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...effects of the drought in Yunnan has been to give the Dai this opportunity to return to the roots of a festival that has been largely co-opted by visitors to the province. Traditionally, Cable explains, water-splashing was not as essential to the New Year as other rituals like the slaughtering of buffalo. "But," she says, "animal sacrifice isn't great for tourism." What's more, the Dai did not always engage in unruly street battles using buckets filled to the icy brim and unforgiving water pistols. Writes Thai folklorist Phya Anuman Rajadhon: "The water-throwing later degenerated into...
...young, first we had to splash our grandparents and parents to show our respect," says Mie Duc Hong, a 40-year-old Dai woman who lives in the Yunnanese village of Manchunman. "Then we could go splash our friends. It was a lot of fun. But it wasn't like it is now where people get so wet. We just sprinkled them with drops of water, not whole basins full." Zheng Peng, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body, told the official government news agency Xinhua...
...travel adviser at China Highlights, which offers customized tours and cruises in the region, says that she has had relatively few inquiries about participating in the event. "We suspect that the drought has severely affected our customers' itineraries in Yunnan." Those places accustomed to welcoming hordes of tourists, like Xishuangbanna's capital city of Jinghong, have previously been characterized by the most boisterous water-splashing celebrations; there, children and visitors haphazardly fling containers of muddy and colored water about, rushing back and forth to restaurants and strangers' homes to refill. Anouska Komlosy, curator of Asian ethnography at the British Museum...
...occasion of the New Year, when deities would visit the land of the living. Since at this time the gods are so close, it is also an opportune moment to ask for precipitation; splashing therefore becomes a way of praying for plenty. By sprinkling water, the Dai, like the Indians before them, should be attempting to entice rainfall. It is a most basic appeal, but one that is easily forgotten in the disorder of the holiday. Perhaps not this year, though. "When it rains during the New Year's festival, it's particularly auspicious," says Cable. "It's supposed...
...privacy regulations. Ilse Aigner effectively declared war on Facebook on April 5 when she wrote a provocative, open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, the website's 25-year-old founder. "I was astonished to discover that, despite the concerns of users and severe criticism from consumer activists, Facebook would like to relax data protection regulations on the network even further," the minister wrote. "Private information must remain private. Unfortunately, Facebook does not respect this wish." She then threatened to take down her own profile in protest...