The Yi archives refer to books and documents written in Yi
language, the native language of an ethnic group located in
Southwest China and parts of Southeast Asia. As a writing
tradition in the peripheral area, Yi archives have been
historically ignored and annihilated by the mainstream Han
culture. Social revolutions in the past half century brought
large-scale deconstruction of both the archives and the Yi
language. The tiny survival collections in Yunnan, either public
or private, are now facing further serious preservation
conditions due to lack of necessary fund and effective means.
Preservation of the Yi archives in Yunnan before they disappear
forever is the focus of this project. The unsurpassable
significance of the Yi archives for the study of Yi people and
Yi culture exists in that they are the only available written
resource in the native Yi language, in addition to their
extraordinary richness in contents. The Yi language, first
appearing in the 14th century, had been actively spoken and
written