Although this unique insider's account of minority life in China is clearly a book in itself, it is also the sequel to the much-acclaimed The Kam People of China (Geary, Ou and others, 2003). It describes the hitherto scarcely researched culture of people from Xiangye village, in an untravelled corner of Guizhou province, Southwest China, in the 20 years leading up to Liberation in 1949. Xiangye is a Kam (Dong) nationality village, so the book highlights Kam culture of the 1930s and 1940s. It is a fascinating and unparalleled study, also offering exceptionally clear details of many aspects of material culture and social customs, for example, the work of rice-farming, cotton production, and cooking, beautifully illustrated with line drawings and photographs, that should appeal to anyone interested in the Kam people, China, or in ethnology generally.

The author grew up in Xiangye and later became Professor of Anthropology at a university in Qinghai province. The manuscript was first written in Chinese, with the intention of having it translated into English for an outside readership.

OU Chaoquan, was a research student at the Central Institute of Nationalities in Beijing in the late 1950s and a researcher and ultimately full professor, associated with the Qinghai Institute of Nationalities, 1960-1995. His research interests include: anthropology generally, Tibetan studies and Kam culture.

Norman Geary, D. Phil. (1987) in Mathematical Statistics, University of Oxford, studied linguistics in 1991 and became a member of SIL International. He was associated with Guizhou University from 1995 to 2007. His research interests include: Dong language and culture, and bilingual education.