Resilience revisited: AIDS and resilience among a Yi ethnic minority in Southwest China

Abstract

This study attempts to widen the conceptual space of resilience in (Western) psychology in order to better capture the resilience landscape of an ethnic minority group ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic—the Nuosu-Yi in Southwest China. Without decolonizing the construct of resilience, non-Western versions of coping with adversities cannot be properly understood. Our process of decolonization of resilience involved two steps: First, we conducted semistructured interviews with the target population (N = 21) to take inventory of their Indigenous notions of resilience. Second, for conceptual comparison, we mapped the themes and categories, derived from thematic analysis, of the interview data onto the conceptual space of the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), which we used as proxy for mainstream conceptualizations of resilience. This mapping revealed multiple lacunae in the theoretical framework of RSA, and unique properties in the Indigenous approach to adversities in contrast. Far reaching theoretical and practical implications of this investigation are discussed.

Keywords

decolonization ethnic minority Indigenous psychology resilience resilience scale for adults

The Yi people are the seventh largest group of the 56 ethnic groups in China. Most of them reside in the mountainous areas in Southwest China. One large subgroup of Yi is the Nuosu tribe in the Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan. Due to their remote and secluded location, Nuosu-Yi are able to keep intact and take pride in their cultural heritage to this day, while many other Yi groups have been assimilated into the majority Han language and culture since the open economy in the 1980s (Harrell, 2001; Vermander, 1998; Wuda, 2008).

Nuosu-Yi society is based on the extensive family clan (Jia zhi), in which having sons in order to continue the family lineage is of utmost importance. Besides providing the foundation for social norms and morality, the family clan is a comprehensive safety net (Jia, 1997; Su, 1999). The importance of the family/clan (Jia zhi) for the Yi is captured by the saying: “monkeys rely on trees; Yi people rely on Jia zhi” (Jia, 1997). The religious tradition of the Yi centers on the healing tradition and priesthood known as the Bimo, who are experts of rituals (X.-X. Liu, 2007; Ting et al., 2017). Bimo rituals permeate the everyday lives of the Yi, ranging from marriage to healings, from birth to death (Bamo, 1996, 2003). For this reason, in a previous study, the Yi in the Liangshan region were referred to as the traditional Nuosu-Yi or Bimo-Yi (Ting & Sundararajan, 2018).

The Nuosu-Yi suffer from negative stereotypes, for example, that they live with “poverty, crimes, [and that they are] lazy, backward, and superstitious” (Zheng & Li, 2013). Since the 1990s, there has been a surge of drug addiction and an HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Liangshan area, with the Nuosu-Yi comprising over 90% of the HIV-positive cases (L.-H. Liu et al., 2018). According to a recent overview of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among the Yi ethnic minority in Liangshan, China: “The AIDS epidemic is still on the rise, and its transmission and prevalence are not yet effectively brought under control” (Yang et al., 2017, p. 274).

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Liangshan is especially poignant in light of the recent medical advances in HIV treatment. People living with HIV/AIDS can now have a normal life, so long as they are on antiretroviral medications (Grinsztejn et al., 2014; Mills et al., 2011; Samji et al., 2013). Since there is effective treatment for HIV/AIDS, the challenge we face today is to make the treatment more accessible to this marginalized population. And culture may very well be the key to accessibility of treatment for minority and marginalized populations. Along this line, we seek to identify the strengths of the traditional Nuosu-Yi in coping with HIV/AIDS by taking an inventory of Indigenous concepts of resilience. However, the path to Indigenous categories is not straightforward—a detour via decolonization is often necessary.

Decolonization

In psychology, non-Western concepts are usually understood through the lens of mainstream Western categories. Resilience is no exception. In order to study the Indigenous notions of resilience, therefore, we need to first create a clearing in the conceptual space that has been colonized by notions of resilience in mainstream psychology. Thus, decolonization in psychology (Bhatia, 2018) entails the process of deconstructing colonial ideologies of the superiority and prestige of Western ways of thinking as embodied in mainstream psychology. In the present context, our decolonization has a humble goal, namely to understand one non-Western culture by taking seriously what the locals have to say.

There are two key elements in our decolonization approach: observation and reflexivity. Consistent with the dynamic model of psychological research proposed by Power and Velez (2020), and especially resonating with the authors’ claim that a focus on observation can drive research questions, determine methodological choices, and generate data for analysis, our entire research project was guided and shaped by the observation of our local informants that the Yi had no equivalent term for resilience. The second element of our decolonization is self-reflexivity (Power & Velez, 2020; Sundararajan, 2008), which entails reflection on the researchers’ own (colonized) mainstream assumptions. The decolonizing question driven by self-reflexivity is this: What adjustments are needed for my psychological lens so that I can conceive of a world the way the culturally different locals do?

This article describes how decolonizing the standard notions of resilience in psychology can open up new horizons of conceptualization with far-reaching implications. This investigation is presented in the following order: We first give an overview of studies of resilience in China to set the stage for the need to go beyond the standard measures in order to capture the local landscape of resilience among the Yi population, then we present data collection and analysis of the Yi sample. A cultural interpretation of the results, rich with theoretical as well as practical implications, will be presented in the discussion.

Resilience in the Chinese context: An overview

In (Western) psychology, the concept of resilience is defined in terms of an innate ability to bounce back from adversity and to have posttraumatic growth (Anthony, 1987; Eisold, 2005; Masten et al., 1995; Werner & Smith, 1982). Recently, the notion of resilience as an individual trait has been called into question by accumulating evidence that resilience is a dynamic process, especially in more collective cultures (Luthar et al., 2000; Ungar, 2011). Thus, proponents of Indigenous psychology advocate for the concept of “communal resilience” to capture more accurately the experience of the local people (Fernando, 2012; Kirmayer et al., 2009, 2012; Korhonen, 2007).

In the aftermath of the massive Sichuan earthquake in 2008, several Chinese scholars (Ge, 2010; Han, 2014; Zhang, 2008) have investigated the resilience factors among ethnic minorities at the sites. However, the definition and measurement of resilience were imported from (Western) psychology. This is evident in the many coined terms—for example: Ren xing (韌性; bouncing back), Kan ni li (抗逆力; resisting adversity), Xin li tan xing (心理弹性; psychological flexibility)—used to capture the idea of “bouncing back,” but none sound authentically Chinese. Through a systemic review of the Chinese concept of resilience, Xie and Wong (2021) also argued that the Chinese tend to adopt a multidimensional concept of resilience, which is relational and communal.

There are some psychological studies of the interaction between resilience and trauma among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in China (Gao et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2018); there are also some public health studies of resilience and ageism among people living with HIV/AIDS in Guangxi (Xu et al., 2018). But all of these empirical studies adopted various Western scales of resilience, without examining the ecological validity of the measures, nor controlling for ethnicity in the sample, rendering it difficult to generalize from these studies to the rural ethnic minority groups who do not speak nor read Chinese.

A study of resilience among the Yi in Liangshan, China

In the current study, we decided to use the local terms, instead of translated terminologies from psychology literature, to collect data on resilience. But we soon ran into a problem. The local Yi experts from focus groups as well as cultural informants said that there is no “equivalent term” for “resilience” in Nuosu-Yi language. The Yi translator proposed using the Mandarin term “Jian qiang” (坚强; being strong) in the interviews. Taking their advice, our investigation centered on Jian qiang as a point of entry to the Yi notions of resilience. This decision sets the agenda of our investigation in terms of the following question: To what extent is the Yi version different from the standard notion of resilience in psychology?

We first conducted interviews with a narrative focus (Creswell, 2007) to collect information on the local conceptions and narratives of Jian qiang in the context of HIV/AIDS among the Nuosu-Yi in Liangshan. Then we mapped the themes and categories from thematic analysis of the interview data onto the conceptual space of a standard measure of resilience—Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA)—to assess the extent of conceptual fit as a way of answering the research question. Ethical approval was obtained from the first author’s institution and verbal consent was obtained from all participants.

Participants

M County within Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province was chosen as the study site for two reasons: first, it is the home of “Bimo culture” (characterized by Indigenous healing rituals), where the traditional culture of the Yi is better preserved than elsewhere (Mao, 2012); second, prevalence of HIV/AIDS is high in that area. The participants for focus groups and semistructured interviews were selected using a purposive sampling method in the villages and towns around M county.

Focus groups (n = 4)

The focus group interview (Freitas et al., 1998) aimed to gain a relatively comprehensive understanding of the ways the local Yi community perceived HIV/AIDS. Community leaders from JK village, a HIV/AIDS-prevalent area, were invited according to the local criteria of who was “knowledgeable” and “trustworthy” as leaders. In addition, they had to meet the following inclusion criteria: (a) they were above 25 years old (according to the local understanding, a younger age would not qualify them as being knowledgeable); (b) they had experienced contacting or helping families with HIV/AIDS patients; (c) they were familiar with the basic situation of families with HIV/AIDS patients in the community; (d) they understood the purpose of the current study and were willing to participate; and (e) they were fluent in the Yi dialect or Mandarin Chinese.

There were four interviewees in the focus group, all were ethnic Yi males, with the average age of 41 years. For details of the demographics, see Table 1.

Table 1.

Demographic Information of Focus Group Participants, Patients, and Family Members.

Participants	Gender	Ethnicity	Age	Years of education	Occupation	Length of service (years)	Marital status	Relationship with patients
Focus group
S1	Male	Yi	52	0	Bimo priest	>30
S2	Male	Yi	25	15	Rural doctor	2
S3	Male	Yi	34	9	Company commander from local militia	7
S4	Male	Yi	53	5	Village head (Degu)	12
Patients
P1	Female	Yi	39	0	Farmer		Widowed
P2	Male	Yi	40	0	Migrant worker		Married
P3	Male	Yi	37	0	Farmer		Married
P4	Female	Yi	30	0	Farmer		Married
P5	Male	Yi	34	4	Migrant worker		Married
P6	Male	Yi	34	0	Farmer		Widowed
P7	Male	Yi	38	0	Farmer		Married
Family members
F1	Female	Yi	37	0	Farmer		Widowed	Wife
F2	Female	Yi	45	0	Farmer		Married	Wife
F3	Female	Yi	39	0	Farmer		Married	Wife
F4	Female	Yi	30	0	Farmer		Married	Wife
F5	Female	Yi	29	0	Farmer		Married	Wife
F6	Female	Yi	42	0	Farmer		Widowed	Wife
F7	Female	Yi	34	3	Farmer		Married	Wife
F8	Female	Yi	15	5	Students			Daughter
F9	Male	Yi	74	0	Unemployed		Married	Father
F10	Female	Yi	44	0	Farmer		Widowed	Wife

Semistructured interviews (n = 17)

We interviewed two groups: HIV/AIDS patients and the family members of HIV/AIDS patients. The inclusion criteria for the patient group were that they were Nuosu-Yi adults (age 18 and above) who were diagnosed HIV positive and were willing to be interviewed. The inclusion criteria for the family members were that they were close family members (e.g., spouses or parents) of the HIV/AIDS patients, and were willing to be interviewed. Both were recruited through the purposive sampling method. The first group comprised of seven HIV/AIDS patients (five males and two females, M_age = 36). The second group comprised of 10 family members of HIV/AIDS patients (one male and nine females, M_age = 37). See Table 1 for further details on demographics.

Procedure

Rapport with the PLHIV (people living with HIV) was built through the local Yi cultural informant/translator through a community snowballing and friendly approach. Trust was built through multiple home visits and empathetic listening employed by the interviewer who visited the region four times during the 1-year study. A trained research assistant conducted all the interviews with the assistance of a local Yi interpreter (see interview outlines in Appendix 1, Supplemental Material online). The duration of each case interview was 30 minutes on average; and the focus group interview lasted 120 minutes. Verbal consent for the interview and audiorecording were obtained. After the interview, the research assistants transcribed all the recordings in Chinese. To ensure language consistency, the Yi interpreters proofread and checked again for ambiguous semantics in the transcript.

Data analysis

We used thematic coding (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Creswell, 2007) to generate the major themes concerning the Yi’s notion of “Jian qiang” (being strong). The three groups converged in their themes of Jian qiang (being strong). Information from the focus group is sparse on personal meaning, but rich in cultural backgrounds such as myths and rituals. Thus, data from the focus group (hereafter cited as S) will be used only for corroborations, otherwise not included in the combined patient (hereafter cited as P) and family (hereafter cited as F) interview data, which are used for further analyses.

Textual analysis

Using Textmind (Chinese version of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count [LIWC], see Pennebaker et al., 2001; Zhang, 2015), we conducted a preliminary language analysis on the Jian qiang (being strong) discourse, based on the combined HIV/AIDS patient and family interview data (n = 17). Results of the correlational analysis of the LIWC variables are presented in Table 2.

Table 2.

Nonparametric Correlation Analysis Between the Textmind Categories Among AIDS-Affected Individuals.

Category	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1. PosEmo	.12	.14	－
2. Social	.05	.26	.70**	－
3. Family	.10	.14	.66**	.95**	－
4. Friend	.03	.26	−.75**	−.72**	−.66**	－
5. NegEmo	.15	.12	−.84**	−.77**	−.77**	.90**	－
6. Insight	.01	.01	.54*	.52*	.51*	−.72**	−.76**	－
7. Health	.15	.10	.87**	.62**	.57*	−.61**	−.73**	.54*	－
8. Achieve	.10	.01	.81*	.22	.13	.70	.44	−.73	.55

Note. n = 17. PosEmo = positive emotions; NegEmo = negative emotions.

p < .05. **p < .01.

As shown in Table 2, PosEmo (positive emotions) was correlated significantly positively with Family (r = .66, p < .01), but negatively with Friend (r = -.75, p < .01), suggesting that the more these patients and families talked about friends, the fewer positive emotions they reported, whereas the more they talked about family the more positive emotions they reported.

Decolonizing the conceptual space of resilience

To answer the research question, to what extent is the Yi version different from the standard notion of resilience in psychology, we took the following steps. First, we selected the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA; Friborg et al., 2003) as a proxy for mainstream conceptualization of resilience. RSA is a widely used scale and, according to Windle et al. (2011), has some of the best psychometric ratings. Next, we mapped onto the conceptual space of the RSA scales the themes/categories of Jian qiang (being strong) derived from the thematic analysis of the two interview groups (HIV/AIDS patients and family members). This particular research strategy is informed by Shweder (1996), who points out that the experience of the culturally different other “can only be understood by reference to what they mean, signify, or imply (not in and of themselves and regardless of point of view, but rather) to us (or to me) in this or that time and place” (p. 178). Thus, instead of trying to get at the “reality” of the Yi’s experiences in and of themselves, we can better capture the unknown meaning-making processes of the Yi by finding out what their account means to us in our world as embodied by one standard measure of resilience, the RSA.

Based on the themes derived from thematic analysis, the Yi themes/categories of Jian qiang (being strong) were mapped onto the following five dimensions of the RSA (Salisu & Hashim, 2017): personal competence, personal structure, social competence, family coherence, and social support. For an overview of the mapping, see Table 3.

Table 3.

Comparison between the Yi Categories of Resilience and RSA (Resilience Scale for Adults).

RSA (Resilience Scale for Adults) categories	Categories of resilience for the Yi
Internal focus
Personal structure (Goals and plans, organization)	No Yi counterpart
Personal competence 1
Self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-liking	No Yi counterpart
Problem-solving capacity	No Yi counterpart
Personal competence 2
Determination	Will power
Realistic orientation to life	Realistic future plans
Hope	Optimism
No RSA counterpart	Personal virtue: Be a good person
No RSA counterpart	Striving, effort
No RSA counterpart	Courage
No RSA counterpart	Perseverance, will to live
External focus
Social competence (“I easily establish new friendships.”)	No Yi counterpart
No RSA counterpart	Family responsibility
Family coherence	Emotional bond
Social support	Family’s acceptance toward AIDS patients
Social support	Help from neighbors and relatives
No RSA counterpart	Strengths contingent on external resources

Note. Bold = categories of resilience measured by RSA; Shaded cells = overlap between RSA and Yi’s categories of resilience.

A detailed analysis of the mapping is given in the following sections. The purpose of the following analysis is, to paraphrase Shweder’s (2000) definition of cultural psychology, to construct an Indigenous model of Jian qiang (being strong) by “thickly describing the specific sources of non-equivalence and non-comparability that arise when stimulus situations are transported from one interpretive community to another” (p. 210).

RSA dimensions that have no Yi counterpart

As shown in Table 3, not all RSA dimensions have a Yi counterpart. Below, we examine these noncorresponding dimensions in detail.

Personal competence 1

The personal competence dimension is split into 1 and 2 to highlight the absence and presence, respectively, of overlap between RSA and Yi categories of resilience. Personal competence 1 concerns positive perception of the self. It has two themes—self-confidence and problem-solving capacity—none of which have Yi counterparts.

Self-Confidence

This dimension consists of items that assess self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-liking. For instance, “I believe in my own abilities”—a statement that has no direct corollary in the Yi narratives of Jian qiang (being strong). Instead of personal ability, Yi narratives center on the notion of personal virtue.

Personal virtue

A cluster of motifs under this category concerns the making of a good person—self-reliance, frugality, being worthy of respect by others, and so on. For instance, S1 in our focus group said, “His family is so poor that they cannot survive on farm work, but they got help from others, because he is kind-hearted.” One HIV/AIDS patient (P1) said, “I don’t do bad things, only do good. Neighbors and people in the village know me. People like us are also respected by friends.”

Problem-Solving capacity

This dimension of RSA is assessed by the item: “No matter what happens I always find a solution.” On the contrary, one statement that runs like a refrain throughout the Yi narratives is “there is nothing I can do.” Instead of personal capacity for problem solving, the Yi narratives centered on existential struggles, such as striving, courage, and perseverance.

Striving

Our data revealed a tendency to capitalize on an effort to do more of the same thing, instead of mentally figuring out new ways of doing things, which is the hallmark of “problem solving.” Diligence and hard work are the hallmarks of striving in the face of difficulties. This concrete, action-oriented approach to overcome difficulties is well-articulated in the following definition of Jian qiang (being strong) by a family member (F2):

Jian qiang for our Yi people is like planting the corn. Before the corn seeds sprout, we have to clear the weeds, to let the seed grow, bit by bit. It’s like raising a child, very tough. We have to work on the farm from morning till noon . . . When you plant the corn, you have to bury the seeds under the soil, then turn the soil over carefully, especially the soil on top of the seed. After turning the soil, you have to pluck out the weeds. You need to do this twice. If you find bugs in your plant, you have to spray pesticide. Then you can’t rest even for a day.

What transpires in this analogy is hard work that increases in proportion to the difficulty of the problem. Instead of mentally figuring out a way, one simply increases the amount of work as if racing to catch up with the difficulties until one is exhausted by physical exertion. The notion of “overcoming” the difficulty is missing: the individual is barely keeping up with the increasing challenge.

Courage

Courage means facing difficulties unflinchingly. This is a celebrated trait in the mythical heroes of the Yi. Legend has it that their ancestor is the eagle god who, when there was a drought, overcame all kinds of difficulties to go to the sky to borrow water from the god in charge of water; and when the earth was scorched by nine suns, “he walked step by step to the sky, without water or food” (S1) to save humanity by shooting down the sun. One family member (F8) said, “I think the only way is to be Jian qiang [strong], to have the courage to face the greatest difficulties, and not to be afraid. This type of people I admire the most.”

Perseverance

A strong sense of tenacity behind the will to survive. One hangs on to dear life in utter helplessness. As the focus group pointed out, it’s better to be alive than dead: “Our Yi people, our heart is very Jian qiang. If you die, you lose everything” (S1). Thus, one family member (F6) said:

So long as I can live I’ll continue. In comparison to those who died, I am glad to be alive. In my village, lots of people got sick and died in such a pitiful way, I think that I am fortunate enough to be still alive.

In the perseverance mode, no improvement is anticipated—one simply hangs in there:

The house leaks when it rains. No one is there to repair it. There is nothing I can do. When it leaks, I use a pan to catch the water. No one to repair it; my kids can’t do it—one 13, the other 3 years old. Nothing can be done for this house, it is not going to last much longer; can’t afford to build a new house; we have got nothing; we just go on living like this. (F1)

This litany of “there is nothing I can do” is the very antithesis of the heroic refrain of “I can” in the resilience literature. There is no indication of bouncing back either.

Personal structure

This dimension of RSA assesses the capacity to be organized or structured, as exemplified by the item “I am good at organizing my time.” This category does not apply to the Yi data. Although people follow their routine in farm work and daily chores, it is not the result of cognitive organization so much as following social customs and traditions.

Social competence

This dimension assesses the capacity to network with others, as exemplified by the item, “I easily establish new friendships.” The Yi do not make new friends easily. Being born into an existing social network consisting of family and neighbors, social competence for the Yi lies in maintaining old, rather than creating new, relationships by fulfilling one’s social obligations, especially to the family.

Responsibility to the family

The Yi’s version of social competence is, therefore, responsibility to the family. One mother said, “I have always been frugal. Every day, I don’t get to eat anything nice, but I always manage to provide the children with simple meals. I think this is being very Jian qiang [strong]” (F7).

One HIV/AIDS patient said, “We Yi people will say: ‘be a man.’ Jian qiang [being strong] for a man is to be responsible for the family and bring up the children properly” (P5).

One family member said, “For the Yi, a strong (Jian qiang ) woman is first and foremost a strong (Jian qiang) mother. You can’t only focus on your life at the present time, without taking into consideration your children” (F5).

For the Yi, social competence is not a matter of making new friends so much as maintaining one’s social standing for the sake of the family. One HIV/AIDS patient said:

We Yi exchange gifts among relatives on important occasions. As long as you are alive, you have the obligation to think for your parents and children. You cannot ignore these gift-giving occasions, because you don’t want other people to look down on you. For the sake of your children as well as for the sake of your own self-esteem, you have to honor these customs. (P7)

Because of the family/clan system, there is a strong obligation to continue the family lineage and bloodline through children: “Yi people who are Jian qiang have to take good care of the children. Blood relation is the most important thing. No matter what, you cannot abandon your children” (F4).

RSA dimensions that have Yi counterparts

There is considerable overlap and affinity between the Yi data and the following dimensions of RSA:

Personal competence 2

Another component of the personal competence dimension of RSA pertains to a positive perception of the future, such as hope, determination, and realistic plans for the future.

Realistic orientation to life

This theme is assessed by the RSA item: “I have realistic plans for the future.” The Yi counterpart is well-expressed by a family member:

Hereafter I will do farm work to support my children’s education. After the first one graduates, I can support the second one. So long as my kids have good health and good grades, they can continue their studies. (F2)

Determination

One family member talked about will power, “To be Jian qiang [strong] is to have will power when encountering the difficulties. . . like to have the determination to recover from our own illness” (F2).

However, the Yi’s use of will power goes beyond what is generally known as determination in the West. For instance, the will power to self-correct. One patient said:

After I knew the result of the test, I did not want to work anymore. I was waiting to die. Then I decided not to think this way. Instead of waiting to die, I might as well do something and make some money for my children. (P5)

Hope

The Yi would score high on the RSA item assessing hope or optimism: “During hard times I know that better times will come.” For instance, one family member said, “I go one day at a time, thinking that things will be fine when my children grow up. For us Yi people, having a son is good luck. That gives me hope” (F6).

In addition to personal competence, RSA also assesses social resources which consist of two dimensions, family and social support.

Family coherence

The Yi would score very high on this RSA dimension, as exemplified by the item: “There are strong bonds in my family.” For instance, one family member said, “We always work together as a family to figure out solutions” (F8).

Social support

The Yi would score high on this RSA dimension as exemplified by the following item: “I have some close friends/family members who really care about me.” For instance, one HIV/AIDS patient stated, “Sometimes when I cannot sit up to cook, I would eat at the house of my neighbors and relatives” (P6).

A backup plan for being strong

As we can see from the foregoing analysis, much is left out of the RSA, such as personal values (how to be a good person), courage to face difficulties, and the perseverance to continue the uphill battle. These attributes constitute a much more existentialist account of resilience, which reaches its crescendo in another, so far unexplored term—Jian chi (坚持; perseverance). Jian chi (perseverance) has been used interchangeably with Jian qiang (坚强; being strong), but warrants further analysis. It seems that in addition to plan A—Jian qiang (being strong), there is a plan B—Jian chi (perseverance), which constitutes a backup plan for being strong, if all else fails.

Plan A—Jian qiang (坚强; being strong)

At first blush, Jian qiang (being strong) resonates with the Western notion of resilience as resourcefulness. For instance, a member of the focus group said:

People who are very Jiang qiang have gained a lot of experience and insight, so they are able to solve any problems they encounter. . . [they] have experienced the outside world, traveled a lot, and visited many, many places. They know every story about their family and history of the Yi people. (S2)

Likewise, an HIV/AIDS patient stated:

A Jian qiang Yi person is to teach people what life is about, and how to be a decent person. Will help those who need help, and try to persevere in difficulties. . . . Will teach people to be Jian qiang, and not be afraid of suffering; teach people how to interact with others properly. People who are Jian qiang know a lot. For example, they will help those who have no money to buy medicine. (P6)

But closer attention to the Jian qiang discourse reveals that those who do not have external resources cannot be strong, as one family member pointed out:

Having money like you folks is Jian qiang [being strong]. As for the Yi people, someone coming back with money made on the outside will feel confident and Jian qiang. Those who are Jian qiang will be able to make money through migrant work on the outside for both themselves and their children. Those who are not Jian qiang are like us, who cannot do any work nor make any money. (F3)

Here the neat distinction in RSA between the internal resources (of personal structure, and personal competence) and the external resources (family cohesion/warmth, social support systems, and friendship capitalized by social competence) no longer holds. In the Jian qiang (being strong) discourse, personal internal strengths are contingent on external conditions. For instance, one HIV/AIDS patient saw her self-confidence as contingent on whether there is money: “So long as there is money, one will feel strong (Jian qiang), and self-confident in everything” (P2).

A family member said that self-confidence depends on both health and money:

If I am in good health, I have self-confidence, like being very strong [Jian qiang]. And I have respect among friends and relatives. But if I have no money at home, I feel embarrassed to see my relatives and friends. (F2)

Even hope is contingent upon government aid; according to another family member, “I was thinking that if the government could take notice of our poverty-stricken regions and the people in hardship, we would have hope enough to be Jian qiang (strong)” (F9).

Here the internal resources such as self-confidence and hope are not context-free traits so much as states contingent on external resources. What if one does not have these external resources? Fortunately, there is a plan B for those who come up short.

Plan B—Jian chi (坚持; perseverance in enduring the unendurable)

While it is used interchangeably with Jian qiang (being strong), Jian chi (perseverance, persistence) constitutes a distinct discourse, in which helplessness looms large. One mother said:

If I do not support [my kids’] education, they will grow up to be like me, not able to speak one word of the Han language. But there is no money in the house; there is no way we can afford the tuition. That’s why they stopped going to school. (F1)

Perseverance (Jian chi) is the coping mechanism when helplessness prevails. One family member said, “Being strong [Jian qiang] is to live like this. The house is about to collapse but I cannot afford to repair it. But you still need to continue [Jian chi ] living” (F10).

One HIV/AIDS patient said, “I cannot raise any livestock, nor till the land. . . I just persevere [Jian chi]. . . I persevere [Jian chi]. I have been persevering [Jian chi] all this time!” (P6).

Thus, in contrast to Jian qiang (being strong), which is associated with resourcefulness, Jian chi (perseverance) is the plan B for those who don’t even have the option of suicide, as the following interviewee put it so graphically:

We Yi people are very strong [Jian qiang]. We will figure out ways to solve problems. To be strong inside is to know how to find solutions. If you don’t have solutions, there is nothing to do but go on living [perseverance]. If your time has not come, even if you hang yourself, people will laugh at you. (F6)

Having no external resources (money and health) to boast of, the discourse of Jian chi (perseverance) underscores the in-spite-of connotation of resilience, a resilience marked by a tenacity to continue living in utter deprivation. One family member said, “See how tattered my clothes get? This is how I persevere in doing the farm work” (F6). She went on to say, “I live like a fool or a lunatic, always on the lookout for something to eat. One bite at a time, one day at a time, do I live” (F6).

In contrast to personal competence, Jian chi (perseverance) is not a cognitive skill so much as the sheer tenacity to continue (persist) for as long as possible. One HIV/AIDS patient said, “Therefore I persevered, trying to persist [in working]. Sometimes I persisted for 1 or 2 days, and I could not get up till I rested for 2 or 3 days” (P6).

In contrast to the future orientation of hope that looms large in Jian qiang (being strong), Jian chi (perseverance) focuses on the here and now, one step at a time. One HIV/AIDS patient stated: “If I find something to eat, I eat that day. If I don’t find anything, there is nothing I can do” (P5). One family member said, “I make it one day at a time. There is nothing else I can do” (F7).

In sum, it is in Jian chi (perseverance), more so than Jian qiang (being strong), that we find the sharpest difference between the notion of resilience in mainstream psychology and its Yi counterpart. Instead of ego strength or self-construal, or cognitive competence ranging from problem solving to the social capacity of making new friends, the Yi interviewees relied on something far more basic—the tenacity to hold on for dear life, no matter what—a life instinct honed by millions of years of evolution, hence much more powerful and robust than all the self-construals and cognitive competences put together. This instinct for life is powerful if it is fueled by a motivator. The good news is that with their time-honored tradition of a family/clan system, the Yi can count on family as an all-purpose motivator (for details see Appendix 2, Supplemental Material online).

Discussion

This investigation of the Indigenous discourse of resilience among the Yi in Southwest China has expanded the conceptual space of resilience with far-reaching implications.

A new dimension of resilience

The prevalent formulation of resilience as the ability to bounce back from adversity (Ledesma, 2014) is not necessarily universal. At best, the Yi only mentioned the hope to bounce back, “When I get better, I’ll resume migrant work” (P2). And in the absence of any signs of bouncing back, they persevered. In this sense, a formulation of resilience more applicable to the Yi would be a systems definition (Limnios et al., 2014), namely “the magnitude of disturbance the system can tolerate and still persist” (as cited in Salisu & Hashim, 2017, p. 24). Thus, what transpires in the Yi discourse on resilience is not cultural exotica so much as a more basic, possibly universal, will to survive. Furthermore, our analysis of Jian chi (perseverance) reveals a simpler structure of resilience with two basic components—an innate tenacity to persist even in helplessness, and an external motivator in the social system.

This innate instinct for life is neglected in the standard measures of resilience that focus instead on the acquired capacities—the ego strength and personal competences (Salisu & Hashim, 2017; Windle et al., 2011). Consequently, interventions in psychology consist of labor-intensive work on the psyche—ego strength and personal competences—in addition to social support. But the psyche is notoriously difficult to fix. By contrast, intervention for the Yi can be concentrated on external help—such as financial aid and medical care—since their will to survive is as strong as ever.

Culture and resilience

To shed further light on our findings, we bring to bear a pertinent cultural analysis of strong-ties versus weak-ties societies (Granovetter, 1973; Sundararajan, 2020). Strong-ties are traditional societies that are close-knit, kinship-based groups, whereas weak-ties refer to societies in which the kinship relationship has been weakened throughout history, for instance, this weakening of kinship relations in the West can be traced back to the Pope’s ban on cousin marriage (Schulz et al., 2019). Our previous studies of the Yi (Sundararajan et al., 2020; Ting & Sundararajan, 2018) analyzed the difference in cognitive styles between two Yi groups—the strong-ties, traditional Yi-Bimo group and the weak-ties, Yi-Christian group—along two axes of information processing: experience-near versus experience-distant; and external- versus internal-focus. It was predicted and found that the traditional Nuosu-Yi (the Yi-Bimo group) privileged the experience-near perceptual mode of processing, whereas their weak-ties (Christian) counterpart privileged the experience-distant, conceptual mode of processing. To continue this line of analysis, we map both RSA dimensions and the Jian qiang (being strong) categories onto the two-axes grid of information processing (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Mapping Cross-Cultural Categories of Resilience Along the Axes of Cognition.

As shown in Figure 1, difference between the Jian qiang (being strong) categories and the RSA dimensions seems to fall along the strong-ties and weak-ties divide. Consistent with our previous findings (Sundararajan et al., 2020; Ting & Sundararajan, 2018) on the traditional Nuosu-Yi, who were not converted to Christianity, the discourse on Jian qiang (being strong) was couched in concrete, experiential, and action-oriented terms, in sharp contrast to RSA’s measure of resilience in abstract, conceptual, and thinking-oriented terms. For instance, our Yi interviewees did not speak of cognitive/mental capacities such as organizing skills, self-confidence, or the ability to make new friends. Instead, they talked about actions that engage the whole person—such as the virtues of being a good person; fulfilling obligations to the family; and existential struggles that take courage, will power, and perseverance.

In addition, the RSA dimension of social competence would constitute a mismeasurement if applied to the traditional Nuosu-Yi: the notion of relational mobility—the freedom to network with strangers to make new friends—is a hallmark of weak-ties societies. The strong-ties society of the Nuosu-Yi had little residential and relational mobility—even mates are chosen by the family. Indeed, our previous study (Ting & Sundararajan, 2018) found that the traditional Nuosu Yi—especially women, who are expected to be “shy”—do not readily make friends with strangers.

Another RSA dimension—social support—is also misleading. This dimension does not differentiate between friends and family, as evidenced by the following item: “I have some close friends/family members who really care about me.” From the perspective of strong-ties, there is a big difference between family and friends—the former is a blood relation whereas the latter is not. In the context of a strong-ties society such as the traditional Nuosu-Yi, this distinction is salient in that family support is far more important than that of friends. This sharp distinction between family and friends is evident in the textual analysis of the interviews (see Table 2), which revealed that in the context of HIV/AIDS, family was significantly and positively correlated with positive emotions, whereas friends were negatively correlated with positive emotions.

Questioning resilience

Far from being a cognitive deficit, the external focus of the traditional Nuosu-Yi’s discourse on resilience offers a different perspective that calls into question the implicit hero myth of resilience in psychology and the latter’s epistemic priorities. The antihero punchline was delivered when in response to the question about how they managed to be strong in the face of adversity, the Yi interviewees said that they could be stronger had they had more money or better health. This answer poses an embarrassingly honest but sane question: What is more important to them, to be a super-resilient hero who can survive the most extreme of conditions, or to be spared such ordeals? This question finds an eloquent expression in an essay by Michael Orsini (2020):

The resilience industry is rooted in an individual model of change, one that leaves untouched the structures and systems that are responsible for the trauma in the first place. Children growing up in under-served communities would not have to “overcome” their environments if their schools and neighbourhoods had the resources they deserved. Indigenous people would not need to become resilient in the face of colonial dispossession had they not been forced into residential schools or had their land occupied. As disability studies scholar Eli Clare reminds us, the language of “overcoming” is deeply ableist, as well, implying that people can will things away if they just work more or try harder. (para. 10)

This sobering question calls for a radical shift of priorities in science and society: Instead of creating elites to be the brightest stars in the darkest night, a science for social justice would be committed to the creation of a decent world for all, by eliminating the darkest conditions of deprivation that taunt the life instincts of so many marginalized populations around the globe.

Implications for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention

The cognitive styles of the traditional Nuosu-Yi—external focus, and concrete-experiential information processing (see Figure 1)—have implications for HIV/AIDS interventions.

External focus

As suggested by the foregoing analysis, the distinction drawn by the RSA between internal traits and external resources no longer holds in the Yi discourse on Jian qiang (being strong), in which internal strengths such as self-confidence are motivated by external factors such as material resources. This gives a uniquely external focus to the Yi’s resilience. A case in point is the notion of hope. Hope in the West is built on faith, which by definition is a belief in the invisible (possibilities; see Averill & Sundararajan, 2005). By contrast, Yi’s hope rests squarely upon visible evidence—their children and family—as a family member said, “When they grow up they will support me, then I will be fine” (F6).

Thus, the basis for Yi’s hope lies not in possibilities that only faith or the mind’s eye can see, so much as in concrete and tangible evidence that can be tracked by the naked eye. If we miss this external focus of the Yi, we might also miss their posttraumatic growth. Instead of talking about their own growth, the Yi interviewees focused on change and growth in the next generation, as evidenced by the following statement from one HIV/AIDS patient:

As for the education of my kids, I hope there will be good-hearted people to support them. So that they do not end up like me with no culture and little education, such that I did not even know that heroin is bad stuff. With more education, my kids will know that this drug is bad. With my low level of culture, I was easily persuaded by others not knowing that heroin is a drug. If my kids have more education and more culture, they will not make this mistake. (P5)

Concrete-Experiential information processing

As documented in the previous study (Ting & Sundararajan, 2018), the traditional Nuosu-Yi privileged the concrete and the experiential over the conceptual and the abstract in their information processing. This cognitive style has far reaching implications for HIV/AIDS interventions. For instance, instead of bouncing back, our interviewees talked about being/feeling normal as the goal to strive for. In a phrase, to be resilient is to stay normal. Thus, members of the focus group stated, “Even though he has AIDS, his personality is still like normal people. Someone like him is very optimistic. AIDS for him is just like having a flu” (S1) and, “They feel quite normal. We never consider ourselves a sick person, but rather like normal people” (S3). One HIV/AIDS patient stated, “I don’t feel anything different right now, just like other normal people. No problem, just as usual. It does not hurt either, after I take the medicine” (P4).

Relying on sensory experience to gauge illness is a double-edged sword so far as treatment and prevention are concerned. On the one hand, the experience-based self-diagnosis can lead to false optimism in the case of diseases with silent symptoms, such as a heart attack. On the other hand, the seeing/feeling is believing approach of the Yi may be appealed to as a key factor to compliance with treatment and prevention. To the extent that leading a normal life is the promise that current antiretroviral medications are in a position to deliver (Grinsztejn et al., 2014; Mills et al., 2011; Samji et al., 2013), appealing to the Yi’s aspiration for feeling normal will likely increase medication compliance.

Limitations and future directions

One limitation of this study lies in its small sample size, although the findings are consistent with an earlier, larger study (Ting & Sundararajan, 2018). Future studies should replicate with larger samples, and a comparison group. Our analysis of the Yi’s discourse on Jian chi (perseverance) suggests a hitherto neglected basic and possibly universal dimension of resilience, which warrants further investigation. With larger samples, future studies could apply the mixed-methods approach (Power et al., 2018) more fully by including textual analysis software besides LIWC (Pennebaker et al., 2001) to analyze the interview data, as was done in another study of the Yi (Sundararajan et al., 2020).

Supplemental Material

sj-pdf-1-tap-10.1177_09593543211001114 – Supplemental material for Resilience revisited: AIDS and resilience among a Yi ethnic minority in Southwest China

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-tap-10.1177_09593543211001114 for Resilience revisited: AIDS and resilience among a Yi ethnic minority in Southwest China by Rachel Sing-Kiat Ting, Louise Sundararajan, Yuanshan Luo, Junyi Wang and Kejia Zhang in Theory & Psychology

Footnotes

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors received subgrant funding from Travis Research Institutes (Fuller Seminary) to conduct this field study.

ORCID iDs

Rachel Sing-Kiat Ting

Louise Sundararajan

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Author biographies

Rachel Sing-Kiat Ting received her PhD in clinical psychology and MA of theology at the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology. She is also a licensed psychologist in California. She is currently working at the Monash University Malaysia campus as senior lecturer in psychology, where she set up her lab on culture and health. Her research interests include Indigenous psychology in Chinese and Malaysian contexts, focusing on healing traditions among ethnic minority groups. Her recent publications include: (with A. S. C. Mah & K. J. Zhang), “Chinese Traditional Religions and Mental Health” in T. Sisemore & J. Knabb (Eds.), The Psychology of World Religions and Spiritualities: An Indigenous Perspective (Templeton Press, 2020) and (with K. J. Zhang), “Giving Voice to the Voiceless: A Peaceable Research Paradigm for Psychology in China” in A. Dueck (Ed.), Indigenous Psychology of Spirituality: In My Beginning is My End (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

Louise Sundararajan received her PhD in history of religions from Harvard University, and her EdD in counselling psychology from Boston University. She is founder and chair of the Task Force on Indigenous Psychology, and a fellow of the American Psychological Association. She has published extensively on topics related to culture and emotions. Recent publications include Understanding Emotion in Chinese Culture: Thinking Through Psychology (Springer, 2015) and (with R. S.-K. Ting), Culture, Cognition, and Emotion in China’s Religious Ethnic Minorities: Voices of Suffering Among the Yi (Springer, 2018).

Yuanshan Luo is currently a school counselor at Zhongshan Experiment Middle School, who received her Master of applied psychology from China University of Political Sciences and Law. Her area of interest lies in youth mental health and school counseling. Recent publications include (with K. J. Zhang & R. S.-K. Ting), “Constructing a Peaceable Psychology Paradigm in the Study of Indigenous Religion Among China Ethnic Minorities” [Chinese translation] in Psychology of Religion (2020).

Junyi Wang is currently a J.D. candidate at the University of Melbourne. She received her Master’s in professional counselling and psychology (honours) Bachelor degrees from Monash University. She has worked with populations from less advantaged backgrounds including refugees, trauma survivors, and rural populations in both clinical and research settings.

Kejia Zhang received her PhD in religious studies from Minzu University of China and is currently teaching in the department of religious studies and Yi ethnicity studies at Southwest Minzu University. Her research specialties are the traditional beliefs of ethnic minorities in China, specializing in the Yi ethnic group. Recent publications include: (with R. S. K. Ting & Q. B. Huang), “An Inclusive Indigenous Psychology for all Chinese: Heeding the Mind and Spirit of Ethnic Minorities in China” in K.-H. Yeh (Ed.), Asian Indigenous Psychologies in Global Context (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

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