The Upper Han
8th December 2016
Ethnicity is central to China’s national identity. It is the Han, 1.2bn of them in mainland China alone, that most people refer to as “Chinese”, rather than the country’s minorities, numbering 110m people. Ethnicity and nationality have become almost interchangeable for China’s Han, says James Leibold of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. That conflation is of fundamental importance. It defines the relations between the Han and other ethnic groups. By narrowing its legal labour market almost entirely to people of Han descent, ethnicity is shaping the country’s economy and development. And it strains foreign relations, too. Even ethnic Han whose families left for other countries generations ago are often regarded as part of a coherent national group, both by China’s government and people.
Waiting for the Social Justice Warriors to take an a REAL raaaaaaacist society — Red China.
December 8th, 2016 at 18:20
Since the “Social Justice Warriors” don’t live in China, why should it fall to them to take the Han to task?
December 9th, 2016 at 05:14
Because they are eager to do so everywhere else.