Narrating Southern Chinese Minority Nationalities: Politics, Disciplines, and Public History

Description

Based on fieldwork, archival research, and interviews, this book critically examines the building of modern Chinese discourse on a unified yet diverse Chinese nation on various sites of knowledge production. It argues that Chinese ideology on minority nationalities is rooted in modern China's quest for national integration and political authority. However, it also highlights the fact that the complex process of conceptualizing, investigating, classifying, curating, and writing minority history has been fraught with disputes and contradictions. As such, the book offers a timely contribution to the current debate in the fields of twentieth-century Chinese nationalism, minority policy, and anthropological practice. Front Matter ....Pages i-vii The Chinese Nation and Nationalities as a Process of Collaborative Knowledge Production (Guo Wu)....Pages 1-11 “Big Family of Fifty-Six Nationalities:” The Chinese Communist Conceptualization of Minzu (1921–1951) (Guo Wu)....Pages 13-42 Disciplines and Politics: From Malinowski to “People’s Anthropology” (Guo Wu)....Pages 43-74 Inventing Primitive Society in Chinese Historiography and Ethnology (Guo Wu)....Pages 75-102 Investigating Southern Minority Nationalities (Guo Wu)....Pages 103-137 Collaboration and Resistance of Minority Elite: Huang Xianfan’s Struggle (Guo Wu)....Pages 139-160 Telling Southern Minority Nationalities to the Public (Guo Wu)....Pages 161-186 Back Matter ....Pages 187-229