Social Change And Cultural Adaptation

Moving westward is one of the large-scale immigration in the history of China, it lastedfor more than300years, spread to as many as six or seven provinces, and it is an importantpart of the history of Chinese immigrants. The immigrants mainly from Shanxi, Shaanxi,Ningxia, Hebei, Shandong, Zhili, most of them are coming from Shanxi and Shaanxi. TheChinese Population growth rapidly in Qing Dynasty, leads to the obvious contradictionbetween the people and the land. As a result, the immigrants from Shanxi and Shaanxi pouredinto the Hetao area to make a living.Hetao consists of three major geographical units: Houtao plain, Ordos, Tumote plain.After Qing Dynasty established, Hetao is a forbidden area to Han people. The ecologicalenvironment was well protected, the land is fertile, the Mongolian is the majority in the Hetaocommunity, and tribalism is the main form of social structure. Administrative system is theMeng and Qi system. The form of economy is nomadic economy, production capacity is verylow. Plenty of Immigrants poured into Hetao area, has made a fundamental changes in Hetaocommunity. By land reclamation, construction of drains, the fertile land in Hetao wasreclaimed into agricultural area which is the same as the mainland by immigrants. Thedominant population changed into Han people from the Mongolian. The nomadic economywas replaced by agricultural in the most part of Hetao. Tribalism and the Meng and Qi systemis replaced by the province system, Formed the situation of the coexistence of counties andQi, the authority of land was changed into private from publicly owned. When the economicand material basis changed dramatically in Hetao, nomadic culture and farming culture iscontinually self-adjust to adapt to the social change of Hetao. This phenomenon performed asmutual learning and integration of nomadic culture and farming culture, including thecommon use of the Meng and Han languages, living together of Mongolian and Han people, and mutual recognition of religious beliefs and so on.After the dramatic social change, Hetao ultimately formed as an immigrant society, alsoformed Hetao culture characterized by an open, inclusive, unity, simplicity. The formation ofthe Hetao culture, not only embodies the demands of the Hetao community as an independentsocial system, but also a response to the dramatic social changes of the Hetao byself-adaptation of the farming culture and the nomadic culture.