There are approximately 1.6 million Dong people all living in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province. The Dong hill tribe belongs to the Dai branch of the Sino-Tibetan linguistic family. They had no written language until 1958 when their language was transcripted into Roman script. Singing is a large part of their oral tradition.

The Dong people generally live by the water and cultivate terraced fields in the hills and mountains. Glutinous rice is the preferred staple, but poorer areas will grow millet, maize and sweet potatoes as their staple. Like the Miao, fish are raised in the rice paddies. Villages also have fishponds in case of fire. Protein such as fish, chicken, and pork are eaten sparingly. Food is always spicy and often sour.

The Dong are famous for their wooden architecture, particularly their drum towers and wind and rain bridges. Besides their beauty, what makes these structures particularly special is that they are constructed without the need of nails. Drum towers are used as a social center and meeting place for villagers to solve problems, tell stories, sing, and meet on festival days. The drum tower gets is name from the fact that in years past, a tower housed a huge drum that was beaten to warn villagers of danger. Wind and rain bridges are places for villager to meet and socialize, but are also meant to shelter travelers from the elements. Since all of the structures are made of wood. The Dong people have the tradition of planting a fir tree, the tree of choice for building, with each new baby that is born. The tree is to be used to build a house when the child reaches adulthood.

Dong women commonly wear skin-tight indigo trousers, which look a bit like leggings, embroidered gaiters, a pleated skirt, an embroidered jacket, and a headscarf. The Dong women employ different methods to make the shiny indigo cloth including beating the cloth and using egg whites to coat the cloth after the dying process. Dong woman also wear silver jewelry including chains, bracelets, hairpins, and combs. However, unlike the Miao, Dong women to not wear elaborate headdresses. Most Dong men wear western style clothing. Those that still wear traditional clothing wear straw sandals and mid-shin indigo pants with a wooden or bamboo tool holder shaped like a horn slung behind their back.

Singing is an integral part of the Dong courting rituals. At courting festivals, young men and women attract each other by singing. When a boy and girl are interested in each other, they would sing to each other in an antiphonal style back and forth. Gifts are exchanged between the two families after a marriage date is set. Once the couple is married, the wife will help the husband’s family during the busy farm seasons, but usually does not live with husband until she is pregnant. Practices like prearranged marriages are becoming more commonplace as the Dong people are influenced by the Han culture.