China's multiculturalism and the identity of the Chinese people

Author: Zhang Haiyang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: China is a multi-ethnic unified country. Diverse ethnic cultures are China's social capital for peaceful development and the cornerstone of building a harmonious society. Anthropology and ethnology are disciplines that explore the path to harmonious coexistence of diverse cultures and sustainable development. Minzu University of China is a major hub for anthropology and ethnology in China. Fei Xiaotong and Lin Yaohua professors are two monumental figures at this hub. This book inherits the two pioneering endeavors of Fei and Lin professors—“China's Multicultural Unified Structure” and “China's Economic and Cultural Type Research”—and employs anthropological and ethnological methods to explore China's multiculturalism and harmonious society in the era of globalization, as well as China's cultural diversity and the identity of the Chinese people. This book summarizes the shape of Chinese culture as the "Taiji" symbol: internally, it consists of two major livelihood blocks—western pastoralism and eastern agriculture—and is connected by two cultural transmission belts, the plateau and the coastal regions. Under the interaction of these two blocks, the cultural spirit of China is "constant self-improvement and bearing virtues with tolerance," and its structure is "diverse yet unified, different yet harmonious." This book analyzes China's ethnic identity, which has three layers of meaning: ethnic identity, national identity, and historical and cultural identity. These three identities are mutually compatible among members of all ethnic groups in China and do not need to be mutually exclusive. The book's themes also include the Chinese and Western concepts of ethnicity, China's ethnic diversity, the cultural regions of ancient China, the economic and cultural types of contemporary China, the symbiotic relationship between China's historical and cultural big and small traditions, and the connotation of the "diverse yet unified" structure of the Chinese nation. The preface of the book proposes a conceptual model for building a harmonious society in China, highlighting the important role of multiculturalism in this endeavor and advocating a shift in China's ethnic and religious research paradigm from "social development history" to "cultural ecology." This book is grand in conception, rich in data, vivid in language, and novel in arguments. It is a must-read for faculty and students in anthropology, ethnology, sociology, linguistics, political science, geography, history, archaeology, literature and arts, and cultural criticism, as well as an important reference for officials in China's ethnic and religious departments, cultural industry professionals, and self-study scholars.