Social Cultural Situation Of China

Culture is indeed a way of life of a people. This way of life is a social fact, a product of human interaction. ”The Chin People have their distinct culture. Such culture defines their identity as a people or as a society. There can be no Chin culture without a Chin society, just as there can be no Chin society without Chin people. Religion and culture cannot separated in the lives of Chin people. Chin people believed that human life and nature are interrelated, as Ngul Khan Pau terms this “Harmony with Nature. ” Water, trees and forest, animals, rocks, and mountains are believed to be under the control of spirits.

When they established a new village, the village priest will perform a ritual at the water source pronouncing, “Let the spirit of evil leave this place and become the place of celebrations and feastings. ” Only then it is believed that the water becomes useful and productive. Proper appeasement of forest spirits takes precedence before cultivating of the land. This traditional concept can be understood with Biblical reinterpretation of creation as God the creator and spirits have no control over nature. Chin worldview is also relatively binary, good and bad, holy and unholy, high and low, light and dark, fire and water, seen and unseen. This is called a dualistic view of the cosmos. Darkness is identified with evil and light with divine as the Gospel is compared to light and sin to darkness.

Sexual immorality and having an illegitimate child damages the character one’s personality. Instead of stealing one’s possessions, asking is encouraged in times of dire need. Moral conducts are explained in tales and myths in order to teach the society not to discriminate against people on grounds of birth or status, and sharing things equally among children even if it is small is the moral principle among the Chin people. The parents teach their children through the stories so that they will follow the same attitude towards brothers and sisters. Respect for elders is one of the cultural values in the life of Chin people because they are regarded as source of wisdom and knowledge. The loss of respect seems to be part of the breakdown of indigenous Chin communities. The Chin people respect not only the elders, but also human life from conception to death. They passed on this cultural heritance to young generation through myths and stories as the moral principle.

In Chin culture, the privacy of individual thoughts and feelings are respected and information is sought through a sensitive two-way exchange. Agreement and disagreement can be passive – people often say ‘yes’ to be polite and to avoid the conflict of saying ‘no’ directly. Traditional feasts such as khuado, lungzu are always celebrated every year in the State of Chin. The celebration of the feasts and festival by animals is a communion between god and people since they share the source of life in partaking food and drinks (Aing-dangh). Food and drinks as the source of life are shared in communion not only among the members of family, clan, and tribe, but also with the guardian god Khua-brum. Since the family lifestyle is patriarchal, the father is chief-spirit of household.

Traditional marriage used to be by arrangement of parents from both sides. The girl is judged not by beauty but by good character as Carey and Tuck exactly explain, “The girl is judged by the character of her work in the fields and house. If she is a good tiller of the soil she is a good match, whatever looks and antecedence she may be” In married life, the wife is always submissive to her husband out of respect and compliance.

The Chins express and preserve their achievements, joys and sorrows in songs; such as songs of heroes, for funeral, festivals, love songs, war songs, songs of celebrations, welcome songs, and farewell songs. Most of these songs are accompanied with dance, whether in funerals, festivals, or celebrations. In funeral service, the dead body is wrapped with traditional Chin blanket or puan and funeral wake lasts for one to three days so that certain relatives, and friends could pay their last respects. In the old days, funeral wake for a man normally lasted for six days and woman for five days because they believe a man has six souls while woman has five souls.

During funeral wakes, “mythun” (cow) is slaughtered for the purpose of treating funeral attendants with the belief that the spirit of the late mythun follows the soul of the deceased person. Ever since, the Chin people had a culture of respect to nature and environment in their traditional practices. However, nowadays, this kind of attitude, value, respect and appreciation of Mother Nature and environment in the life of Chin people are vanishing.