Restorative Justice in the Mountain: An Indigenous Lens into “De Gu” Mediation in Southwest China

Abstract

The (re)discovery of restorative justice (RJ) in Indigenous history assumes that this reputedly new justice initiative is actually “really not new.” Indigenous peoples’ philosophies and justice practices carry specific elements almost identical to RJ’s essentials. This article focuses on the Indigenous narrative of RJ, spotlighting De Gu mediation, a form of traditional justice practiced by ethnic Yi people in China. Drawing on empirical evidence obtained in Liangshan, a significant highland inhabited by Yi people, three cases are refined and demonstrated. They highlight that the hybridity of justice in Liangshan created spaces where De Gu justice and the Chinese state justice systems can work in mutually constitutive ways in which social justice, due process, and Indigenous cultures, to an extent, are manifest. This article not only contributes to RJ literature with its signpost to the Indigenous RJ in China, but it also extends the lens when viewing China of today.