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This paper aims to explore the dynamics evident in views among Chinese-Indonesians regarding the preferred name for their ethnic identity, with particular reference to the 2014 Presidential Decree that changed the official term from 'Cina' to 'Tionghoa'. Using a qualitative approach, the data was collected through surveys and in-depth interviews with a number of purposely selected Chinese-Indonesian participants. In general, the survey results indicated that both older and younger generations of Chinese-Indonesians believe the policy of officially naming their ethnic group is a valid means to eliminate discrimination and negative stereotyping. However, acknowledging their intrinsic heterogeneity, although it is deemed necessary to regulate an ethnic identity term or name, it is likewise important to develop that identity by supporting a bottom-up process that encourages a fair understanding in the wider community that being 'Cina', 'Tionghoa' or 'Chindo/Cindo' are an integral element of Indonesian-ness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnicity refers to a group of people who share particular characteristics and identity in society. Being a member of an ethnicity means sharing values, power, and status of the corresponding group. Many studies have shown that ethnical differences exist in communities, but the empirical research on the ethnicities of Chinese and Portuguese in Macao, the very first city of China interacting with the West, is scant. This paper uses the multinomial logit model and presents evidence about the influence of ethnical characteristics on the educational attainment in Macao, China. Data are drawn from the Statistics and Census Service of the government of Macao China. The findings confirm that ethnical characteristics do affect educational attainment after controlling for age and gender. In addition, multiracial (Chinese and Portuguese) and Portuguese have higher educational attainment in general, however, the effects of ethnic characteristics are decreasing in young generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to present an explanation of why the Muslim governments largely abstained from even bringing up the Uyghur case with China, while the Rohingya issue provoked official condemnations by the governments in many Muslim countries. Although economic factors are most often consulted internationally, this article puts forward political factors as sufficient to explain the Muslim governments' responses to the Xinjiang issue – primarily the domestic politics, and secondarily seeking of strategic alternatives to balance the West. In the context of hybrid political regimes in many Muslim countries, the domestic public opinion played an important role in deciding whether the government would address the issue. Effectively only Turkey presents the case where the public pays attention to the Uyghurs, and the government felt obliged to raise the issue at least to some extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African economies are currently characterised by the increasing penetration of made-in-China products, resulting in a resurgence of academic interest in the 'country of origin' (COO) studies. The existing literature has described Chinese products as 'inferior' and patronised by the poor who cannot afford 'superior' brands from elsewhere. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with 65 consumers and 15 suppliers of made-in-China products in Ghana, this paper unpacks the notion of 'inferiority' of 'made-in-China' and the process of uptake in Ghana. The findings indicate that increasingly, Ghanaians of different socioeconomic statuses patronise made-in-China and employ various approaches including foot-in-the-door technique, the demand for product warranty and reliance on product reviews to guarantee their purchases. The findings, therefore, challenge the constraining effect of COO as a determinant of purchasing behaviour and reiterate the creativity and innovativeness of consumers to safeguard their private interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greater Liangshan is one of the few regions of China where, among 70–80% of Nuosu, the Han are a minority. Instead of the much more common phenomenon of ‘Hanification,’ here we can observe Han absorbing traits of other ethnic groups. Based on two seasons of fieldwork combined with historical texts and previous ethnographic research, this paper discusses this phenomenon, raising issues of ethnic identity and the influence of local circumstances on interethnic relations. Throughout the paper, it becomes clear that there is no simple dichotomy between Han and Nuosu, but that the situation is considerably more complex. The Nuosu fall into several castes, and the Han settlers had two different experiences. Some were captured as slaves and tried to become fully Nuosu. Ethnic relations in the Greater Liangshan are thus highly complex and require more research to be thoroughly understood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Through an analysis of popular posts Tibetans shared over the social media application WeChat in 2013 and 2014 and offline discussions about them, this paper shows how Tibetans living in and traveling through Xining City practiced and performed their ethnic identity in the face of perceived harassment. Through their viral posts, they created a cyber-community that contributed to Tibetan ethnic group formation when Tibetans interpreted their ethnic identity as the basis for unjust treatment by the Chinese state and private Han individuals. In online posts the Han are portrayed as harassing Tibetans after terror attacks across China, violatingminzurights, denigrating Tibetan culture and territory, and denying Tibetans equal footing as modern compatriots. Social media are changing the ‘representational politics’ of Tibetan ethnicity, altering participation in the representation of the Tibetan ethnic group. Still, online discourse remains subject to constraints; private offline discussions remain important fora of opinion exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The majority of Ahmao in southwest China have been Christian since a mass conversion movement took place in the 1900s. Throughout the century, Ahmao congregations have gone through several reforms and survived many political campaigns. After two decades of prosperity through China’s reform era, since the 2000s many Ahmao congregations in northern Yunnan have experienced schisms. This paper sets out to investigate a schism that took place in a medium-size Ahmao congregation between 2005 and 2015. Based upon several years of continuous fieldwork, I found that the alleged schism in this Ahmao congregation – rather than describing a long-standing fracture in the community – appears intermittently and should be considered as an effect of religious regulation that problematizes the agency of spiritual practice. Under the regime of religious regulation in contemporary China, Ahmao congregations have been delicately negotiating between different modes of agency as changes in Christian practice become necessary or inevitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the Tibet question through the looking glass of Taiwan, by considering four dimensions of comparative dynamics between the two cases of Taiwan and the Tibetan government-in-exile (TGIE) in relation to China: territorial, economic, ethnic and cultural. Of the four, the paper argues, Taiwan has high convergence with China in the economic, ethnic and cultural dimensions, and managed divergence in the territorial dimension. The TGIE, on the other hand, has high divergence with China in all four dimensions: territorial dispute, economic incongruence, ethnic estrangement, and cultural gulf. Further, the TGIE is ideologically and sentimentally charged by this divergence and thrives by exploiting it. It therefore should have few incentives to see the lessons of Taiwan applied in resolving the Tibet question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the present situation of Tibetology in contemporary China and shows the achievements and latest developments of Tibetology in contemporary China. It highlights the characteristics of Tibetology in contemporary China, based on analyzing the main fields of Tibetology. Furthermore, this paper assesses the dynamics and excellent features of Tibetology in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rationale behind this paper is to stimulate reflection, open a debate and provide its readers with some much overlooked perspectives, perceptions and approaches from China, India and the Tibetan émigrés in India as regards the Tibet issue. These are formulated on the basis of author's interviews and enquiries with the representatives of the Dalai Lama's Tibetan Government in Exile, the leaders of Tibetan Youth Congress, the representatives of Students for a Free Tibet, as well as the Tibetan émigré in India and ordinary Indians. Besides, the paper also throws light on major differences and contradiction between India and China over Tibet issue; the future course of the Tibetan movement; and explores the possibilities of establishing a mechanism between India and China on Tibet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the re-migration and adjustment of Indonesian Chinese to living in Hong Kong and their cultural belonging to Hong Kong, China, and Indonesia. Known in China as guiqiao or 'Returned Overseas Chinese', these were Chinese who re-migrated from Indonesia to mainland China in the 1950s and 1960s. By the early 1970s, many were allowed to migrate to Hong Kong. Although arriving with very little money, many have succeeded in establishing a fairly good life in Hong Kong, although there are also many who survive on low incomes. This paper discusses the experiences of the Indonesian Chinese in relation to local and transnational belonging, the perception of homelands, and the re-establishment of a Southeast Asian lifestyle in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the discursive peregrinations of the 'Han' category in the writings of the Chinese revolutionary, theoretician and activist Qu Qiubai. In the papers he wrote at the beginning of the 1930s dealing with the questions of language and writing, the author made singular use of the concept 'Han' to talk about the language/writing of the 'Han' (Hanzi, Hanyu) as a racial or ethnic group (Hanzu). Qu elaborated a discourse which articulated and mobilized, sometimes in a contradictory manner, the 'Han' category both as a 'race' and as a social class. Going beyond the race/class dialectic, I will try to show that these texts question the territorial, cultural and ethnic boundaries of 'China' and its homogeneity. Following this argument, this paper demonstrates how Qu's attempt to define 'Chinese language(s)' helps us to elucidate the complex articulation between China as a discursive and spatial category, the 'Han' category, and the other nationalities in the Chinese space. By questioning the homogeneity of the linguistic identity of China, using the word zhongguohua, Qu Qiubai unveiled an unstable and fragile imaginary relative to China and its so-called majority ethnic group, the Han. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an overview of issues pertaining to highland minorities in the three socialist countries sharing portions of the Southeast Asian Massif, namely China, Vietnam and Laos. It presents the historical complexity of highland minority policy in these countries. The paper thus depicts prevalent state strategies that aimed, and largely still aim, to handle highland minorities in the most effective and economical way, to ensure that the nation will progress steadily forward. The six current issues of borders and transnationality, taxonomy, indigenous peoples' status, customary land tenure, tourism and environmental issues are then explored critically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic Koreans in China have been widely recognized as a 'model minority' primarily for academic success. Using the data collected as part of a larger ethnographic research on Korean elementary school students, this paper examines how 27 Korean families construct meaning out of the model minority stereotype in the context of their lived experience in Northeast China. Research results indicate that Koreans constructed the multi-faceted nature of 'model minority' as a matter of cultural superiority and dual economic marginalization in the Chinese and South Korean mainstream societies, and valued education as a practical means to achieve economic upward mobility into the Chinese mainstream. This paper argues that the model minority stereotype with the cultural explanations for Korean success may reinforce the cultural deficiency argument about the academic failure of 'backward' minorities, silence the disadvantages suffered by Koreans in China's reform period and lead to no active intervention to remedy them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the construction of Bai ethnicity and Bai identity on the tourist market in Dali, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Focusing on how the social landscape of Dali has changed in response to the development of tourism, this paper explores how Bai ethnicity is advocated as a product loaded with potential economic values. The author discovers that 'commerce of authenticity' (T. Oakes, Tourism and modernity in China. London, Routledge, 1998), and different forms of ethnicity and artefacts promoted in the tourist market have not drowned out the sense of being ethnically Bai. Instead, the tourist industry has become a daily reminder of ethnicity to both insiders and outsiders by making people more self-conscious and reflexive about the 'cultural stuff' that they may have previously taken for granted, or may have left unattended. This paper demonstrates how locals actively appropriate state-defined categories and reshape them into the repertoire they desire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Han Chinese migration into Inner Mongolia has been an ongoing process. There have been academic studies on such migration, and on Han Chinese peasant migrants and their interactions with the Mongols. This paper is a study of a particular group of Han migrants, known in English as the sent-down youths, sent by the government to Inner Mongolia, in the movement of 'going up to the mountains and down to the villages', or the rustication movement, which reached its height during the Cultural Revolution (1966 -1976). Among the total of 17 million urban middle school graduates sent to various parts of China to become farmers, about 200,000 went to Inner Mongolia. By the mid-1980s the majority of these sent-down youths had returned to the cities and regained their urban household status. Based on works written by those who went to Inner Mongolia, and especially the interviews I conducted with some of them, this paper analyses their experiences, what it meant to them and the impact they had on the ecology and the political and ethnic integration of Inner Mongolia. I argue that the rustication movement as a Communist 'civilizing' project had negative effects on the ecology of Inner Mongolia. The sent-down youths functioned as instruments in the Han demographic and economic expansion and domination, but in the process, as individuals they underwent journeys of discovery of themselves and of the Mongols. To some, the experiences meant more awareness of ethnic diversity and more consciousness of ethnic rights as well as environmental issues. On the popular level, they played a role in enhancing ethnic integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data collected in Lanzhou, this paper examines the effect of minority ethnicity on neighbourly relations in China. It shows that the Hui as a whole express a higher level of satisfaction at relations with neighbours than the Han do. It also shows that the Hui advantage is removed with key background characteristics controlled. Finally, this paper shows intra-group variation among the Hui. These findings suggest that social status is a better predictor of neighbourly relations than the focus on inter-group contrast in traditionality in the existing scholarship of the Hui. Both inter- and intra-group variation in urban life must be examined to attain a more balanced picture of Hui Muslims in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the growth of identity among Muslim ethnic groups in China, especially the Sinic people called the Hui. It asks whether this identity springs primarily from ethnicity or religion. While affirming that Islam has grown in influence in China since the 1980s, the paper argues in favour of seeing the balance more strongly in favour of ethnicity. The paper also discusses the impact of the September 11 Incidents on Muslims in China. Addressing the issue in terms of ethnicity and religion, it discusses the ramifications of the recognition of the Uygur-based East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist organisation by the US and United Nations. It explores important issues relating to morality and human rights and concludes that the Chinese have cause to worry about separatist terrorism based on Islamic fundamentalism in southern Xinjiang, but criticises using recognition of ETIM as terrorist as a weapon against the general religion of Islam or against Uygur identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a survey data set (n = 1,992) collected in Lanzhou, China, I examine the Hui - Han differences in perceptions on intermarriage. The questions I ask in this paper include: What is the extent of interethnic marriages in Lanzhou? Do the Hui and Han feel differently about interethnic marriage? Which ethnic group is more negative about Hui - Han marriages and why? Are perceptions about endogamy patterned by ethnicity or socio-economic status or both? I seek plausible answers to these questions in this paper. A preliminary analysis of the 2001 survey data shows a high degree of endogamy in Lanzhou. It also shows that the Hui are more negative about intermarriage than the Han. However, the ethnic differences in perceptions on intermarriage fade away with socio-economic variables controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for a new understanding of the Chinese ethnic classification project of the 1950s, which is too easily read as merely an exercise in colonising representations. Claiming that there may yet be cultural spaces uncolonised by 'modernity', the paper argues that recent research, through over-emphasising the transformation of local identities by the state and concentrating on minority elite views, may have missed something of the facticity with which culture is experienced at the local level. The paper examines the main effects of classification, drawing on the author's Sichuan research to show that it may sometimes be necessary to indulge in a kind of essentialism in order to understand the complexity of the changes which have taken place. It is suggested that minority policy together with other social changes has in some cases paradoxically strengthened traditional expressions of identity at the expense of both the official minority categories often stressed, and more local cultural sub-distinctions. However, the problems of isolating the effects of these changes in the absence of detailed local accounts of the 1949-89 period are drawn attention to, and the paper calls for a new ethnography of the classification project itself. In conclusion, the shortcomings of an extreme constructivist approach in accounting for the strength of local 'indigenisms' are examined, and the classification project is shown to have had important aims in common with those of anthropology in elucidating vital local senses of difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the lack of attention given to ethnicity in Yongshun County in Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Western Hunan. Contrary to most other papers on Chinese ethnic politics, my discussion is on the lack of ethnicity. The aim of this paper is to serve as a reminder that, in a case like Yongshun, ethnic identification means more to a visitor than to the locals. Yongshun's Tujia and Miao people do indeed form one community, but it is because of clan Confucianism not ethnicity. Modernisation is yet to replace local conventions, and villagers who advance most quickly in the market willingly make sacrifices for siblings and children. The government and the Party assume the leadership role to meet the locals' mentality of dependency. The lesson of my four visits to Yongshun is the following: while everyone seems to agree that Yongshun's residents are ethnically Tujia and Miao and they have seen some degree of modernisation, neither ethnicity nor modernisation has a clear meaning to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the overwhelming numerical dominance of the Han within the Chinese population and the highly localised distributions of most minority groups, it is difficult to assess the level of either segregation or ethnic integration in China in a systematic or meaningful manner. Previous studies have either been limited to mapping the locations of minority groups or have been based on provincial data, which for analytical purposes are too coarse to characterise the geographical distribution of minority populations at the sub-provincial level. In this paper, county-level data were used to calculate a diversity index for each county to illustrate the level of ethnic diversity. The results of these analyses indicate that high levels of diversity for a particular province are limited to a specific geographic region within it (especially along the international boundary and in some mountainous areas), rather than characterising the province as a whole. The approach used in this paper also employs a new measure based upon the idea of a standard deviational ellipse—a measure that is used to evaluate the level of spatial segregation between ethnic groups. An index illustrating the degree of spatial correlation between ethnic groups was derived for each province using county-level data. The results indicate that, although major population groups in southern and western China display a low level of spatial correlation (i.e. they are highly segregated), these same areas nevertheless exhibit relatively high levels of ethnic diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is not only the most populous country in the world, but also a multinational country with 56 ethnic groups. Tibetans (4.6 million in 1990) ranked in number as the ninth largest minority group. The Tibet question has attracted wide publicity in the Western media in recent years. The Chinese government is frequently criticised for political oppression and human rights violation in Tibet, particularly in three population-related areas: genocide, forced birth control programmes and population transfer. Surprisingly, international demographic circles show little interest in these controversies. This paper aims to re-examine the myths and facts about the Tibetan population in China, in an attempt to achieve a better understanding of the Tibet question as a whole. This paper is organised roughly into four parts: introduction, including the definition of Tibet, total Tibetan population in China, an examination of the 'genocide' myth, and a review of family planning programmes and population transfer in Tibetan inhabited areas. Government data used in this paper come primarily from various publications of the 1990 National Census results. Information compiled by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGIE), is used as a comparison, in addition to some other Western sources. Analyses show that the 'genocide' myth is not supported by indirect estimates on Tibetan mortality, and the 'forced birth control' allegation lacks solid demographic foundation. On the contrary, Tibetan population has experienced an unprecedented growth since the early 1960s. Still dominant in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Tibetans were only slightly outnumbered by non-Tibetans in other Tibetan prefectures in neighbouring provinces. However, the number of non-Tibetans transferring into ethnographic Tibet is on the rise. Instead of explicit resettlement programmes, the migration flow is triggered primarily by structural transformation and the Government's modernisation policy. It is historic coincidence if the current policies run counter to the interest of Tibetan nationalists. However, under no circumstances should one believe that time is running out for a political solution of the Tibet question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the historical transformation of the state,benzhuworship in the Erhai lake basin, northwest Yunnan, an esoteric Buddhist practice developed in the period of Nanzhao Kingdom, has been continually reconstructed by the state and local agencies. As a result, social boundaries between the Han Chinese and the ethnic ‘others’ living in this multi-ethnic southwestern frontier of China have been constantly remade. This paper, through a review of the state’s interpretations and local agencies’ negotiations and contentions of the meaning and practice of the worship, is mainly intended to revisit the social and cultural consequences incurred by the transformation of the state, and highlight, among other things, how local agencies, average villagers in particular, have cautiously yet ingeniously exercised their agency since the 1950s by appropriating or recasting national and international discourses on ethnicity and diversity to serve their own ends. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is concerned with the historical process by which elements drawn from a religious ‘civilisation’ have been reinvented as specifically national phenomena. It examines the Mongolian state ceremonies for sacred mountains conducted by the President as an example of the reinvention of an institution originally produced by the wider culture or civilisation of the Buddhist ecumene encompassing both Mongolia and Tibet. Such ritual, I argue, can be thought of as ‘cosmopolitical’ in that sense that they engaged with non-humans as actors in the political arena. Furthermore, the contemporary reinvention of these practices has generated a space for a very different, but also cosmopolitical, register for conceiving of relations between human persons and the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After tracking the Chinese historical trajectory on the discursive relationship between Chinese civilization and the northern nomadic group, this paper examines the official discursive construction of the ‘civilization’ and ‘culture’ of ethnic minorities in contemporary China. Through the analysis of the Grassland Culture Research Project (caoyuanwenhua yanjiu xiangmu), an official project conducted in China in recent decades in response to the emergence of nomadic civilization studies as a distinct academic field, this article aims to show the way in which the concepts of civilization and culture are utilized in order to correspond to the official discourse of nation state and ethnicity in China, and the process by which Mongolian culture is thereby transformed. Civilization as a larger body supposed to include cultures was/is entitled to Chinese nation (zhonghua minzu), and a culture (wenhua) of a certain ethnic minority could only be a part of the Chinese civilization in Chinese academia today. ‘Grassland culture ’ is defined as a culture that is static, ahistorical, and therefore has to be reframed within the larger system of Chinese civilization. The concept of ‘grassland culture’ seems to be based more on the particular territory, rather than on the types of culture that have created and are owned by different ethnic groups. Therefore, it might be concluded that the project emphasized the geo-body of the Chinese nation state in order to retain the culture within the territory of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Minzu’ (nation or nationality) is a term that appeared in China after the Opium Wars. From 1949, the PRC established a two-level national structure with the term ‘minzu’: the Chinese nation (zhonghua minzu) at the top and 56 nationalities (minzu) at the bottom. The PRC also adopted the Soviet model in regard to administration of and policies toward the minority ‘minzu’. In recent years, amid increased tensions and conflicts among China’s ‘nationalities’ (minzu), an ongoing debate among Chinese scholars has been observed. This paper reviews this debate and clarifies some misunderstandings among different viewpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous and organized population movements have long been used as a means of promoting a country's goals of development and national integration. At the local level, on the other hand, these movements have frequently done the opposite, fueling local grievances, sharpening group distinctions, and at times creating ‘sons-of-the-soil’ conflicts. In this paper, I explore this apparent tension between the national political rationale for internal migration and the political impact such migration has had locally, in four minority regions of China and Indonesia. I argue that the specific manner in which migration affects local politics is influenced by a country's political regime. In Indonesia, the impact of migration is observed in electoral politics, where ‘politics of place’ have been allowed to emerge. In China, it is perceived in the curbing of national minorities’ territorial autonomy. The role played by local elites and group competition between indigenous people and migrants are also reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legal construction of the Chinese Indonesians in post-Independence Indonesia, particularly during Suharto's New Order, is reflected in the so-called SBKRI – Surat Bukti Kewarganegaraan Republik Indonesia (the Republic of Indonesia Citizenship Certificate). The certificate reproduces the colonial racism that divided the population of the Dutch East Indies into three racial categories, namely the Europeans on the top of the ladder, the Foreign Orientals (Chinese, Indian, and Arab) in the middle, and the Inlanders (or natives) at the lower end. In this paper, I problematize the basic principle of the Indonesian Constitution that ‘all (Indonesian) citizens have equal rights in the eyes of the law’ for the case of Chinese Indonesians. Even though the chapter on citizenship in the 1945 Constitution has been amended twice, I believe the amendment did not correct the racism embedded within. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper surveys the roles of seven Chinese associations in Kuala Terengganu in maintaining and propagating Chinese culture within a Malay state. These associations have played significant roles in maintaining and propagating Chinese culture as far as the range of cultural activities hosted by them is concerned. There is also a reasonable level of state cultural leadership, though lacking in certain areas. But the small population and the outflow of the younger generation have presented a host of problems to the Chinese associations with regard to the required critical mass, pool of talent, injection of ideas and second-tier leadership. The lack of financial support is yet another problem arising from the peripheral role of the Chinese in the state economy and their small numbers. Meanwhile, leaders of the Chinese associations exercise restraint so as not to infringe on Malay religious sensitivity when hosting outdoor cultural activities during the Muslim ritual periods. They also exhibit a high degree of tolerance towards Islamisation programmes undertaken by the state as long as these programmes do not encroach into their private socio-cultural domains. Despite their small population, the Chinese in Kuala Terengganu are a politically significant minority as a result of the political outbidding among the Malays. Leaders of the Chinese associations have benefited from such a position in resolving certain long-standing cultural issues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years what has been witnessed is that Indians have been encouraged to study contemporary China not only due to the cultural richness of that civilization, but also because of China's already significant influence on world events. In fact, with the incorporation of Tibet into the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1950 and the Government of India's oft-repeated official acknowledgement of Tibet as an autonomous region of China, the PRC ceased to be a ‘distant neighbour’ and became as proximate to India as the states of the Indian subcontinent itself. Obviously, for Indian scholars whose prime focus is South Asia, there is an imperative to study China as well. Tibet, which has been one of the key areas of China studies, needs to be researched comprehensively so as to gauge the extent of its influence on China studies in India in general and India-China relations in particular. It is in this context that this paper seeks to examine how academics, journalists, policy makers, politicians and China studies experts in India have viewed Tibet so far as its influence on India-China relations in the broader context is concerned. It also highlights the viewpoints of Chinese scholars on such issue, besides examining whether Tibet would continue to be an important factor impacting China Studies in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of China's five autonomous regions, Inner Mongolia has not been highlighted in the international news, and the Mongols have not demonstrated significant political will for greater autonomy in the way the Tibetans and the Uighurs have in recent decades. Why haven't the Mongols mobilized? This paper argues that the Mongols' lack of aspiration for greater autonomy is in part due to the relationship between Inner Mongolia and Mongolia as an independent kin state. The different trajectories of national identity construction in these two places and the perception of better living conditions in Inner Mongolia have made the Inner Mongols less anxious about their current incorporation within the Chinese state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with the 2005 Chinese Heritage Centre exhibition 'Chinese More or Less' (for which I wrote the storyboard) - specifically with that part of the exhibition that profiles diasporic Chinese exemplars of different ways of combining cosmopolitanism with Chineseness - this paper attempts to respond to questions raised by Anthony Reid, viz: whether my moving from diaspora to Shanghai comes of 'Shanghai (re)joining the diasporic sense of Chinese modernity and post-modernity'; whether 'the diaspora no longer seems quite so distinctive once China is again an open and cosmopolitan place'; and whether I am still a 'Chinese Overseas' when I live in Shanghai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Chinese government began implementing economic reforms in the late 1970s, China has undergone profound economic change and growth. Since then, associated policies have provided many business opportunities in Tibetan areas of China, but Tibetans are poorly equipped to respond to and take advantage of these opportunities. The factors restricting effective market participation are complex and difficult to assess. There are no easy answers. Many political, social, cultural and environmental factors explain the difficulties encountered by Tibetan communities. However, this paper argues that relevant economic development policy is among crucial factors explaining the inability of Tibetans to compete with non-Tibetan migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that a project to re-member China lies embedded in The Monster that Is History as Wang examines the monstrous violence which ravages modern China through the lenses of fiction. Through the alchemy of what the author calls 'diasporic ambivalence', it finally assumes the form of huawen wenxue, or Sinophone literature. As the project inevitably encounters resistance from the Taiwanese nativist, it falls into an aporia/differend between Sinophone and Taiwanese literature as struggling means to constitute a community formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-9/11 era, growing scholarly literature and social concern have focused on Islamic education in Muslim-majority countries and for Muslim minorities in the West. However, public attention and academic research concerning the teaching of Islam as a world religion and a commonly shared human civilization, are barely understood in secular contexts and in public education. This issue requires more attention, especially in Asia. For the sake of future dialogue and further discussion, this paper is a tentative attempt at initiating this understudied issue of teaching Islam as multicultural literacy. It inquires about the pedagogy of teaching Islam in an East Asian context by first briefly reflecting on the dilemmas of introducing Islam to the West and its implications for the university curriculum. Departing from the experience in North America and European societies, this article then attempts to explore alternative pedagogical discourse in teaching Islam to Chinese students in the East Asian context by considering its specific geographical position in global politics and the recent development of Hong Kong. This article finally foresees the developing pedagogy of Islamic teaching that challenges students to break away from the media cliche and apathy towards human suffering, leading them to understand that they themselves are the potential peacemakers of a future global multiethnic and multicultural society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All multiracial and multi-ethnic nations are confronted with the important issue of how to handle ethnic relations and of the role that government should play in guiding the direction of such relations. In viewing ethnic minorities, 'culturalization' has a tradition of thousands of years in China. Until the late Qing dynasty, that tradition resulted in a united-pluralistic polity with a huge population by assimilation and prosperous economy. Under the new historical conditions of the twentieth century, however, China has adopted the policies of the former USSR since the 1950s and given ethnic minorities more political emphasis, what is called the 'politicization' of ethnic minorities. This paper proposes that, in the twenty-first century, China should learn from its own historical heritage and the lessons of the US, the former USSR and other nations, and redirect its policy from 'politicization' to 'culturalization' of ethnic issues so as to strengthen national identity among its ethnic minorities. This new perspective might also be insightful to other multiracial or multi-ethnic nations around the world in the new century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The statement that Xinjiang is an integral province of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is not as banal as it would first appear. The primary question that arises from this statement is how - by what processes and strategies - was Xinjiang brought to its contemporary situation as a province of the PRC? This paper seeks to highlight that, although Xinjiang's history since the eighteenth century has been one of great turbulence and dynamism, underlying continuities in both the practice of Chinese power and perceptions of Xinjiang impact profoundly on contemporary China's rule of Xinjiang. Therefore, this study attempts to chart the transition of the Qing goal of territorial incorporation of the region based upon a system of indirect rule c.1760 to the post-imperial Chinese state's goal of territorial incorporation based on the extension of direct, modern strategies of government and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of schooling in constructing identity of Naxi secondary students in Lijiang, southwest China. The study shows that the school assigns an identity of the Chinese nation to Naxi students, while it also plays a role in forming their ethnic identity. The school curriculum, teachers' teaching, and interactions among students influence the identity construction of Naxi students. A qualitative method was designed to collect data for this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the socioeconomic status matching patterns among minority - Han intermarried couples in urban China, using the 1 per cent census data of the 1990 Chinese census and marriage registration data of a multi-ethnic city in southwest China. It considers three main findings. First, ethnic minorities were commonly married out to the majority Han in the city, and ethnicity does not seem to be an important consideration in mate selection. Second, status mismatching is based on gender not ethnicity. That is, there was no exchange between Han ethnic status and minority socioeconomic status, which has often been found in the North American context. Third, given that the majority of children of minority - Han intermarriage identify as ethnic minority, the insignificance of ethnicity in mate selection does not necessarily imply the total openness of ethnic boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Chinese government began implementing economic reforms in the late 1970s, China has undergone profound economic change and growth. However, this growth has not been equitable, and the present economic gap between east and west China is wide. The Tibetans, a minority group in the 'west', are in a particularly dire situation. Although China's strategic policy of developing the west has provided many business opportunities, Tibetans are poorly equipped to respond to and take advantage of these opportunities. The reasons restricting effective market participation are complex and difficult to assess. There are no easy answers. Many political, social, cultural and environmental factors explain the difficulties encountered by Tibetan communities. However, by studying current educational practice with a focus on secondary education in Tibetan areas of China, this paper argues that poor education is among crucial factors explaining the inability of Tibetans to compete economically with non-Tibetan migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underneath a veneer of racial harmony and acceptance, racial discrimination is widespread at many different levels of life in Hong Kong, the so-called 'global city'. For decades, some minority communities have lived with subtle but institutionalized and cultural discrimination permeating their existence. In recent years, social exclusion has been one of the important themes in policy debates in Hong Kong. It is increasingly recognized that there is a close relation between 'ethnicity' and 'social exclusion'. According to our research on the life situation of the South Asian minority in Hong Kong, experiences of exclusion are common. This paper focuses on investigating dress as a form of cultural exclusion among Pakistani women in Hong Kong and how mainstream society constrains the bodies of its members through dress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from four focus groups, this paper examines the ways in which Hong Kong Sindhis and Sikhs talk about ethnic identities and their relationships to culture and language. It finds that in all the groups, a range of different 'cultural models' (Gee, 1999) of ethnicity, culture and language are drawn upon, with the same participants sometimes using several different models as they position themselves within the group discussions. However, the data also suggest that there may be a tendency for the two communities to foreground different models of ethnicity. Specifically, Sikh participants tend to draw more on an essentialist model of ethnicity than do the Sindhis, while the Sindhis seem to be more prepared to draw on more flexible models of the relationships between identity, culture and language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes a thorough look at basic education in some Tibetan nomadic communities. It is carried out by a senior Tibetan scholar who was born in eastern Tibet and has wide experience in working with governments, international organisations, academic institutions and private foundations. The paper provides a detailed examination of the main factors affecting the drop-out rate of students in Tibetan nomadic areas. (Ed.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dungan people derive from China's Hui people, and now live mainly in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Their population is over 110,000. This people has now developed a separate ethnicity outside China, yet they have close relations with the Hui people in culture, ethnic characteristics and ethnic identity. This paper aims to compare the cultures of the two peoples in terms of ethnic identity, religion and lifestyle so as to show the influence of region, political context and ethnic background on the two peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a report on survey findings conducted in five research sites in Xinjiang during May - July 2001. The research team ran into serious problems in fieldwork due to sensitive Uygur - Han relations. However, cautious interpretations of the survey data have revealed some interesting findings: (1) the Uygurs manifest strong ethnic and local identity; (2) there is deeply rooted mutual distrust between the Uygurs and Han Chinese; (3) the two nationality groups express prejudices against each other; and (4) a significant proportion of Uygurs and Han Chinese are sceptical about the effectiveness of government policies in maintaining healthy ethnic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the context of ethnic identity formation in schools for rural Tibetan children. It reviews rural primary education within Tibet and the secondary education for Tibetans in boarding schools across China. Data are presented on policies, student recruitment, curriculum, teachers and the campus environment, as they impact on students' identity formation. Although there is little that is multicultural about the learning process in these schools, these schools do not strictly deny Tibetan culture to Tibetan children. The school architecture, sculptures, photographs, wall paintings and so forth provide representations of Tibetan culture, albeit selectively and interpreted by the state in terms of the ideological themes of national unity, patriotism, revolutionary traditions, civilised behaviour and love of Tibet. The conclusion points to a make-or-break opportunity for state education to support a more even-handed cultural policy, rather than the dichotomy of segregation and impact integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-Cold War world, 'identity politics' is seen by many as posing the greatest threat to peace and political institutions, liberal or otherwise. In light of the carnage of Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda and former Soviet republics, cultural identity politics would seem to be a politics, or antipolitics, of the most virulent and savage sort. Yet research conducted among three Chinese minority nationalities - the Dai, Bai and Muslim Hui of Yunnan Province - reveals that the relationship between cultural activism and minority nationalist sentiment is not always so clear-cut. I show that such activism, which includes linguistic promotion and religious education, can in fact express claims derived from a national political identity, a conception of minority membership in the Chinese national community. Certain instances of minority cultural activism are efforts to put teeth into the party-state's promises of autonomy and to reject the stereotype of shaoshu minzu as backward and uncivilised. Such activism is thus a means of asserting minorities' rightful place in the contemporary Chinese body politic. At the same time, such cultural activism may cement cross-national ethnic and religious identities, thereby consolidating the material and ideological resources that make anti-state behaviour more feasible. Even when cultural activism shows acceptance of inclusive nation-state norms, minority inclusion may be limited by the behaviour and attitudes of the state, or by the content of national identity itself. In discussing these issues, minority cultural activism will also be juxtaposed with a very different sort of ethnic mobilisation, one which does pose a serious threat to the integrity of Chinese boundaries and the ability of the state to enforce its rule. The paper thus also shows how ethnicity within Yunnan Province can be a resource for anti-state behaviour, even when the aims of such actions are not ethnic in content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]