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Autonym:
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'Ai Nan' as individual designation; 'Gyong Nan' as group
designation. |
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Population:
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Approximately 75,000 in Guangxi province; About 20,000 in Guizhou
province who are usually called 'Yanghuang'but classified as Maonan
politically and administratively. We will call this group 'Yanghuang
Maonan'. |
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Distribution:
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Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County of Guangxi province is the
concentrated area. Parts of Pingtang and Dushan counties in Guizhou
province are also densely populated by another Maonan group. This
group we call 'Yanghuang Maonan'. |
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Language: |
Maonan, related to Kam-Sui branch of the Kam-Tai
Group of the
Tai-Kadai Language Family.* The basic Word order is SVO. The
modifier follows the head element. Most Maonan people are
multiliguigual:Maonan,Han Chinese and Zhuang. |
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Religion:
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Polytheistic. Deeply influenced by Taoism. |
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Arts:
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Wooden mask dance; Maonan songs contests; Maonan bamboo hats,
among others. |
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Houses:
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Ganlan structure, i.e. two-storey houses, with the upper part as living
quarters and the lower part as farm animal pens. |
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History: |
The Maotan Man of the the Manliao branch of the Baiyue stock. |
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*Note: |
The Kam-Tai group is also called the 'Zhuang-Dong' group in China. The Kam-Tai
is also claimed to belong to the 'Sino-Tibetan' or 'Austronesian' family. More and
more scholars agree that it belongs to the 'Tai-Kadai' family.
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About:The Maonan is dying out. This of course is not a sensational exaggeration but refers to the diminishing of the cultural characteristics,
rather than disappearing of the physical individuals. It is estimated that the Maonan will exist in name only in 4-5 generations time.
"Maonan" will become a historical name only and will be recorded in the historical literatures along with other names like "Qidan"(aka Khitai, Kidan, Cathay, etc),
"Xianbei", etc. The purpose of Maonan Net is to propagate the Maonan culture,
showcase Maonan songs and dances, disseminate the Maonan orthography, among others.
Hopefully visitors will get a general idea of Maonan culture from this website. Characteristic of both educating and entertaining,
the Maonan Net is published in two mirror versions, English and Chinese. We are trying to create a WYSIWYF (What You See Is What You Feel) platform for the browsers.
Your opinions and suggestions are welcomed.
[Opinions & Suggestions]
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[Opinion on
Maonan Orthography] [Culture Forum]
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