'Ethnic Minorities' in China (中国的'少数民族') [1]

Many of the people I have met in the United States think of the Chinese as a homogenous race. In fact, there are 56 ethnic groups in China. Among them, the Han people account for 92% of the country's total of 1.3 billion, while the other 55 ethnic groups (see Note 1 for their names) make up the remaining 8%-- that is the reason they are officially called “ethnic minorities” in China. The largest ethnic minority group is the Zhuang people in south China, totaling 16 million, while Lhoba, the smallest, has only 2,500 people. The Han people have their own spoken and written language, known as the Chinese language, which is commonly used throughout China. The Hui and Manchu ethnic groups also use the Han language. The other 53 ethnic groups use their own spoken languages, and 23 ethnic groups have their own written languages.

The origins, history and evolution of the ethnic groups in China are topics far beyond the scope of this article. What I can do is to summarize some key points about the Chinese ethnic minorities. While the Han ethnic group constitutes the mainstream of Chinese society, members of the Han race have continually merged with other ethnic peoples on all sides of China through cultural contact and intermarriage. Historically, the major threats to Han society came from the north. In a period of over 2,000 years, waves of invaders breached the Great Wall and poured into the Chinese heartland. The Turkics, Mongols, and Manchurians all came. At the same time, the Han were also following migratory patterns. Seeking to avoid invasions, or simply moving as burgeoning populations strained resources, some branches of the Han population moved southward. In the south, they met with an enormous diversity of cultures. Some ethnic minorities were pushed further south, others stayed in their own community or assimilated to the Han population. The current cultural landscape and ethnic distribution pattern in China has taken its shape as a result of this long process of ethnic migration and integration in times of war and peace. It can be seen by a geographic analysis that some of China's ethnic groups live together over vast areas, while some live in individual concentrated communities in small areas. In some cases minority peoples can be found living in a pocket surrounded by the Han people, while in other cases the situation is just the other way around. It should also be noted that the cultural and ethnic categories are neither fixed across ethnic groups nor within an ethnic community. The discursive boundaries have been in constant change since they were formed a long time ago. Some people have moved from one ethnic group to another, depending on the socio-political context of the Chinese society at a given time.  

For centuries virtually all the “foreigners” that Han rulers saw were so-called barbarian peoples whose cultures were demonstrably inferior by Han Chinese standards. This circumstance conditioned the Han view of the outside world. They saw their domain as the self-sufficient center of the universe and derived from this image China was named “Zhongguo”, or Central Kingdom, by the ancient Han Chinese with a "Han-centric" view. On the other hand, the Han Chinese have been militarily humiliated and conquered by other ethnic groups several times in history. In the past, the terms such as “Yi”, “Hu” and “Di”, used by the Han people to name the ethnic minority groups thus had a negative meaning laced with the feelings of contempt and distrust toward the ethnic minorities. Things have changed in the last century. The Han Chinese leaders have realized that it is important for all ethnic groups in China to share equality, unity, and common prosperity. When the Qing dynasty of the Manchu people at last collapsed in 1911, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), Father of the Republic of China, outlined the policy for the new government to handle ethnic affairs. In “The Fundamentals of National Reconstruction”, he declared that “No vengeance has been inflicted on the Manchus and we have endeavored to live side by side with them on an equal footing. This is our nationalistic policy toward ethnic groups within our national boundaries.” In the current Chinese society, the constitution of the PRC specifies that all ethnic groups are equal. Discrimination against or oppression of any ethnic group is prohibited. The state guarantees the lawful rights and interests of the minority peoples. To this end, while maintaining totalitarian rule of the state, PRC exercises a policy of regional autonomy for various ethnic groups, allowing minority peoples living in compact communities to establish self-government and direct their own affairs. By "autonomy", it does not mean complete political freedom. Instead, autonomy is present in education, cultural expression, and respect for local customs. Under current regulations, ethnic minority people are given special treatment (something similar to affirmative action in the US), which includes looser control of the moral, cultural, religious and social needs of the ethnic groups other than Han which the state does not wish to grant to the majority of the population. Every ethnic group has the freedom to use its own spoken and written languages and to retain or change its customs. The ethnic minority people are not subjected to the “one-couple, one-child” family planning policy. China’s university system also encourages the participation of students from ethnic minority groups by relaxing the entrance qualifications for them. These measures allow for some selective social autonomy and provide formal structures for political inclusion, interethnic harmony, and cooperation of ethnic groups which otherwise might alienate themselves from the system. (to be continued...)