Chang People

The Chang people are an ethnic group indigenous to the planet Chang-Er, with smaller communities found in neighboring systems within the Pariah Sector. They are a relatively small ethnic group number in the tens of millions, but maintain a unique cultural identity despite their homeworld being surrounded by two major galactic powers. Despite this, there are many similarities between the Chang and the Yuan peoples that are difficult, if not impossible to outright deny. Chang people are known to have a disproportionately high percentage of Homo sapiens astraeus (Star People) among their ethnicity, thanks in no small part due to the influence of agricultural companies in the initial settlement of Chang-Er.

Language

The Change people primarily speak the Chang language, it is a Sinitic language, however it diverges from other members of its language family in key ways. Aside from Chang, the Chang people may also speak other languages from communities they find themselves integrating into. Many speak Yuan, or Late Solar, in addition to, or instead of, the Chang Language. Among Chang people, even those that speak other languages however, there is an intense pressure to maintain the naming traditions that are indigenous to them.

Naming Conventions

A person generally has two names. The first, a monosyllabic family name, is given at birth. The second, almost always disyllabic name is chosen shortly after a Chang child reaches puberty, which coincidentally is usually around the time that a child first decides upon a gender identity. When presented together a name has three syllables, family name first, individual name second for example Bo Jierong. Before choosing their name, a child is given a number lining up with the order in which they were born to the same parents. This is likely a relic of early colonization when the Star People who first settled the planet were treated like cattle by the holders of Chang-Er’s charter. The structure of Chang names are likely a relic of the Chang language before it became the first of the Sinitc language to switch to a phonemic alphabet (in this case that used by the Solar languages), where the syllables would represent a character more in line with the syllabic alphabet used by other Sinitc languages. In light of this “Solarization” of the Chang Language, some Chang people, particularly those that grow up around foreigners, and those that wish to be associated with Solists, adopt names from other sources, though members of Chang nationalist and socialist groups make it a point of pride to take “Chang” names only.

Values

The Chang people have adapted well to the material conditions of their homeworld. Being a hot, often unbearably so, agricultural focused world. Chang peoples tend to place a strong value on local community and family bonds to a very strong degree, often associating themselves with their extended family unit or small town much more than a planetary government, even less a far off ruler weeks away from responding. These bonds are viewed as a necessity when it is local communities coming together to plant, tend, and harvest the enormous fields of grain that each small group is responsible for. A strong emphasis on hard work has been inculcated in Chang peoples, and it is seen as slothful to routinely work less than twelve hours a day, and overproduction being championed as an act of outright heroism. However, it is unknown whether this element of Chang culture was something that developed naturally or was imposed upon them from outside influences. Regardless, there are many competitions between communities about which can be the most productive and these competitions can be absolutely ruthless. Conversely, unlike a number of other, similar societies, the Chang do not place a strong emphasis on the value of modesty, or for that matter, temperance and as a result there is something of a strong party culture and permissive attitude to casual hookups. When combined with the Chang work ethic, there is an assumption that the Chang have a “work hard, play hard” attitude towards life, and indeed to a certain extent this is true. Chang do not have an especially strong inclination towards predefined gender roles, and recognize five distinct genders; feminine, masculine, Yige (known as “flipper” in Trade Solar), Jiangchiang (known as stern matriarch in Trade Solar), and Shunfu (which translates loosely to “he who submits” in Trade Solar), with a high degree of fluidity between genders within Chang culture. In general, divisions of labor between genders are egalitarian, with expression of gender signified through choices in clothing and the presence of body jewelry on the persons in particular.

Relations to other Ethnic Groups

The Chang people are closely related to a number of other people, Linguistically, and culturally the Chang are part of the Sinitic group, those tracing their origins back to the Chinese government on Old Earth, and are most closely related to other Sinitic peoples. Most notable of these are the Yuan people who settled close to them, and likely part of the same charter. There is a sense of fellowship between these two people though it is, for most, a one sided affinity of the Yuan for the Chang. Chang people are likewise related to the Aseni, and the Hang, though not nearly as intensely, and other ethnic groups that hailed from the region of East Asia on Earth.

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