The Cong is a kind of folk organi-zation which is very popular among the Naxi in Li-jiang, southwest China . The basic principle of Cong, similar to that of rotating saving and credit associations ( roscas) in the world, is that a group of people who know and trust each other contribute a fixed amount of money at regular intervals to a fund.This fund is rotated entirely among the mem-bers of the group , and the order of rotation is de-termined usually by negotiation or by lottery .This paper examines the Naxi ’ s Cong practice from both historical and gender perspectives by putting it in a larger context of state political and economic structure .The author ’ s discussion on the Cong practice is divided into four historical periods -the Republican era ( 1912 -1949 ) , Post Libera-tion (1949-1970s), Post Reforms (1980s-mid-dle of 1990s) and the contemporary period ( mid-dle of 1990s-now).