A Wa performance. (Photo/CGTN)
For a millennium, the Wa people have led primitive tribal lives, cultivating crops and breeding water buffalo, which they used mainly for sacrificial purposes. Even as modern industrialization sweeps the world, the Wa mountain people have largely been left alone to their age-old ways. That, however, spells poverty.
So the local government has been leading an effort to raise living standards in the border region.
On stage during rehearsal, Yang Na looked on in frustration as her dancers put the finishing touches to a spectacular show called the Wa Tribe. "I want to see your passion for this better life," she yells. Girls in black-and-red Wa tube top and miniskirts swayed their long hair forcefully into the air as men beat on wooden drums.
Their hometown of Ximeng County now looks as modern as any other town, with new roads and residential apartments, modern shops, hotels and restaurants under construction.
The surrounding tribal villages are being transformed into town-like settlements; brick houses replacing traditional straw shacks.
