Mosuo culture facing extinction due to booming tourism

A young man clad in a white shirt, black pants and red belt suddenly scrambled up the side of a log house and slid feet first into a second-story latticed window.

一名穿着白衬衫、黑裤子，扎着红腰带的年轻男子突然爬上一幢木房子，钻进二层的一个窗户中。

"This is how Mosuo men would climb into the 'flower room' of the women," Ke Mu explained to visitors as the triumphant swain stuck his head out the window of the flower room, or private bedroom, and waved his hat.

柯穆（音）向游客解释说："这就是摩梭男人怎么爬进女人的'花房'的。"此刻，那位喜气洋洋的求爱者从窗户里伸出头来，挥舞着帽子。

It was morning in the lakeside village of Luoshui here in southwestern China. On a narrow side street, dusty from hotel construction nearby, a group of young workers, including Ms. Ke, 18, was preparing for another day of cultural pageantry at the Mosuo Folk Museum.

这是位于中国西南部泸沽湖畔的落水村的一个早晨。一群年轻的中国员工，包括18岁的柯穆，正在摩梭民俗博物馆中准备开始又一天的文化表演。

Their task is to showcase the traditions of the Mosuo, a minority ethnic group said to be the country's last matrilineal society, where children take their mothers' surnames and daughters are preferred to sons.

他们的工作是展示摩梭人的传统。据说摩梭人是中国最后一个母系社会，孩子姓母亲的姓，女儿比儿子受青睐。

A fascination with such traditions has led to a booming tourism industry in this once-isolated region.

对摩梭人传统的浓厚兴趣使这个曾经与世隔绝的地区发展起了繁荣的旅游业。

Lured by the promise of spectacular natural beauty and exotic cultural experiences, hundreds of thousands of visitors, mostly Chinese, are making the journey to Lugu Lake, nestled on a plateau in the mountains between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.

在绝美的自然风光和独特文化体验的吸引下，大批游客纷纷来到位于云南省和四川省之间的泸沽湖。当地各处都有"欢迎来到女儿国"的标识。

Lively as its traditions seem, however, the Mosuo community is facing a crisis. As its interaction with the wider society increases, residents and outside experts fear that the group's unique cultural practices are facing a grave threat.

摩梭传统看起来充满活力，却面临着危机。随着与外界交流的增加，本地居民和外界专家都担心，这个群体独特的文化习俗面临严重威胁。

Experts say that the population of Mosuo in the Lugu Lake region, estimated to be about 40,000, is decreasing as more young people marry outside the group or move to larger cities for work. And without a written language, Mosuo culture is particularly vulnerable to disappearing.

泸沽湖附近居住的摩梭人口估计在4万人左右。专家说，随着更多的年轻人与外族通婚或因为工作原因而移居更大的城市，这个数字在不断减少。此外，因为没有书面文字，摩梭文化面临消失的危险。

Even within the community, young Mosuo are increasingly choosing marriage over the foundation of Mosuo culture: the centuries-old practice of tiesese (pronounced tee-say-say).  Traditionally, a Mosuo woman might have several tiesese relationships during her life, sometimes simultaneously. Though this has changed as outside values of monogamy and lifetime partnership seep in.

即便在摩梭社会内部，也有越来越多年轻人选择结婚而不是摩梭文化的基础——延续了数百年的走婚。传统上说，摩梭女人一生中可能有多个走婚关系。但这种现象随着外部价值观的到来而开始改变，这里也渐渐出现了终身相伴的关系。

With tiesese, sex is kept separate from family, and men and women are generally expected to spend their lives in the houses in which they were born. As a result, sexual partners rarely occupy the same dwelling.

在走婚制度下，性与家庭彼此独立存在，男人和女人通常应在各自出生的家里生活。因此，性伙伴极少共处一个屋檐下。

In traditional Mosuo culture, family life is structured around the basic social unit, known as the "grand household," in which children are raised by their mother and her side of the family. And while children typically know their biological fathers, maternal uncles are responsible for taking on the paternal role, helping to raise and provide for their sisters' children.

在传统摩梭文化里，家庭生活围绕被称作"大家庭"的基本社会单位展开。孩子由母亲和母亲一方的家族抚养，他们通常都知道自己的0生父是谁，但舅舅会承担父亲的角色，帮助抚养姐妹的孩子。

According to Chuan-Kang Shih, an expert on the Mosuo and an anthropology professor at the University of Florida, the system is underpinned by a fundamental belief that women are more capable than men, mentally and even physically. The Mosuo also believe that everything people value in the world came from a woman, not a man.

摩梭文化专家、美国佛罗里达大学人类学教授施传刚说，这套制度基于一种根本的观念，即女人强过男人，在头脑甚至体力上都是如此。摩梭人还认为，人们所珍视的世界上的一切都源自女人而非男人。

"The system makes so much sense when you think about the overall ways in which family systems have to navigate between sexual desire, stability, domesticity and claims for children," said Judith Stacey, a professor of sociology at New York University who has written about the Mosuo.

研究过摩梭文化的纽约大学社会学教授朱迪丝·斯泰西说："当你考虑到家庭制度在整体上如何解决性欲、稳定、家务以及孩子的抚养权等问题时，这套制度很有道理。

"But it depends on a lack of mobility, which is why now, with all of this inequality as well as economic and geographic mobility, it can't survive as a system," Professor Stacey said.

但这个制度主要基于人口缺乏流动性，所以，这就是为什么现在它作为一种制度无法生存。"