Ethnicity And Ethnicity In China

China’s ethnic composition is much homogeneous with 91.9% of population being Han peoples, other ethnicities are Hui, Mongols, Zhuang, Miao, Tibetans and Uyghurs. Some ethnic groups are more distinguishable due to physical appearances and relatively low intermarriage rates. They have intermarried with Han Chinese, and have similar appearances. They are less distinguishable from Han people, especially a growing number of ethnic minorities are fluent at a native level in Mandarin Chinese. In addition, children often adopt “ethnic minority status” at birth if one of their parents is an ethnic minority, even though their ancestry is overpowering Han Chinese. There are concentrated pockets of foreign residents and immigrants in some cities. The …show more content…
The difference between “nationality” and “ethnicity” is that the former treats the minorities of China as societies with “a fully functional division of labor”, history, and territory, while the latter treats minorities as a “category” and focuses on their maintenance of boundaries and their self-definition in relation to the majority group.
The major minority ethnic groups in China are Zhuang (16.9 million), Uyghur (11.5 million), Hui (10.5 million), Manchu (10.3 million), Miao (9.4 million), Yi (8.7 million), Tujia (8.3 million), Tibetan (6.2 million), Mongol (5.9 million), Dong (2.8 million), Buyei (2.8 million), Yao (2.7 million), Bai (1.9 million), Korean (1.8 million), Hani (1.6 million), Li (1.4 million), Kazakh (1.4 million), and Dai (1.2 million). These numerous ethnic groups share China’s enormous lands but at the same time many live in their individual communities. Relationships between them have been formed over many …show more content…
Among these the policy of regional autonomy for minorities is the most fundamental. Under this policy, five autonomous regions; Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Ningxia and Tibet, as well as diverse autonomous prefectures, counties, nationality townships and towns have been set up. An autonomous region is a first-level managerial subdivision of China. Like Chinese provinces, an autonomous region has its own local government, but an autonomous region has more legislative rights. An autonomous region is a minority entity which has a higher population of a particular minority ethnic group. The autonomous region was bitterly protested by the local Han Chinese, who made up two-thirds of the population of each region, the ensuing Chinese Civil War gave little opportunity for protest. With guidance from the Chinese government, the minorities in areas that have been given regional autonomy are entitled to deal with