Bending Chineseness

National Identities, 2016

Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 1985

for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I of course remain responsible for its content. 1. The question of whether ethnic minorities form a "nation" is extremely complex and a subject of continual debate. It is beyond the scope of this paper, but for a summary of the debate as it relates to China see George Moseley, "China's Fresh Approach to the National Minority Question," China Quarterly 24 (October-December, 1965): 19-22. 54 2. I am in cautious agreement with Dorothy Solinger who has argued that the implementation of minority policies depends largely on the size, location and impregnability of each group. The smaller the group, the more accessible to Han habitation, and the more impregnable to Han culture, the more moderate is policy implementation likely to be and the more likely the Han to be sensitive to the unique characteristics of that minority. Dorothy J.

Study of Nomadic Civilizations, 2024

Uradyn E. Bulag (University of Cambridge) Abstract: This article offers a theoretical intervention in new and emergent approaches to analysing China’s coercive nation-building policies under Xi Jinping. The author contends that the recent Western framing of CCP policies as genocidal or necropolitical, predicated on notions of settler colonialism and indigeneity, not only strips minority nationalities of their political agency but also prevents them from pursuing anti-colonial self-determination. By delving into the extensive scholarly work within Chinese anthropology, history, and philosophy that contributes to the reconstruction of a retrotopian Chinese nation with non-Han minority groups at its core, this article argues that the ongoing effort to build a revitalised Chinese national community requires more than merely overcoming obstacles related to minority cultures and identities. It entails actively reimagining the role and participation of minorities in ‘self-sacrifice’ for the Chinese national community, implying their voluntary relinquishment of identities and rights in order to align with the Chinese nation.

International Journal of Multicultural Education

This paper uses a critical multicultural, constructivist approach to examine how the Chinese government represents minority cultures in its official discourse. Although at an abstract level the government acknowledges the contributions of minority cultures to society, our findings show a mismatched picture in terms of minority representation. Government documents and discourse recorded and obtained on the government website only highlight traditional and stereotypical cultural aspects related to minorities. These representations essentialise minority cultures, obscure their dynamism and their contributions, reinforce power hierarchies, and discourage critical reflexivity. In this context, we recommend addressing fundamental challenges undergirding this pattern in representation to develop more balanced and comprehensive understandings of minority cultures.

Review of: Zang Xiaowei. 2015. Ethnicity in China: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press. Xxix + 190. One map, chronology, preface, acknowledgements, abbreviations, bibliography, index. ISBN: 978-07456-5361-7. Hardcopy = 62.50EURO; Paperback = 20EURO. Ethnicity in China, the latest in the China Today series, is an ambitious book, seeking to provide a panoramic overview of the defining issues of state-ethnic minority relations in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the context of immense social and political transformations since 1949, with particular emphasis on the post-1978 reform era. Written by Zang Xiaowei, Chair Professor of Social Sciences at City University of Hong Kong and highly renowned scholar in Chinese ethnicity studies, the book explores the role of China's nationality policy and the many ways in which it has impacted and continues to impact state-ethnic minority relations in China. Relying on an extensive range of existing documentary sources including scholarly articles, books, and such official PRC sources as government white papers and statistics, Zang aims to identify, describe, and analyse the guiding ideology underlying the state's approach to the fifty-five officially recognized ethnic minorities residing within the PRC. ...

Journal of Contemporary China, 2018

Previous scholarship has identified an emerging consensus for ethnicpolicy reform in China, in the direction of strengthening national integration and a 'melting pot.' This article identifies three major contending schools in Chinese debates about the country's ethnic governance: liberal autonomists, integrationists and socialist autonomists. It argues that the socialist autonomists, who oppose the 'melting pot,' have prevailed politically. Contention among the three schools, specifically, revolves around tradeoffs between autonomy and ethnic particularism. That is, compromised autonomy but preferential policies. The liberal autonomists reject the tradeoffs because of the cost to autonomy. The integrationists reject the tradeoffs because of the divisive role of ethnic particularism. The socialist autonomists, however, embrace the tradeoffs because of the developmental and distributional benefits. With the leftward turn of the Xi Jinping regime, they have prevailed ideologically and politically to safeguard the current system from any fundamental change.

History Compass, 2005

China's non-Han ethnic groups have been precipitated both through assimilation and territorial expulsion at the hands of the agriculturalists who gradually formed the Han Chinese majority and became the basis of empire, and by the last dynasty's incorporation of the thinly populated regions to the west and north. Recent research distinguishes assimilation from acculturation, indicating that both may occur at local initiative on local terms, and in the non-Han as well as the Han direction. New ethnicities have emerged through ecological adaptation and isolation. China's recognized minorities continue to play an important role in defining both the self-image of Han Chinese and China's identity as a modern nation-state.

E-Journal of Law , 2018

The aim of this research is to give an overview of the minorities in China. Other than the majority Han population, up to 55 officially recognized "nationalities" live today in China. The Chinese Communist rule recognized these "ethnic minorities" or "minority nationalities" through a long and complex process that started in 1949. Most of these minorities live in southern China, Tibet, and the western Province of Xinjiang or near the borders of neighboring countries. Despite their small numbers if compared with the Han majority, ethnic minorities, occupy 60 percent of the national territory, including most strategic borderlands, contain extensive mineral and pastoral resources. Today's Chinese rule don't allow much freedom for minorities when they don't submit fully to the Communist Party authorities and power. Like the Muslim Hui ethnic minority, many minorities are assimilated and enjoy some sort of freedom of worship and belief. Others, like the Uighurs and the Tibetans, don't enjoy this type of freedom and have to struggle in order to resist the assimilation policies of the state.

East Asia, 2018

This paper seeks to examine the People’s Republic of China’s (China) self-defined national identity and the consequences on China’s ethnic relations with its ethnic minorities. This paper argues that China’s identity is equated with the identity and culture of its ethnic Han Chinese majority—a narrative originally constructed by the Chinese state which its ethnic Han Chinese majority since indulges in. However, this hegemonic narrative is at the root of interethnic issues and tensions in China today, as further ethnic tensions stem from the resistance of ethnic minorities against Sinicization and the imposition of this “Chinese” identity against them. These phenomena thus both indicate what I term a weak “internal soft power appeal” of Han Chinese Confucian culture for ethnic minorities living in the PRC, and imply that China must adopt a different, more inclusive national identity if it were to maintain ethnic stability in the long term.