Word: yunnan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...worker told the state-run Xinhua news service. "The safety of the dam will be tested." To the north, the level of the Huai River has begun to drop, but not before causing widespread destruction in six provinces. Flooding has also affected the Xinjiang region in west China and Yunnan province in the south. In all, floodwaters have inundated parts of at least 24 of China's 34 provinces and regions...
...Imagine my surprise, then, when option C (the Beijing Olympics) bombed in the southwestern province of Yunnan. Thousands of kilometers away from Beijing, Yunnan is home to members of nearly half of China's 56 ethnic groups. Culturally, many of the province's citizens have more in common with their Burmese and Laotian neighbors than they do with the Han majority that makes up most of China. Indeed, the Chinese proverb "The mountains are high, and the emperor is far away" seems tailor-made for the people of Yunnan...
...Nevertheless, China is nowhere near as unified as foreigners - or even "we Chinese" - assume. Narrowly, this means that the people of Yunnan have little interest in a certain sporting event that will commence on August 8, 2008. One Yunnan truck driver, when asked about the Olympics, just shook his head in disgust. "So much money is being wasted," he said, the first time I'd heard someone in China refer so negatively to the Summer Games. "It's not going to make my life any better. Why should I care...
...broader level, though, the Olympic apathy in Yunnan points to a more troubling trend of rising regionalism at the expense of central-government authority. The Chinese know their history well: Beset by warlords, the Middle Kingdom suffered a multitude of fractious eras, including a brutal multi-century stretch known as the Warring States Period...
...wasn't thinking about any of that when I mistakenly tried to ingratiate myself in Yunnan by bringing up the Olympics. But it did make me sympathetic to a dejected vendor sitting idly by her stall as nearby competitors did brisk business selling ethnic-themed tourist trinkets. Her wares? Olympic key chains and stuffed toys modeled after the Beijing 2008 mascot. "No business today," she sighed. "Maybe tomorrow...