Ethnicity as Policy Expedience: Clan Confucianism in Ethnic Tujia-Miao Yongshun.

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]