Ethnicity in China: A Critical Introduction E-Book

Xiaowei Zang

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: China Today
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 392

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

On the global stage, China is often seen to be a homogenous nation when, in fact, it is a diverse multi-ethnic society, with 55 minority nationality groups recognized by the government. Scattered across the vast landmass, ethnic minorities in China occupy a precarious place in the state, where the Confucian concept of cultural community plays down ethnicity and encourages integration of minority nationalities into the majority Han-Chinese society.

This insightful book reveals the ethnic diversity underlying the People’s Republic of China and examines how ethnicity intersects with social and political issues through key themes such as ethnic inequality, the preservation and contribution of the rich traditions and customs of minority cultures, and the autonomy of regions such as Tibet and Xinjiang. The author investigates the important role of the state and Beijing’s assimilation stance to show how its nationality policy, driven by Confucian assimilation ideology, has dictated China’s own minority rights regime and influenced its foreign policy towards international minority rights.

This book by a distinguished scholar of ethnicity in China will be essential reading for students and scholars of race and ethnic relations, nationalism and Chinese culture and society.

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Xiaowei Zang,

Ethnicity in China

Copyright © Xiaowei Zang 2015

The right of Xiaowei Zang to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2015 by Polity Press

Polity Press

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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

350 Main Street

Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5360-0

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5361-7(pb)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9045-2(epub)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9044-5(mobi)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zang, Xiaowei.

    Ethnicity in China : a critical introduction / Xiaowei Zang.

        pages cm

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 978-0-7456-5360-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 0-7456-5360-X (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-7456-5361-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) – ISBN 0-7456-5361-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)    1.  Minorities–China.    2.  Ethnic groups–China.    3.  Ethnicity–China.    4.  Ethnology–China.    5.  China–Ethnic relations.    I.  Title.

    DS730.Z364 2015

    305.800951–dc23

                                               2014025915

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

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Chronology

1894–5

First Sino-Japanese War

1911

Fall of the Qing dynasty

1912

Republic of China established under Sun Yat-sen

1927

Split between Nationalists (KMT) and Communists (CCP); civil war begins

1934–5

Long March

1935

Declaration of the Chinese Soviet Republic to the Mongolian Nationality

proclaimed

1936

Declaration of the Chinese Soviet Republic of the Hui Nationality

proclaimed

1936

Hui autonomous government in Tongxin, Ningxia established

December 1937

Nanjing Massacre

1937–45

Second Sino-Japanese War

1945–9

Civil war between KMT and CCP

1947

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region established

1948

Yanbian Daily

in Korean language is launched in Jilin province

1949

Xinjiang Daily

in Chinese, Uyghur, Kazak and Mongolian languages is launched

October 1949

KMT retreats to Taiwan; Mao founds People's Republic of China (PRC)

1950–3

Korean War

1951

Qinghai Tibetan Journal

is launched

1951

A seventeen-point agreement between the PRC and representatives of the Dalai Lama is put into effect

1953

First National Traditional Ethnic Minority Sports Meet

1953–4

Ethnic Classification Project

1953–7

First Five-Year Plan; PRC adopts Soviet-style economic planning

1954

First constitution of the PRC and first meeting of the National People's Congress

1955

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region established

1956–7

Hundred Flowers Movement, a brief period of open political debate

1957

Anti-Rightist Movement

1958

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region established; Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region established

1958–60

Great Leap Forward, an effort to modernize China through rapid industrialization and collectivization

March 1959

Tibetan Uprising in Lhasa; Dalai Lama flees to India

1959–61

Three Hard Years, widespread famine with tens of millions of deaths

1960

Sino-Soviet split

1962

Sino-Indian War

1965

Tibet Autonomous Region established

1966–76

Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution; Mao reasserts power

February 1972

President Richard Nixon visits China; ‘Shanghai Communiqué’ pledges to normalize US–China relations

September 1976

Death of Mao Zedong

October 1976

Ultra-Leftist Gang of Four arrested and sentenced

December 1978

Deng Xiaoping assumes power; launches Four Modernizations and economic reforms

1978

One-child family planning policy introduced

1979

US and China establish formal diplomatic ties; Deng Xiaoping visits Washington

1979

Sino-Vietnamese war

1982

Census reports PRC population at more than one billion

1984

Law on Regional Autonomy for Minority Nationalities of the PRC issued

December 1984

Margaret Thatcher co-signs Sino-British Joint Declaration agreeing to return Hong Kong to China in 1997

1987–9

Tibetan unrest in Sichuan, Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai, and the Tibetan prefectures in Yunnan and Gansu

May 1989

Ürümqi unrest in which Uyghur and Hui Muslims protest the publication of

Sexual Customs

《性风俗》

1989

Tiananmen Square protests culminate in June 4 military crackdown

1992

Deng Xiaoping's Southern Inspection Tour re-energizes economic reforms

February 1992

Ürümqi bombings resulting in 3 deaths and 23 injuries

February 1997

The Ghulja Incident in which Uyghurs demand independence for Xinjiang

February 1997

Ürümqi bombings resulting in 9 deaths and 74 injuries

1993–2002

Jiang Zemin is president of PRC, continues economic growth agenda

November 2001

WTO accepts China as member

2003–13

Hu Jintao is president of PRC

March 2008

Tibetan riots in which 19 die and more than 380 civilians are injured

March–August 2008

Uyghur unrests in Hotan and Qaraqash county of Xinjiang

August 2008

The Kashgar attack resulting in the death of 16 Chinese police officers

August 2008

Summer Olympic Games in Beijing

June 2009

The Shaoguan incident, which is widely cited as the trigger event for the July 2009 Ürümqi riots

July 2009

Ürümqi riots in which nearly 200 die and more than 1,700 are injured

2010

Shanghai World Exposition

August 2010

The Aksu bombing resulting in 7 deaths and 14 injuries in Xinjiang

July 2011

The Hotan attack in Xinjiang

July 2011

The Kashgar attacks in Xinjiang

2012

Xi Jinping appointed General Secretary of the CCP (and president of PRC from 2013)

February 2012

The Yecheng attack in Xinjiang with 15 deaths and 18 injuries

June 2012

Six Uyghur men fail to hijack Tianjin Airlines Flight 7554

April 2013

The Bachu unrest in Xinjiang in which 21 people die

June 2013

The Shanshan attack in Xinjiang kills 2 policemen and 22 civilians; 11 of the Uyghur attackers are also killed

October 2013

Three Uyghurs drive a 4×4 vehicle into crowds in Tiananmen Square resulting in 5 deaths and 38 injuries

March 2014

The 2014 Kunming attack in which Uyghur attackers kill 29 civilians and injure more than 140 civilians

April 2014

PRC President Xi Jinping makes a four-day tour of Xinjiang

April 2014

Uyghurs attack passengers and detonate bombs at the exit of Ürümqi South Station, killing one civilian and injuring 79 civilians

May 2014

Five Uyghur assailants plough two vehicles and throw explosives into a crowd in a market in Ürümchi, killing 39 civilians and injuring at least 94

July 2014

Uyghur attacks on Shache County in Xinjiang result in a death toll of 37 civilians and 59 people identified as terrorists

Preface

Nationality is arguably a product of state building in the West. No such concept existed in pre-modern China, and it was not until the late nineteenth century that it was introduced to China from Japan. It is often translated as minzu (民族) in Chinese, which means ‘a people’ or ‘an ethnic group’. In Chinese, ‘minority nationality’ is called ‘shaoshu minzu’ (少数民族). According to the Chinese government, there are altogether 56 ethnic groups in China. This book is about ethnic minorities in China and their relations to the Chinese state in the context of social and political change since 1949, with the emphasis on the post-1978 era, as market reforms have fundamentally changed the institutional arrangements for ethnic relations in the People's Republic of China (PRC). This book insists that the most important aspect of ethnic relations in China is the relations between the PRC state and the ethnic minorities rather than those between Han Chinese, the ethnic majority group, and the ethnic minority groups. The PRC state created the ethnic divide between Han Chinese and non-Han groups, classifying non-Han groups into different nationality groups and maintaining the ethnic identity of each PRC citizen through the state household registration system and personal identity card (Gladney 1996). There would not be 56 nationality groups in China without the PRC nationality policy. Accordingly, this book focuses on the PRC's nationality policy and its impacts on the ethnic minorities to elucidate ethnic relations in China.