The Cultural Politics of Ethnic Identity in Xishuangbanna, China

Tea and Rubber as “Cash Crops” and “Commodities”

Bibliographic Data

ID12952452
AuthorsJanet C Sturgeon (Simon Fraser University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume41
Issue4
Pages109-131
Publication date2012-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Current Chinese Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1868-1026 • E-ISSN: 1868-4874
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/186810261204100404
OpenAlexW1816975573
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited22

In 2003, the poverty alleviation bureau in Xishuangbanna, China, introduced tea and rubber as cash crops to raise the incomes of ethnic-minority farmers who were thought to be backward and unfamiliar with markets. Using Marx's commodity fetish and Polly Hill's critique of “cash crops”, this paper analyses the cultural politics of ethnicity for Akha and Dai farmers in relation to tea and rubber. When the prefecture government introduces “cash crops”, the state retains its authority as the dispenser of knowledge, crops and modernity. When tea and rubber become commodities, however, some of the symbolic value of the commodity seems to stick to farmers, making rubber farmers “modern” and tea farmers “ethnic” in new ways. Through rising incomes and enhanced identities, Akha and Dai farmers unsettle stereotypes of themselves as “backward”. As a result of income levels matching those of urban middle-class residents, rubber farmers even challenge the prevalent social hierarchy

Agriculture · Cash · Cash crop · China · Commodity · Economics · Economy · Ethnic group · Geography · Market economy · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies