Character Traits

Beyond provincial pride, the average Yunnanese is contented with life, be it as a farmer or as someone involved in business, industry or administration. This gives them a sense of self-confidence, which has a beneficial effect on their view of foreign visitors. They do not shyaway from them (although they may ignore them) and the typical quick encounter is polite and often friendly.Enjoying a continuous prosperity the Yunnanese have, at least in the cities, adopted all the trappings of modem life. Dance halls, cinemas and karaoke bars provide options for entertainment, yet nearly every town has a park of some sort where men bring their caged songbirds, and hang them on the branches to provide a natural serenade while they play board games, chat with one another or just sit and smoke, lost in contemplation.

In the mornings those parks, and perhaps the temple compound as well, become venues for mass tai ji exercises and other fitness routines.In Kunming this includes ball-room dancing, with mostly middle-aged partners, to the sound of portable cassette players. This will take place adjacent to groups doing slow-motion kung fu or sword-wielding. Besides exercise, the other, perhaps more important motive, is to meet fellow singles of the opposite sex, for most dancers are divorced or widowed. The collective dances thus are key social events for the lonely hearts, places where one can meet prospective lovers on one's own, for free.

Yunnanese, though, are very health-conscious by nature. At big meals various dishes are included because they are good for the health, as are certain beverages. Blind masseurs provide services for the stiff and the sore in city streets in the evenings. Others offer passers-by a thorough cleansing of the ears, holding aloft the long swabs they use. Local television stations air health shows often and every Yunnanese is aware of the province's reputation as a pharmacological treasure-house. Shops selling Yunnan Rare Drugs abound. And on market days in the hills and remote areas merchants selling herbal medicine always turn up.

In personal relations the Yunnanese consider themselves liberal-minded, tolerant. straightforward, polite and honest people. At least these are the traits they consider most worth having. In their treatment of guests they are almost ceremonious in their attention to the guest's comfort. With those people they find most enjoyable, Han or minority people, even foreign, they will form a strong friendship. Yunnanese take their friendships seriously and a new friend finds the way on to more new friends as a result. Unlike neighbouring countries, where close friendships are mainly limited to parties of long acquaintance only, Yunnanese friendships cross the boundaries of class, age, sex, race and nation.

The general broad-mindedness of the Yunnanese also means a respectful attitude towards the minorities. They have interacted with them for many centuries and for fifty years the government has drummed into them the concept of the equality of nationalities. Besides. the minority presence is a big part of what makes Yunnan special to the Yunnanese. They are less likely to look down on the minorities and in the age of tourism have come to appreciate them more.

Towards the foreigner the Yunnanese attitude is generally favourable. The province did not suffer humiliations from foreigners as did other parts of China in the last decades of the Qing Dynasty. Apart from individual explorers, some missionaries and a handful of scientists, Yunnan's first experience with foreigners came with World War II. And those foreigners were there to help Yunnan, not plunder it. Contemporary travellers are all beneficiaries of their legacy.