Qiu Dongmao

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In *My Liangshan Brothers*, anthropologist Qiu Dongmao takes readers deep into remote Lim Township in Sichuan’s Liangshan region, where the Nuosu people (officially categorized as Yi) have weathered a century of dizzying modern upheaval—from autonomous tribal life to socialist collective communes, then to unregulated market capitalism. Over 20 months of immersive fieldwork starting in 2005, Qiu uncovers how rapid, externally driven modernization spawned a devastating dual crisis of heroin addiction and HIV, which ravaged Nuosu communities by the late 1990s. Through intimate stories of local leaders, former addicts, and struggling youth (like his trusted assistant Qubi Muga), he explores the Nuosu’s grassroots clan-led anti-drug efforts, the failed top-down Sino-UK HIV prevention program, and how well-meaning external interventions inadvertently created HIV stigma where none existed. This raw, compassionate account reveals how marginalized groups bear the brunt of conflicting modernity forces, while highlighting the Nuosu’s quiet resilience amid loss and cultural erasure.