Date/Time/Location: Thursday September 24th @ 4 p.m., Murray Boardroom (Wheelock 106/108)

SOAN Culture & Society 2026-27 Discussion Series

Ethnic Branding in Contemporary China: Buyi and the Paradox of Difference

A book talk by Prof. Yu Luo, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Suzanne Wilson Barnett Chair in Contemporary China Studies, followed by Q&A

How can an ethnic community be different enough to stand out — but not too different to fit in? Drawing on long-term research in her home province of Guizhou in southwestern China, Yu Luo explores how the Buyi — one of China’s officially recognized ethnic minority groups—seek to sustain distinctive cultural practices while affirming their place within Chinese civilization. As the daughter of a Buyi father and a Han Chinese mother, Luo offers an intimate perspective on questions of identity and recognition. Her book traces local efforts to rework rituals, performances, cultural landmarks, and village landscapes amid expanding heritage and tourism initiatives. More than a conventional story of cultural commodification, it presents ethnic branding as a process through which Buyi communities pursue livelihoods while negotiating cultural pride and national belonging. In this talk, Luo focuses on Buyi women’s songs and performances to show how expressive traditions are continually remade in response to changing local aspirations, state priorities, and outside audiences.

Ethnic Branding in Contemporary China: Buyi and the Paradox of Difference (University of Washington Press, 2025) is the third-place winner of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology’s 2026 Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing. 

Audience: Open to the campus community and the general public.