西方英文文献中的近代康区女性

A Study of Women in Modern Khams Area Based on English Literature

近代以来,随着西方人大量涌入位于西藏与四川腹地之间的康区,他们在当地的活动范围日益扩大,与康区藏族女性的接触交流日益增加,留下了大量英文书写的游记、日志、纪行和考察报告等。西人笔下勾勒的康区女性形象日渐完善,其关注点主要集中在康区女性美丽出众的相貌、多元的婚姻状况、吃苦耐劳的品性、聪慧能干的“阿佳”以及离群索居的尼僧等几个方面。不过,由于观察者身份背景、个人旨趣的不同,其考察角度、评述立场、看法、观点等纷纭复杂,对康区女性的褒贬亦殊异。西方英文文献中康区女性形象的塑造,既反映出西方世界对东方康藏文明的认知和想象,也折射出近代西方社会对女权运动、女性研究等话题日渐增长的兴趣。近代西人关于藏族女性的记载和评价是西方社会认识和了解康藏文明的一扇窗口,为传统的女性研究提供了别样的视角。

This paper mainly focuses on text research(including travel notes,exploring logs,travel records and investigation reports)of western people s descriptions and analyses of women in a Khams area.Taking a western impression of women in a modern Khams area as a research sample,using various English types of literature as the major research materials,and combining it with relevant Chinese documents,this paper combs through and discusses the exceptional appearance and unique characteristics of women in the Khams area,their diversified marital statuses,the capable hostesses of Guozhuang“Ajia,”and the low-key Tibetan nuns,so as to specify the“research objects”in this field.The discussion of women in modern Khams-as seen from the perspective of westerners as“other”observers-not only provides useful supplementary material to the traditional Chinese historical documents,but also gives a brand new angle and important references for the women s studies of ethnic women.In the eye of westerners,the notable beauty of Khams women mostly had to do with two concrete characteristics:First,they were always cheerful and lively by nature,and they weren t as shy or reserved as Han women;second,in the context of constant integration of Han culture and Tibetan culture,Khams women insisted on wearing traditional and exquisite Tibetan clothes and jewelry which were quite appealing to westerners.In addition to the women s outstanding and eye-catching physical appearance,westerners generally believed that Khams women were very industrious and worked even harder than Khams men;the Khams ladies showed off this diligence in nearly all aspects of local manufacturing and commerce.Western people s interest in Tibetan marital statuses mainly focuses on three types:polygamy,inter-ethnic marriage,and temporary marriage.Due to their different backgrounds and intents,western observers had all sorts of commentary on the diversified marital statuses of the Khams.“Ajia”were the respectful names for the female managers of Tatsienlu(Dajianlu)Guozhuang in modern times,and had a relatively high social status compared with other women in Tibetan areas.Thinking in terms of cultural comparison and the law of“survival of the fittest”,the westerners analyzed the reasons behind their relatively higher social status.Next to the“Ajia”group,the Tibetan Buddhist nuns were another very special religious group among the women in the Khams region.The Khams nuns always lived in isolated or remote mountain ranges and often acted in an absolutely low-key or mysterious way;as a result,contact and communication between the westerners and the Buddhist nuns were quite limited.Westerners related records and reports were mainly confined to a handful of descriptions of Tibetan nuns living spaces and their religious practices.To sum it up,the writings of western diplomats,scientists,and/or missionaries about the women in modern Khams-especially those records based on their on-site investigations-vividly presented images and characteristics of women in the modern Khams area,to a certain extent that is.The women s images created by the modern westerners not only mirrored the western world s cognition and imagination of the Khams civilization in the East but also reflected a growing interests of modern western society in hot topics such as the feminist movement and women s studies.