男人永遠不是老大的西藏部落

Imagine a society without fathers; without marriage (or divorce); one in which nuclear families don’t exist. Grandmother sits at the head of the table; her sons and daughters live with her along with the children of those daughters following the maternal bloodline. Men are little more than studs sperm donors who inseminate women but have more often than not little involvement in their children’s upbringing.

設想一個沒有父親的社會。不結婚（不離婚），家裏的不存在覈心成員（父親）的社會。奶奶的家庭地位是最重要，她的兒女們與女兒的孩子們，按照母系血緣與她生活在一起。男人們更像是負責令女人懷孕的種馬，很少參與撫養孩子。

This progressive feminist world – or anachronistic matriarchy as skewed as any patriarchal society depending on your viewpoint – exists in a lush valley in Yunnan south-west China in the far eastern foothills of the Himalayas. An ancient tribal community of Tibetan Buddhists called the Mosuo they live in a surprisingly modern way: women are treated as equal if not superior to men; both have as many or as few sexual partners as they like free from judgment; and extended families bring up the children and care for the elderly.

這個女權主義世界--或者你可以認爲，這是與父系社會一樣過時的母系社會。處於中國西南部雲南省，位於喜馬拉雅山脈的東部的一個山谷中。源於藏傳佛教徒名爲摩梭的古老部落，她們有着驚人的現代生活方式，女人被視爲與男人平等的，男女雙方都擁有的或多或少的性伴侶，他們依照自己的喜好做決定。增加家庭成員，撫養孩子並贍養老人。

But is it as utopian as it seems? And how much longer can it survive?

這像不像一個烏托邦？這種生活方式，還能持續多久呢？（走婚的摩梭族人）

Choo Waihong set about finding out. A successful corporate lawyer from Singapore she left her job in 2006 to travel. Having trained and worked in Canada the US and London she felt drawn to visit China the country of her ancestors. After reading about the Mosuo she decided to take a trip to their picturesque community – a series of villages dotted around a mountain and Lugu Lake – as many tourists do. But something beyond the views and clean air grabbed her.

朱偉鴻（音譯）開始着手尋找這些問題的答案。她是新加坡一位成功的公司律師，於2006年辭職後開始旅行。在加拿大、美國、倫敦培訓和工作過後，她產生了遊覽中國的興趣——那個她祖先的國度。在讀到有關摩梭的資料後，她決定去拜訪那個散落在大山中如畫般的社區，並像許多外國遊客一樣遊覽瀘沽湖。但一些美好景色和清新空氣之外的東西深深吸引了她。

“I grew up in a world where men are the bosses” she says. “My father and I fought a lot – he was the quintessential male in an extremely patriarchal Chinese community in Singapore. And I never really belonged at work; the rules were geared towards men and intuitively understood by them but not me. I’ve been a feminist all my life and the Mosuo seemed to place the female at the centre of their society. It was inspiring.”

“我成長於一個男性主導的世界”，她說，“父親和我經常吵架，他是極重父權的新加坡華人社區裏的一個典型男性。我在工作中從來沒有歸屬感，所有規則都面向男性，且能被他們男性的思維直觀理解，而非像我這樣的女性。我一直是一個女權主義者，摩梭似乎將女性置於他們社會的中心。這很讓人振奮。”