The impression of China as a homogeneous nation with a smattering of ethnic minorities around its edges has been irrevocably altered by the uprisings in Muslim and Tibetan regions of northwestern China since the 2008 Olympics. This book delves deep into the conditions of economic and educational inequality in northwest China experienced by these ethnic minorities. The author, Lin Yi, Associate Professor of Sociology at Xiamen University, argues that beyond economic disparities, cultural exclusion is the source of the continued subordinate status of these ethnic groups perpetuated by Han-chauvinist policy, practice and attitudes. He proposes a reconceptualization of the Chinese state ideology of nation building and modernization which would include not only minority rights but also accommodate ethnic cultures.
The empirical study behind this book gives the reader a view into a fascinating, rarely visited corner of China, the borderlands between Qinghai and Gansu provinces, middle ground to Tibetans, Mongolians, and Turkic Muslims and, for whom Buddhism and Islam, respectively, are part of daily life—in contrast to much of Han China. The region is also a hub of subsistence farmers, Tibetan high-plateau pastoralists, and urban populations; a buffer zone against Tibetan and Xinjiang separatism, where the Chinese government hopes to model the integration of its two most restive ethnic groups. Thus the field site elevates the work to a level of import for national policy—and provides a rich insight into dramatic cross-cultural forces at play.
Yi argues that references in Han Chinese mainstream policy-rhetoric to the inequality of the western regions is but a code word for ethnic minorities' ‘backwardness’. “Ethnic minority cultures are largely regarded as being useless or inferior for modernization of the Chinese nation. As a result, minority cultures are excluded … from public institutions” (p. 9). Chinese academics who explore ethnic minority disparities in school achievement and socio-economic mobility similarly ignore the social structural determinants.
The first task of the book is to place the Chinese minority nationality question into the larger context of dominant/subordinate ethnic relations in the nation state. Current international scholarship on ethnic disparities in educational achievement, cultural orientation and difference, subordinate socioeconomic status, and discriminatory practices are discussed. Pierre Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital and John Ogbu's interactive framework of power dynamics functioning between systemic structural forces and community cultural forces inform the theoretical framework. His particular contribution to theory is his explication of “Chinese culturalism” as the force for excluding ethnic minority groups. He defines it in philosophical terms, with nods to noted anthropologists Fei Xiaotong, P. Ebrey, D. Gladney, S. Harrell, J.N. Lipman, M. Zhou, and J. Xiao among many. Confucian universalism, institutionalized through the examination-scholar system, reified the superiority of the Han Chinese culture over the “not-cultured” (meiyou wenhua). “Chinese Han culture still firmly holds hegemony” (p. 37). Social evolutionary ideology then assigns ethnic groups on a primitive to advanced developmental ladder, with the Han at the top.
The book is based on a dissertation, which explains some of its wordiness and surfeit of statistical data, so that it can be used as a reference book. Yi provides a brief methodology section, but only later reveals that his field site is Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture seat, Longwu Township (Tib. Rongwo or Repkong), which lies in the shadow of the Longwu Buddhist monastery. Tibetans dominate the government and schools and a small minority of urban Muslim shopkeepers (6%) occupy the lowest subordinate status. This limits the investigation of Muslim schooling and does not generalize to Muslim communities in surrounding majority-Muslim counties.
The book is divided into six chapters and a postscript, which address, one, the theoretical framework on the relationship between ethnicity, culture, socio-economic structures, power and educational achievement; two, the idea of Han Chinese “culturalism;” three, Chinese discourses over history related to the education of ethnic minorities; and four and five, the historical and ethnographic exploration of Tibetan and Muslim communities' participation in education. In the concluding chapter the author takes up a discussion of issues of state policy and economic development and, in the postscript, new alternative ethnic minority school programs supported by non-governmental organizations.
Yi's empirical research in Chapter 4 starts with an in-depth description of the segmented “ordinary Chinese” and “minority” schools, and then reviews the trends toward reaffirmation of their culture among Tibetans, interpreted by the author as “anomic withdrawal” or a fear of competing with the Han on their own turf. The author allows that adult Tibetans participated in “sinicization” for social mobility gains, though they considered knowledge of Tibetan language a primary concern for their children. Students in Yi's research were unequivocal in their enthusiasm for studying their own culture and religion, yet at the secondary school stage, they found themselves in the familiar minority predicament of having to choose between languages, and whether to remain true to their heritage or advance in the mainstream.
Chapter 5 follows the same structure. In the Han-Tibetan-Muslim nexus of Longwu Township, Muslims were recipients of severe discrimination and exclusion, particularly in view of the strict demands of their religion. Muslims saw themselves as oppressed by both Tibetans and Han. In Longwu I heard that in recent history there had been outbreaks of ethnic hostilities between Muslims and Tibetans. Muslim parents cited barriers and little incentive for keeping their children in secondary school. Yi reported that Muslim students suffered from severe bullying at the hands particularly of Tibetan children. Altogether, this was a recipe for lack of achievement among Muslim students.
To conclude, Yi calls on state policy to “grant recognition, accommodation and cherishment of minority cultures … and the removal of the cultural superiority of the Han majority ingrained in the Han mindset” (p. 118). These are no doubt right-minded but rather abstract recommendations.
The likely readership for this book can be found among Sinologists and Central or Inner Asianists who could use this as one of several texts in graduate courses. It might also be an eye-opening read for many Han Chinese in central China. The book provides a nuanced perspective on issues of ethnicity, identity, and cultural hegemony in China as few works have done.
