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Ethnic Configuration and State-Making: A Fujian Case*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2011

FAN KE
FAN KE*
Affiliation:
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210093, China Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between ethnic configuration and state social policy in a Chinese context. Why did the Chinese communist government have to implement a preferential policy towards ethnic minorities, and to what extent has this policy come to reshape peoples’ consciousness of their group membership? As well as analysing the reasons and intents of the Chinese Communist Party when dealing with the minority issue before and after it attained power, this paper argues that categorizing of the population served to establish the state apparatus. Why the project of ethnic identification was first initiated in Fujian (a province best known for its overwhelming Han culture) is also discussed. By unfolding the process of searching for ethnic representation in Fujian in the early 1950s, this paper further argues that the major concern of the party-state regarding ethnic minorities is to hold onto its power. Finally, this paper documents how government agents, when investigating ethnicity, interacted with the local population. The Fujian case implies as well as exemplifies how ethnicity can be invented, constructed or reconstructed as a particular representation in relation to state formation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , July 2012 , pp. 919 - 945
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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21 Among others see Anderson, Imagined Communities, pp. 163–186; Ardener, The Voice of Prophecy. Hirchman, The Meaning and Measurement, pp. 552–582.

22 Xiaotong, Fei (1981), Towards a People's Anthropology (Beijing: New World Press)Google Scholar.

23 See Fujian Provincial Archive (hereafter FPA), 138-1-298 (1953). Documents in Chinese government archives are listed by juanzong or quanzong ——both mean file, mulu (catalogue), an'juan (archive) numbers. This paper gives the three numbers instead of titles of the document. For example, FPA, 138–1-298 refers to a document located in the Fujian Provincial Archive, its file, catalogue, and archive numbers, respectively, are 138, 1, and 298.

24 Huang Guangxue et al., Minzu Shibie, p. 149.

25 Tishikov, Valery A. (2000), ‘Forget the “Nation”: Post-Nationalist Understanding of Nationalism’ in Ethnic and Racial studies 23 (4): 625–650CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 The She were in the situation of being culturally almost the same as their Han neighbours, but still strongly holding on to their ethnic identities, so that, for example, though the She were identified in 1953 and were confirmed to be a minority group, their separate ethnicity (zushu) was not yet certain because of a popular belief that both the She and Yao shared a common descent (She-Yao tongyuan). Thus, in 1955, the government started the second round of investigations by inquiring mainly into the relationship between the She and the Yao in Guangdong, and the She as a separate minority nationality (danyi shaoshu minzu) was thus finally confirmed. This, however, was not officially announced until 1964 after the second national census, see Huang Guangxue et al., Minzu Shibie, pp. 174–187.

27 See Yao, Ma, ‘Yunnan Minzu Shehui Lishi Diaocha Huigu’ (Review of Investigation of Ethnic Social-histories in Yunnan) in Baolin, Yu and Zugen, Hua (eds) (2000), Zhongguo Minzu Yanjiu Nianjian 1999 Nian Juan (Chinese Minzu Studies Yearbook, 1999 Volume) (Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe) pp. 59–74Google Scholar, cited in Yang, Bin (2009), ‘Central State, Local Governments, Ethnic Groups and the Minzu Identification in Yunnan’ in Modern Asian studies 43 (3): 741–775CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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29 Huang Guangxue et al., Minzu Shibie, p. 148.

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32 Huang Guangxue et al., Minzu Shibie, pp. 148–150.

33 Ibid., pp. 150–151.

34 Ibid., p. 157.

35 FPA, 138-2-293 (1952); FPA, 178-1-144 (1953).

36 FPA, 138-5-449 (1955). According to this document, issued by the State Council in 1955, the system of ethnic townships is different than the system of autonomous ethnic districts because at the township level, the system of autonomy that the People's Republic of China Constitution stipulated cannot be completely carried out. This rule has been valid since then. For detailed information regarding the distinction between the system of autonomous ethnic districts and the system of ethnic township, see Hou'an, Zhang (ed.) (1992), Zhongguo Nongcun Jiceng Zhengquan (The Political Power of Grass-roots Level in Rural China) (Chengdu: Sichuan Renmin Chubanshe) pp. 235–247Google Scholar.

37 Skinner, G. William (1977), ‘Introduction: Urban Social Structure in Ch'ing China’ in Skinner, G. William (ed.), The City in the Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press) pp. 3–31Google Scholar; Honig, Emily (1996), ‘Regional Identity, Labor, and Ethnicity in Contemporary China’ in Perry, Elizabeth (ed.): Putting Class in Its Place: Worker Identity in East Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press) pp. 225–243Google Scholar.

38 FPA, 138-2-447 (1953).

39 FPA, 138-1-224 (1952); FPA, 138-2-239 (1952).

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid. Because the people were living on the water, the official document further pointed out that the government did not have to consider their autonomous area.

42 FPA, 178-1-144 (1953).

43 FPA, 138-2-447 (1953); FPA, 138-2-445 (1953).

44 FPA, 138-1-301(1953); FPA, 178-1-144 (1953).

45 FPA, 178-1-144 (1953); FPA, 138-1-1139 (1953); FPA138-1-1140 (1953).

46 Historically, both surname groups were reached by external Muslim agencies though most people of both groups were not regarding themselves as the Hui for many generations, see Ke, Fan (2001), ‘Maritime Muslims and the Hui Identity: A South Fujian Case’ in Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 21 (2): 302–328CrossRefGoogle Scholar; (2003) ‘Ups and Downs: A South China's Local Muslim History’ in Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 23(1): 63–87. For other English accounts about the Ding Hui see Gladney, Ethnic Identity, pp. 135–155; Gladney, Muslim Chinese, pp. 261–292.

47 FPA, 178-1-144 (1953).

48 Ibid.

49 Also see Gladney, Muslim Chinese, pp. 135–155.

50 FPA, 138-1-1139 (1953). [My translation and emphasis.]

51 Ibid. [My translation.]

52 Jinjiang was promoted to a county-level-city (xianjishi) on 6 March 1992, ending its 1,275 years of history as a county. In the regional history, Jinjiang has been under the administration of Quanzhou, the city of which was the seat of Jinjiang County, see Jinjiangshi Difangzhi Bangongshi (City Office of Jinjiang Gazettee) (1994), Jinjiang Shizhi (Jinjiang City Gazetteer) (Shanghai: Sanlian Chubanshe) p. 7.

53 FPA, 138-1-1139 (1953). [My translation.]

54 Ibid. [My translation.]

55 Fan, ‘Maritime Muslims’, pp. 302–328.

56 FPA, 138-1-1140 (1953). Also see Fan, Ups and Downs, pp. 63–87.

57 Ibid.

58 Ibid. [My translation.]

59 Ibid. Historical facts prove this saying is wrong. Han could become officials under the Yuan despite it not being so easy as under other dynasties.

60 In early Christian missionary work, charity was employed by missionaries to convert Chinese. Many people converted to Christianity for food relief in the first place, so that chijiao was a joke regarding those converts’ beginnings; but, now, in rural south Fujian, it has been used without any insulting meaning, and Christians are happy to apply it to themselves.

61 My Field Notes. Interview, with Guo seniors, Spring, 1997.

62 FPA, 138-1-1140 (1953).

63 Ibid.

64 Later, it changed its name to the State Commission for Nationality Affairs, known as Guojia Minwei in Chinese.

65 FPA, 138-1-1139 (1953). [My translation.]

66 See Gladney, Muslim Chinese, p. 261; Ke, Fan (2006),‘Traditionalism and Identity Politics among the Ding Community in South Fujian’ in Chee-Beng, Tan (ed.), South Fujian: Reproduction of Tradition in Post Mao China (Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press) pp. 35–68Google Scholar. Some leading figures in the Ding community have argued that the government did not overlook them at all. This was why they could get a quick response from the government soon after they had sent out their appeal for their Hui ethnic nationality assignment. They have also pointed out that though they were not officially the Hui, the government used to have special funds for them and sent them Minzu Huabao (the illustrated magazine for nationalities) regularly, see Fan, Traditionalism and Identity, pp. 35–68.