| This thesis examines the ethnic identification project in the People's Republic of China, which was undertaken during the 1950s-1980s by China's Communist Government (CCG), resulting in the recognition of 56 nationalities (the majority Han and 55 minorities). The CCG applied ethnic identification as a strategy as well as an instrument to integrate China's ethnic groups and to achieve modernization in China's minority areas. Ethnic identification was based on Stalin's definition of nation and a Marxist category of social evolution. The CCG modified Stalin's definition of nation to cope with China's ethnic realities and drew conclusions from the survey data with concerns of ethnic integration. According to the results of ethnic identification, ethnic categories were officially set up and regional linguistic cultural autonomy was implemented in the minority areas. The Marxist classification of the socio-economic levels of the nationalities served in the social programmes to introduce a state-socialism and achieve modernization in the minority areas in the aftermath of sinicization. Consequently ethnologists institutionally become an applied social science and ethnologists have been structural advisors to government decision-makers in contemporary China. |
