Post-1949 Development

A new day dawned for the De'ang people when Yunnan Province was liberated in 1951. The first thing the De'angs did was to restore social order and develop farm production after helping the government round up remnant KMT troops who had turned bandits. In 1955 land was distributed to the De'ang people who made up half of the population on the flatland and in the semi-hilly areas of Zhenkang, Gengma, Baoshan and Dehong in an agrarian reform in which both the De'ang and Dai people participated. Not long afterwards, the De'angs set up agricultural cooperatives. At the same time, the rest of the De'ang people living in the mountainous areas of Dehong, like the Jingpos dwelling there, formed mutual aid groups to till the land, carried out democratic reforms and gradually embarked on the socialist road.

The De'ang people, who lived in compact communities in Santaishan in Luxi County and Junnong in Zhenkang County, established two ethnic township governments. In July 1953, the Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture was established, and the De'angs had 12 representatives in the government. Many functionaries of the De'ang people are now serving in government offices at various levels. Some De'angs in Yunnan Province have been elected deputies to local people's congresses and the National People's Congress.

The economy in the De'ang areas has been developing apace. Take Santaishan in Luxi County for example. People here started farmland construction on a big scale with their Han and Jingpo neighbors in the wake of agricultural cooperation. Today, the land here is studded with reservoirs and crisscrossed by canals, and hill slopes have been transformed into terraced plots. Tea and fruit are grown, and large numbers of goats, cows and hogs are raised. The cropped area has increased enormously, and grain production is four times the 1951 level.

As the people of this minority group could scarcely make enough to keep body and soul together, no De'angs went to school in pre-liberation days. Those who could read some Dai words in those days were a few Buddhist monks. Pestilence and diseases due to poor living conditions were rampant, and there were no doctors. People had but to ask "gods" to cure them when falling sick.

Today De'ang children can attend primary schools established in villages where the De'angs live. Priority is given to enrolling De'ang children in other local schools. Large numbers of illiterate adults have learned to read and write, and the De'ang people now have even their own college students, teachers and doctors.

Smallpox which had a very high incidence in localities peopled by the De'ang people has been eradicated with the assistance of medical teams dispatched by the government. Malaria, diarrhea and other tropical diseases have been put under control.