The Construction Of Identity In The Nation-State Context

Study of collective identity has become kernel of anthropological research nowadays. The Phu Thays in Jinlong, with a population of 17,000, inhabit Jinlong Town along the Sino-Vietnam border. Jinlong was under the jurisdiction of China, Vietnam and France. The main body of the Phu Thays in Jinlong stemmed from the Thos who lived in northern Vietnam. After the founding of new China, the Phu thays in Jinlong were identified Zhuang Nationality. For the reason of the special environment and the historical background, their consciousness of ethnic identity, nationality identity, and national identity, differ particularly from each other. The Phu Thays show high national identity while they emphasize the ethnicity of their own, resulting inconsistency of, or deviation from national identity. All these differences in identity are related to the change of jurisdiction, Phu Thays'ethnic origin and the challenge in new political environment, which other research cases didn't have.This paper reviews and summarizes Phu Thays'nationality identity process in the 1950's, observing how their identity formed and changed, especially the role Phu Thays played in the process by the ways of questionnaire survey and interview, probes and predicts their future trend. In the frame work of modern nation-state, this paper also probes into the factors that influence the forming and change of Phu Thays'identity.