Editing Wa people (section)

=== British rule and enduring prejudices ===
[[File:Wa headmen.jpg|thumb|Wa headmen in British Burma.]]
Very little has been written about the Wa people except in the [[Chinese language]].<ref name="ReferenceT">[https://web.archive.org/web/20040201221535/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/FA24Ae06.html Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy, ''Myanmar's Wa: Likely losers in the opium war'']</ref> The area where they live had been traditionally administered by a ''[[Saopha]]'', a Shan hereditary chief. In the second half of the 19th century, the British authorities in Burma judged the Wa territory remote and of difficult access. Thus, excepting [[Mang Lon]] where the ''Saopha'' resided, the British left the Wa State without administration, its border with China undefined. That situation suited the Wa well, for throughout their history they had consistently preferred being left alone.<ref>N Ganesan & Kyaw Yin Hlaing eds. ''Myanmar: State, Society and Ethnicity''  Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, February 1, 2007, p. 269</ref>

The Wa were largely portrayed by colonial administrators as wild and dirty people owing to their practice of headhunting.<ref name="reuters.com"/> However, Chinese documents written prior to the twentieth century rarely mentioned the Wa as headhunters and yet it is this aspect of Wa culture that has been cited more than any other in order to emphasize the primitiveness of the Wa.<ref>Magnus Fiskesjö, ''The Fate of Sacrifice and the Making of Wa History'', 2000: 3–5</ref>

The prejudice continues in modern times when the Wa, who are economically not that different from other ethnic [[Hill tribe (Thailand)|hill tribe]]s in the area such as the [[Lahu people]], are largely known for their rebel army and as being involved in drug trafficking, overshadowing other aspects of their culture.<ref name="ReferenceA">Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy, ''Opium: Uncovering the Politics of the Poppy'', Harvard University Press</ref>