A recent study focusing on the spread of HIV in Yunnan has revealed significant shifts in which demographics are at higher risk for becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS, according to a Tsinghua University study cited in a Bloomberg report.

According to the study, which was authored by Zhang Linqi, executive director and professor at Tsinghua's Comprehensive AIDS Research Center in Beijing, HIV infections spread via heterosexual contact accounted for 38 percent of all cases in 2006 in Yunnan.

Intravenous drug use, which had accounted for all of Yunnan's infections in 1989, dropped to 40 percent in 2006. Intravenous drug use was how HIV first entered and spread throughout Yunnan, which is located just north of the Golden Triangle. As of 2006, Yunnan had 48,951 HIV cases and 3,935 AIDS patients.

In general, intravenous drug users are being surpassed by women and homosexual men as the fastest-growing gender demographics, while in ethnic and socioeconomic terms urbanized Han Chinese are overtaking rural minorities

"HIV/AIDS is spreading beyond the high-risk populations," Zhang told Bloomberg, "It is the responsibility of every citizen to help control the further spread. More needs to be done in a much bigger and more effective manner."

The study focused on 3.2 million blood samples taken in Yunnan between 1989 and 2006. It found that between 1996 and 2006, the proportion of Yunnan HIV cases that were women rose from 7.1 percent to 35 percent. In 1996 the gender ratio for HIV infections was one woman to every 13 men, by 2006 that ratio had changed to 1:1.9.

In addition to gender pattern shifts, ethnic trends have also changed. Between 1989 and 1995, the Dai and Jingpo ethnic minorities in rural southern Yunnan were most at-risk for HIV infection – today the Han ethnic majority accounts for 60 percent of Yunnan's HIV cases.

"The high percentage of infected are now due to sexual contact," Bloomberg cited Zhang as saying. "It has begun to move from farmer, minority groups in rural areas into worker, Han-majority urban settings."

The study's researchers concluded that although less than one percent of China's population is HIV-positive, resolute action must be taken to address China's HIV/AIDS situation before it makes further headway into the general population. The study called for expansion of social programs targeting HIV as well as free medical treatment for the infected.

Related articles:

Interview: Curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Yunnan

China praised for HIV/AIDS efforts

Tags: Dai, ethnic minorities, health, HIV/AIDS, Jingpo, Tsinghua University, Zhang Linqi

Editor's note: This post was written by Kunming-based translator and cultural consultant Jeff Crosby, who has taken delegations of Yunnan folk musicians to the United States. Crosby writes the blog South of the Clouds.

Gen Dequan (哏德全), the famous Dai folk musician, passed away Tuesday night of an apparent brain hemorrhage. He was a master of the hulu (葫芦丝), a reed instrument fashioned out of drinking gourds which is popular among the Dai and many other ethnic groups throughout Yunnan and Southeast Asia. He was fifty years old.

Known as "King of the Gourd", Gen Dequan was instrumental in popularizing the folk music of the Dai people, and making their music a household name throughout China, synonymous with the cultural diversity of Yunnan Province. Throughout his career he toured many cities and countries, sharing the musical traditions of his people.

I was fortunate to know him. We first met on the Yunnan Revealed tour in 2005, when I was tour manager and he was a performer. He came again with us to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2007. He was a good man and a phenomenal musician.

GoKunming thanks Jeff Crosby for his contribution. If you would like to share a story with GoKunming readers, please contact us via the GoKunming contact form.

Tags: Dai, ethnic minorities, Gen Dequan, hulu, Jeff Crosby, music

Kunming residents unable to make the 700km trip to Xishuangbanna's Water Splashing Festival (泼水节) can opt for a bucket of water poured down their collar – or a squirt gun to the face - at the Yunnan Nationalities Village (云南民族村) this week.

GoKunming joined a large number of visitors looking to get wet and celebrate the Water Splashing Festival on Sunday. A major part of the Dai minority's New Year celebrations, people splash each other with water to symbolise cleansing and blessing for the new year.

From 8:30am visitors entering the park from through the colourful paper umbrella archways were squirted by super soaker-wielding Dai ladies using their information office as a bunker.

The festival is one of the most important times of the year for Yunnan's Dai people, as well as Thais, Laotians, Burmese, Cambodians and even Sri Lankans.

Stalls located throughout the park were selling a variety of hydro-powered weapons, from 80-yuan jumbo soakers with a 35-foot firing range right down to the cheapest (and perhaps most effective) option: the humble five-yuan plastic basin.

One of the day's main events was a water-carrying relay race in the park's Tuanjie Square. Two teams comprised of audience members ran across balancing beams, carting water to the other side using wheelbarrows, bamboo pipes (gaosheng), clay pots suspended on a yoke or by piggy-backing a wet female team member.

The park was a mix of topless youths, well-armed children, older men, the occasional raincoat-wearing couple and staff dressed in minority costumes, guarding against attacks with umbrellas.

Another minority at the park was a group of foreign students who left the park saturated with the yellow water of Dianchi Lake after engaging in a torrid but good-natured water war with local visitors. Their antics drew a large crowd of spectators and the attention of the park's security officers who rushed to their defence after thinking they were being prevented from exiting the premises.


Yunnan Nationalities Village will celebrate Water Splashing Festival until Sunday 20 April, Tuesday the 15th (tomorrow) being Dai New Year. Other planned festivities include a large-scale song and dance show, water splashing games and relay races. Yunnan Nationalities Village is located in Kunming's southwest at 1310 Dianchi Lu and is open from 8:30 am to 10:00 pm. Entry is 70 yuan or 35 yuan for students with ID.

Tags: Dai, Water Splashing Festival, Yunnan Nationalities Village, 泼水节