Zhuang Minority Essay

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China is a large country consisting of fifty six different ethnic groups. One of the largest minority group in China today is the Zhuang. These people were part of a Thai related group of people covering a large area of Southern China over two thousands years ago. According to the encyclopedia, there are eighteen million Zhuang today, which is about the same as the population of Australia. Although they are the largest minority group in China, they are little known because many of them have been isolated from the outside world. They resides today mainly in the mountains of the warm and humid Guangxi province. Singing has always been an important part of Zhuang culture; they sing both at work and at rest. They love to sing and are famous for their "antiphonal" singing where a woman will sing one line and then a man will have to quickly create and sing back a witty reply. Antiphonal song contests take place at all of their festivals. The Zhuang love music and dance, and most can compose their own songs. Accompanying their song-and-dance routines are percussion tunes from large bronze drums - a uniquely Zhuang folk instrument inherited from ancient times. Today, over 500 bronze drums of varied designs have been unearthed in Guangxi. Although majority of the Zhuang resides in China, archaeological research has confirmed that they are not from mainland China, but probably emigrated from South Vietnam. According to the China Source Journal, Archaeological digs bone in Bai-lian Dong near Liu-zhou and Zhen-pi Yan near Guilin have turned up burial sites with burial styles common not to China but to Vietnam. These burial styles also suggest a relationship between the Zhuang and the Haobinhian (9000-5600 BC) and Bacsonian (8300-5900 BC) cultures of Vietnam. The Zhuang were recorded as living in Guangxi when the unification of China took place and prefectures and
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