form of the slave society, the social development of Yi people was low. What's more, due to the poor condition of the natural environment in the depth of the Liangshan Mountain and the slow economic development, many Yi people's concepts and their production and living styles formed in the centuries-long slow process of the slave society had not been changed completely. By the early 1990s, quite a few of the Yi people were still living in dire poverty. In 1993, about 2.1 million poor people of the prefecture still failed to have enough food and clothing, accounting for 63.5 percent of the total rural population of 3.32 million in the same year and 1.35 million of them were ethnic minorities. The bad living environment has resulted in high incidence of disease and a high death rate, it has also greatly effected and hindered the economic and social development and the pace of ridding the Yi people of poverty.

Having learned about this, leaders of the Party, the State and Sichuan Province have shown great concern for the local Yi people and granted them enormous financial support. In an effort to change this situation completely, the Party committee and government of the prefecture have decided to adopt the principle of "helping the poor in establishing a new image", this means tackling basic, concrete work, such as moving away the excrement in front of the door, opening windows to let in sunshine, leveling grounds of the courtyard and building pens and toilets. Meanwhile, education in the need of getting rid of old customs, stressing sanitation and believing in science has been carried out to impel the Yi people living in the mountain area to change their outdated concepts and establish new images of their own, families and villages.

Supported by the State and all social circles, Liangshan Prefecture has closely integrated "helping the poor in establishing a new image" with the "project of adequate food and clothing" and regards this work as the key to tackling the poverty-relief work .

For the Yi people on the Greater and Lessor Liangshan Mountain, implementation of the project of "helping the poor in establishing a new image" means the gradual change of the centuries-old lifestyle and habit, the removal of a big hurdle to their final freedom from poverty and access to affluence and a tremendous change brought about in their mental and production outlook. The Yi people have made great strides toward modern civilization.



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