Communist multiculturalism : ethnic revival in southwest China / Susan K. McCarthy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McCarthy, Susan K.

Series:

Studies on ethnic groups in China

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hui (Chinese people).

Bai (Chinese people).

Yunnan Sheng (China)--Ethnic relations.

Yunnan Sheng (China).

Tai (Southeast Asian people)--China--Yunnan Sheng.

Tai (Southeast Asian people).

China--Yunnan Sheng.

Bai (Chinese people)--China--Yunnan Sheng.

Hui (Chinese people)--China--Yunnan Sheng.

Physical Description:

xvii, 226 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm.

Other Title:

Ethnic revival in southwest China

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2009]

Summary:

The communist Chinese state promotes the distinctiveness of the many minorities within its borders. At the same time, it is vigilant in suppressing groups that threaten the nation's unity or its modernizing goals. In Communist Multiculturalism, Susan K. McCarthy examines three minority groups in the province of Yunnan, focusing on the ways in which they have adapted to the government's nation-building and minority nationalities policies since the 1980s. She reveals that Chinese government policy is shaped by perceptions of what constitutes an authentic cultural group and of the threat ethnic minorities may constitute to national interests. These minority groups fit no clear categories but rather are practicing both their Chinese citizenship and the revival of their distinct cultural identities. For these groups, being minority is, or can be, one way of being national.

Minorities in the Chinese state face a paradox: modern, cosmopolitan, sophisticated people-good Chinese citizens, in other words-do not engage in unmodern behaviors. Minorities, however, are expected to engage in them. In Communist Multiculturalism, McCarthy explores the ways in which citizenship, government policy, and stereotypes affect minority groups' ambitions of realizing distinct identities and participating in a modernizing Chinese nation.

Contents:

Culture, the nation, and Chinese minority identity

The Dai, Bai, and Hui in historical perspective

Dharma and development among the Xishuangbanna Dai

The Bai and the tradition of modernity

Authenticity, identity, and tradition among the Hui.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780295989082

0295989084

9780295989099

0295989092

OCLC:

263147058