Day Four. Wednesday, 20 August 2014.

Unlike most Shans, I’m not a lover of festivities. Some may say that’s because I’m only three-quarter Shan. The remaining one-quarter is Chinese from my father’s side.

However, I had decided to attend the preparatory meeting for the Shan New Year 2109 which falls on 22 November for this year. The reason is simple: this year’s celebrations will be joined by Shans far and near. And since Taunggyi is the capital of Shan State, they will be observed by people from neighboring states and countries as well as tourists visiting there.

 Most importantly, how Shans run the show will greatly affect the ongoing peace process, even though it is no more than a cultural event.

The meeting, attended by some 150 participants, is held at the Meeting Hall of the Shan Literary and Culture Society on the Main Road (now renamed Bogyoke Road during my 40 year plus absence) at 09:00.

It is presided over by Sai Tun Mya, 64, one of Burma’s construction tycoons. For three successive years, he has been elected as chairman of the Shan New Year Festival Steering Committee, as he has been able to collect huge financial contributions for the society.
He opens the meeting by declaring the upcoming festival must be an event of substance and that he has invited the Shan Vice-President of U Thein Sein’s union government Sai Mawk Kham to preside over the New Year ceremony.

Sai Kham Nood, joint secretary of the Steering Committee (who happens to be my nephew-in-law), then reads out the 35 planned activities that will be carried out by 35 sub-committees.

They include, among others:
• Information and documentation
• Health
• Accommodation for guests coming from afar
• Entertainment
• Cultural seminar
• Miss Shan Culture contest
• Transportation
• Games
• Cultural Exhibitions
• Sanitation

The participants, most of who are from southern Shan State, with only 4 from eastern Shan State, report the preparations that have been undertaken, the problems they are facing and suggestions.
Among them, many useful suggestions come from eastern Shan State, where the 4 participants had been part of the steering committee that had organized the first all Shan State New Year festival two years earlier. They explain the problems that they had beset them, notably in the fields of  entertainment, transportation, sanitation and cultural seminar. “(For instance,) the date we had chosen for the seminar,” he says, “was on the last day of the festival. Naturally, there were only few attendees, because most of them were returning home.”

My contribution is little. Quoting Sun Wu’s “Governing a large number as though governing a small number is a matter of division into groups”, I suggest that the 35 sub-committees be regrouped into 5-7 sections to be supervised by vice chairpersons and assistant secretaries. “All of you know the famous Shan saying: If you want chaos, organize a festival. If you want to sleep alone, have a minor wife.” They all laugh but I cannot be sure whether they’ll take my suggestion seriously though I hope so.

We have a pleasant dinner party afterward.  I don’t eat after three, but drink a little with them, before taking leave.