Bai - Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Traditionally, the Bai economy depended on plow agriculture, with rice and wheat as the main crops on the plains and with maize and buckwheat as the mountain cultigens. Until it was outlawed, opium was an important cash crop from the first half of the nineteenth century to the late 1930s. Present cash crops include tea, sugarcane, rape, tobacco, cotton, peanuts, flax, walnuts, Chinese chestnuts, pears, oranges, and tangerines. Pigs are raised for consumption, and domesticated animals include oxen, water buffalo, horses, mules, sheep, and donkeys. Since 1949, the Dali area has been developed for light industry and now boasts 565 local industries, including electrical, mechanical, chemical, paper, textile, leather, salt, vegetable-oil processing, and mining concerns. Tourism is a growing industry in the area.

Industrial Arts. Lacquerware from Dali was famous up through the time of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The Bai were renowned for carved wooden furniture, and in the eleventh and twelfth centuries all Chinese palace carpenters were Bai. Today fine marble work and blue and white tie-dyed cloth persist as crafts for sale to tourists.

Trade. The Dali area is the meeting point for the roads leading south to Myanmar (Burma) and northwest to Tibet. Previously muleteers and porters conducted trade by carting goods over the mountains. The completion of the Burma Road in 1938 facilitated transport, but as vehicles were scarce, human and animal labor were still widely used. Prior to 1949, the Bai imported foreign products and exported marble, pig bristles, leather goods, minerals, and herbal medicines. Trade declined in the first three decades and immediately following 1949, but it has increased again since the implementation of Chinese economic reforms in 1979. Recent years have seen the revival of trade fairs, the largest of these being the Third Month Market (linked with the Guanyin Festival) and the Fish Pool Fair. The former is held in Dali during the week of the fifteenth day of the third lunar month and attracts merchants and traders from all over the southwest, most notably Tibetan medicine merchants and horse traders. The Fish Pool Fair usually occurs in the first week of the eighth lunar month on the northern shore of Erhai Lake. Unlike the Third Month Market, this fair is geared to local Bai trade in carved wooden furniture, silver jewelry, marble, and embroidery.

Division of Labor. Traditionally, men and women did the same work in the fields, except that men did the heavy plowing. Both married and single women were responsible for marketing. Bai women were noted for their strength and ability to carry heavy loads long distances. Women and girls mostly worshiped publicly at temple festivals and fairs, while men engaged in private ancestor worship at home.

Land Tenure. Prior to 1949, 10 percent of the population, namely landlords and wealthy peasants, held 60-80 percent of the land. The remaining 90 percent of the population held only 20-40 percent of the land, and 70 percent of these people were either poor peasants or hired laborers. After 1949, all land became state property, and the area followed the shifting guidelines of Chinese agricultural policy, which emphasized collectivization. Since 1979 policy has moved away from collective labor to individual and family labor.