Grace Liddell was a CIM missionary in Yunnan, China from 1934 to 1944, who died on furlough in 1946. Originally from Iowa, she married Eric Cox in October 1940. She wrote many letters home describing her adventures among the Lisu and Chinese and other ethnic groups of Yunnan; some of these, like the one below from the summer of 1939, were published by the
, her local newspaper in Iowa. I have chosen this one because it gives an interesting overview of Lisu culture, with quotes from her friend and late supervisor, James Outram Fraser's 1922
, but also including the ground-level view of someone interacting with Lisu people for the first time. Note that the year before writing, Fraser had died of cerebral malaria, and the year after, her host, Francis "Fitz" Fitzwilliam, died of typhus. Life in this region was not easy!
My apologies for any unfortunate or offensive words or attitudes the letter may contain -- bear in mind that it was written 83 years ago and Grace was writing for her old neighbors, and probably never dreamed that the descendants of her Lisu friends might be reading it.
The Malvern Leader (Malvern, Iowa), January 11, 1940, pages 3 and 7.
Grace Liddell Writes of China
Many of our readers will enjoy the following letter from Miss Grace Liddell, a former Mills countian, who is now a missionary stationed at Long chiu, Yunnan, China. It was written last summer.
Dear Friends:
The last letter mentioned a possible change from the Chinese to the Lisu. That change has been made. On May 1st after six days traveling by hua-kan and one on horseback with stops at two mission stations along the way I arrived at Longchiu, a small village high up on a mountain side. The village folk were originally Kachin (accent on the last syllable), but a number of Lisu families have recently moved here. Mr. [Francis "Fitz"] and Mrs. [Jennie] Fitzwilliam are stationed here and are now busily engaged learning the Kachin language. They have worked among the Lisu for about ten years, but recognize the great need of the other tribe and so are rendering a ministry to both tribes from this center.
In giving you an idea of the Lisu tribes folk I think I can do no better than to draw upon the observations made by the late Mr. J. O. Fraser in his “Handbook of the Lisu Language.”
The origin of their tribe is uncertain but there seems to be a general opinion that they have drifted down from the upper Salween and Mekong river valleys. Probably they originally came then from eastern Tibet. They live in the mountains, seldom below 5000 feet above sea level, and usually are found at a height of 6000 feet or over, i.e., in the higher and colder regions of the mountains.
The Lisu are not ashamed of their race as some other tribes are. In eastern Yunnan, e.g. some tribesfolk refuse to admit their tribal connections, and others are not interested in learning to read their own language, choosing rather to learn the Chinese. Those in the East because of this are tending to be absorbed by the Chinese.
In China the Lisu tribe is found almost entirely in the province of Yunnan, along the Burma border and also among the Mekong valley and the upper Yangtze.
They are about medium in height, slightly darker than the Chinese, and have Mongoloid features. The men and women both shave their heads entirely with the exception of three or four inches across the back which is allowed to grow long and is braided into a queue. Upon becoming Christians the women allow their hair to grow, and the men cut off their queues.
The men wear a loose jacket of plain blue cloth similar to that worn by the Chinese. The trousers (worn by both sexes) are made of the same material and come to an inch or two above the knee. The “wrap-around” turban is also made of plain blue cloth. They wear white cloth stockings with a stiff canvas-like appearance. These have no feet and are tied with a string just below the knee. Some go barefoot, and others wear sandals made of bamboo bark.
The women, in districts where Chinese influence is strong, dress very similar to the Chinese women. But in the more remote regions their dress is very gay and bejewelled. The turban is several feet long, plain in the middle but with strips of colored cloth at both ends. To these colorful ends are attached long tassels, beads, cowries, etc., according to the taste of the wearer. Showy ear-rings and necklaces are also worn. The dress itself consists of a tunic which comes only to the waist in front, but is long in the back. The short front of the tunic is made up for by an apron with an embroidered waistband. It is ornamented with square or rectangular patches of red, yellow and green cloth and trimmed along the lower edge with cowry shells.
As to disposition they are a mild, easy-going and affable people, hospitable and friendly to the Anglo-Saxons. “Whereas the Chinese and Kachin are often suspicious of strangers, the Lisu are seldom so. Their frank geniality is more agreeable, to Europeans at least, than the blung [read: blunt?] boorish manner of the Kachins on the one hand, or the obsequiousness of the Chinese on the other.” The women are shy with strangers, but upon becoming better acquainted, they are frank and natural. They have a strong sense of decency and shame.
The Lisu have a great weakness for rice-beer and do not seem to be able to drink it with moderation as the Chinese do. I have not yet seen an intoxicated Chinese. Would that I could say as much for my own country! Their intemperance causes quarrelling amongst an otherwise peaceably disposed people. The Chinese have a saying, “Lisu for liquor, leeches for blood.”
On the other hand they seem to be able to “play” with opium as the Chinese cannot. They grow it wherever the law allows, and smoke it occasionally without becoming addicts. The Chinese have the same weakness for smoking opium as the Lisu have drinking liquor. Upon becoming Christians, however, this vice is given up amongst many others.
The houses are simple structures with plain mud floors split into laths and woven. There are usually three rooms. The center room has a fire (miniature bone-fire) around which the family and guests may sit and chat. It is also in this room that the guests are invited to sleep. One of the other rooms is the family bedroom and into this the guest seldom enters unless to see someone who is ill. The third room is the kitchen.
Agriculture is the chief occupation, but they are very fond of hunting, especially the barking deer. One hears the barking of this deer almost daily, sometimes in the early morning and sometimes in the evening. When the temptation is too great to be withstood, after hearing the bark one next hears a mad rushing of feet past the house as the boy who helps us bounds to his house to get his shotgun and out again on the tail of the deer. Invariably he comes back empty-handed. They make their own bullets and also their own gun-powder. Some of the people have rice fields, but these are down on the plains quite removed from the village. The usual crops are corn and buckwheat. They clean a patch of ground and burn the jungle and this serves as a field. The fertility of the soil is soon exhausted as the Lisu are either too poor or too lazy to add the necessary fertilizer to the soil as the Chinese do. After using a patch of ground for a couple of years, it is practically exhausted, so it is allowed to lie fallow for from ten to twenty years during which time it again grows up to jungle and must needs be cleared again before being used. The hoe is the popular implement, the plow being impractical because of tree stumps. Besides the above mentioned crops, potatoes, hiss sesamum, hemp, indigo and opium are also grown. The women as well as the men work in the fields and each family produces only what they can consume. Hence there is no commercial farming. The Lisu do not have their wealthy farmers as the Chinese do.
When clearing a patch of ground sometimes they follow the path of least resistance and shift to a lower altitude. It is true that the soil is better at a lower altitude but there is also the great danger of malaria. In one place they have the saying “If you are not afraid of hunger, go up and live in high altitudes; if you are not afraid of death, go down and live in lower altitudes.” “The Lisu ‘par excellence’ are those who live in cold climates, where even the winds and vapors from hot plains are shut out by mountain ranges; where the men and women are strong, active and intelligent, the children healthy and rosy-cheeked.”
The heathen Lisu are animists but where there is close association with the Chinese, influence from the latter has crept in. There is no idolatry, but ancestor worship is universal. Whereas amongst the Chinese the women perform practically all of the religious rites, amongst the Lisu they have no part, the responsibility being borne by the men. The main part of their religion consists of the propitiation of evil spirits whose “bite” causes sickness.” To determine whether or not an illness is caused by a demon, the priest draws lots. If the lot drawn shows it to be a case of demon-possession [p.7] the family then sacrifice a chicken or perhaps even a pig. The priest helps by muttering incantations, and then they have a meal at which the rice beer is served. The priest gets a free meal but receives no wages. They believe there are various spirits but believe also that there is a supreme head of all spirits, good and evil, and they call him “Wu-sa.”
In some districts witch-craft is known. Sometimes the suspect is made to put his hand in a pot of boiling oil or water and bring out a submerged coin. To be able to do this without suffering any injury is a sign of innocency. This method is also used at times to determine the guilty party in a case of theft.
When anyone dies the heathen Lisu immediately fire three shots with a gun. The corpse is placed in the center of the room and covered over with hempen cloth. Coffins are used for adults but children have none. Christian Lisu, however, also use coffins to bury their children. When a wife dies the burial must await the arrival of her relatives in order that they may see that it was a natural death and that all rites are properly performed. This is to avoid having her spirit coming back to “bite” them for negligence or disrespect. Burial may take place two or three hours after death, or they may wait two or three days. They seldom wait a year or several years for an auspicious day as do the heathen Chinese. Nearly always incense is burned and offerings are made before the coffin is removed from the house. In some parts the family also march around the coffin several times striking it sharply with a stick each time they go around it, the mourners chanting meanwhile. They serve at least one meal to the relatives and guests. The grave is dug two or three feet deep out on a hillside. Cremation is practiced only in cases where they believe there have been evil spiritual influences.
The marriages are arranged by the parents. A middle man is employed to deliver the letter from one parent to the other and if consent is given, a small deposit is given to the parents of the girl, a mutual bow is made and the proposal is accomplished. Sometimes the boy is consulted before the proposal is made, but the girl never. Even if they were consulted they would likely be too bashful to express their own views. They think nothing of marrying cousins, but would never consent to marrying anyone by the same surname regardless of how far removed the relationship might be. A betrothal is very binding, and as soon as the boy’s parents can afford it the marriage ceremony is performed. Christian Lisu do not marry their cousins, and they also wait until the girl is eighteen and the boy is twenty before they marry. Any correspondence between a Christian couple must go through the Lords [read: hands?] of the deacons. Usually there is only one letter and that is the letter of proposal from the boy to the girl.
The non-Christians set an auspicious date for the wedding, and the day before, beer, rice, pork, salt, etc., is taken as a present by the friends to the home of the groom. The next morning the bride and all the relatives go to the home of the groom to the accompaniment of gun shots. The groom’s parents come out to greet the bride and bows are made. They then lead her into the house, and as she steps over the threshold the marriage is completed, although both bride and groom still must bow to the groom’s parents. The bride then retires to her bedroom where she remains in hiding for the rest of the day, but she is expected to assist with serving at tables on the day following. After a few days the couple then pay a visit to the bride’s home.
A Christian ceremony is performed at the church where a paper is signed and after the proper ceremony the couple shake hands and the marriage is thus completed. When Christians refer to a marriage ceremony they always speak of it as “shaking hands.” If they wanted to ask if a certain person were married they would ask, “Has he shanken [read: shaken] hands yet?”
Polygamy is practically unknown, likely because it is not economical. Elopement is looked down upon, and the respected Lisu would not consider such a step. Slavery is also unknown in South Yunnan, and despite the poverty of the people, money is no enticement to them to sell their children as slaves.
They have little or no independent territory, and are usually subject to the Kachin and Chinese near them. They are docile and patient under injustice but have no love for the Chinese. Tradition holds that in the early days the Chinese usurped the rights and powers of the Lisu, something similar to the way Jacob stole Esau’s birthright. They live in the hopes that one day a Lisu king will rise up and reclaim their rights and power. I have heard Mr. Fraser tell how the Lisu would laugh with glee as they heard the doom of the ungodly at the end of the world and say, “Won’t the Chinese get theirs then!”
The Lisu are not loth to cast away demon worship, but often the motive is earthly or temporal. Perhaps they tear down their demon altar and express their desire to become Christians merely because they think it will make them immune from sickness, or make them prosperous in making a living; or perhaps it is only because they want to learn to read and write. Although these motives fall far short of the mark, yet they are a stepping stone to the realization of the true motive.
The language has a large number of Chinese words, but in the extreme north it is quite pure. It is monosyllabic and no syllable ends in a consonant. (Because of this it is soft and musical and some have suggested that likely it is due to this fact the Lisu are a “singing” people. Although their singing is wild like the people they are, yet they readily sing all four parts and usually they sing very true to their parts). Every word has a consonant and a vowel. A specially simplified script has been prepared (mostly the work of Mr. Fraser) and now the whole New Testament is printed due to the diligence of Mr. Fraser and Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Cooke. They also have a collection of Old Testament Stories and a hymn book with 233 hymns and choruses — a few by their own composition. Each consonant and vowel sound has a Roman (capital and unadorned) letter assigned to it. Since there are forty such letters some of the letters of the alphabet have been inverted and given arbitrary values. Mr. Carl Gowman who died in 1930 completed a Lisu dictionary in May of the previous year. There are 2370 main entries and 4673 phrases and clauses as illustrations, making the total number of entries 7043. Of the main entries 100 are of alternate pronunciation of the same word, leaving a net number of 2270. If written in hieroglyphics as the Chinese language, there would be only 2270 characters, whereas in the Chinese there are over 10,000. There are only 269 pure Lisu sounds and 29 Chinese sounds. This is probably the lowest number of any monosyllabic language in this part of China, but it makes up for it in tones. There are six main tones, nine diphthong and five tripthong; making twenty in all. “Reckoning as a word each character in every tone in which it occurs, there are 963 different characters in the language, or on an average of 2.77 meanings for every tone in which the character appears.”
The Lisu “field” is now considered an evangelized field. There are one thousand baptized Christians in this district, another thousand in the district to the south of us, Fuhinshan, also under the supervision of Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam at present. So work amongst this tribe now consists almost wholly of Bible schools. The missionaries travel from one district to another holding two-week schools. It is hoped that next year a three months’ school may be held during the rainy season for the teachers and leaders of these districts. Three short term schools are planned for this fall.
I hope that this gives you somewhat of an idea of this new sphere of labor to which our Lord has called me, and that you will be better able to pray the effectual fervent prayer as you remember us before His throne.
Pray especially for Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam as they study the Kachin language, and for me as I study the Lisu. Also remember to pray about the Bible schools to be held.
Very sincerely yours,
In His service,
Grace Liddell
