For accurate and updated information on thousands of the world's languages, look to the trusted SIL International publication: Ethnologue. For specific Ethnologue information on the Dong language, the ethnologue lists both the southern Dong and the northern Dong.

DONG CULTURE
If you want to find concise Dong-specific research that is always current and accurate, DongTeam's own General Information page is the place to start. The internet is riddled with generalized profiles of the Dong people, but DongTeam is one of the few to review the profile at least twice a year to maintain the best concise profile you can find on topics both cultural and spiritual. After the DongTeam General Information page, many books and other materials can provide a more in depth study.

D. Norman Geary, along with a well rounded writing team, have recently published a comprehensive look at the Dong culture: The Kam People of China: Turning Nineteen?. This is definitely the most informative book on Dong people available in the English language. We also highly recommend that book's sequel, Dr. Geary's translation of Ou ChaoQuan's account of life growing up in a Dong village.

A much lighter publication was written by Gail Rossi. It is more of an introduction to the Dong people accompanied with a wealth of excellent photographs. The Dong People of China: A Hidden Civilization can be ordered from the DongTeam.org site via the Order Page.

DONG ARCHITECTURE
The Dong people are widely known for their distinctive architecture. If you want to learn more about the wind and rain bridges and drum towers of the Dong, Chinese publications abound, but English publications are scarce. The Kam People of China, noted above for its insight into Dong culture, also contains information on Dong architecture.

Another, but lower level research project with interesting conclusions about Dong architecture is "Contemporary Views of Dong Architectural Meaning", provided here with the author's consent.

Also of interest is the "Kaneshige Paper", which was written in non-native English, but none the less, contains a wealth of information pertaining to the spiritual connection between Dong and their architecture. It is written by a Japanese man who has married a Dong wife, and lived for an extended time in her village in Sanjiang County, Guangxi. It cannot be broadly applied to Dong people, but sheds light on the spiritual connection to architecture some Dong people hold.

DONG LINGUISTICS
The area of Dong linguistics has been quite extensively researched in Chinese and English. If you are looking for information of the level of intelligibility between different Dong dialects, the best place to start is the Dong Linguistic Survey.

The above mentioned D. Norman Geary has also translated a book originally written in Chinese. The Dong Language in Guizhou Province, China is a look at the background and phonological analysis of the Dong language by authors Long Yaohong and Zheng Guoqiao.

A linguistic researcher, Matthias Gerner, has written several papers in the field of Dong linguistics (and other Chinese minority languages). DongTeam provides links to Mr. Gerner's abstracts, most of which have purchase options if the full text is desired.

And, as mentioned above, the SIL International Ethnologue includes concise, but very proven information for both the southern Dong and the northern Dong.

RESEARCH MATERIALS
The DongTeam.org research materials are intended to aid the serious researcher and hobby reader alike. It is a collection of resources, some dense research references and others light glimpses into the lives of the Dong people. If you are interested in learning more about the Dong, but do not know where to start, feel free to send in your questions through the Contact page.

For now, DongTeam will provide English Language Materials only. If there is a need for any of the abundant Chinese language resources on the Dong people, use the Contact page to inquire into what is available.