HUMA 2635 Cultural Diversity
in China
March 12, 2024
The nation-state building after 1949
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Marxist-Leninist theories on national
question and autonomy
• National consciousness is a manifestation of the
bourgeois state of society.
• Nationalism is a tool of the bourgeoisie, allows
them to mask class differences, and encourage
tensions with other countries, enables the
bourgeoisie to perpetuate their own rule.
• Since national consciousness is a manifestation
of economic ties, minority ethnic groups ought to
be part of the nation whose economy they
shared.
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• National liberation movements led to the
progress of world-wide revolutionary
movements.
• Ethnic nationalist movement weakens the
advanced capitalist large nation, which is
progressive in terms of world revolution.
• Marx regarded self-determination “not as a
principle but as a slogan which could be
used to weaken enemies and attract
allies.”
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• Particular ambiguity existed concerning the
definition of nationality characteristics and they
could be expected to disappeared.
• There is no clear guideline on which minority
group characteristics or forms must be erased in
order to achieve a truly socialist content.
• Marx’s references to self-determination and
federation were developed into the concept of
nationality autonomy.
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• The socialist scriptures could be used to
support either nationality diversity or
proletarian conformity, nationality autonomy
or strict central control.
• Chinese communists could formulate
minorities policy in a wide variety of ways
and still remain ideologically orthodox.
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Formulation of historical materialism
• A superstructure is based on economic base.
• The forms of the family (as cultural system, and
the superstructure) changed as a result of
changes in the modes of production.
• There are five modes of productions:
Primitive → Slavery → Feudal → Capitalist →
Socialist → Communist.
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• The development of human history proceeds
everywhere also in distinct five stages:
Primitive → Slavery → Feudal → Capitalist →
Socialist → Communist societies.
• Each stages consist of a complex of related
cultural traits, it follows that people who display
certain sorts of cultural traits must be
representative of the particular stage in which
those traits occur.
• For example, the Mosuo’s matriliny case means
that, it is at the second substage of the primitive
stage.
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• Almost any difference between the central
Han and the minorities can be translated
into a historical gap between the way
things are done now and the way they
were done at the evolutionary stage.
• All minority societies have been classified
as different evolutionary social stages
based on “the modes of productions”, in
terms of identification.
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Chinese Communist Policy
• Mao Zedong publicly stated CCP’s minority
policy in 1938 at Yanan: all minorities would be
given the right to administer their own affairs
while at the same time establishing a unified
state with the Han.
• After Jiangxi Soviet was smashed by KMT
attacks, the CCP moved to the north to avoid
centers of KMT control, which is known as Long
March.
• The Long March forced CCP into the
inhospitable terrain often inhabited by minorities.
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• Typically, the minorities did not live there by
choice, but have been forced into the area by
Han colonization or invasion.
• The Shan-Gan-Ning Border Region Government
陝甘甯邊區政府 was set up by the survivors after
the Long March arrived in Yanan 延安.
• The CCP probably came to a new
understanding of the nationalist problem: if given
a choice, the minorities would probably not
choose to join China voluntarily.
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• A Nationalities Affairs Commission was set
by the Border Region Government, to
handle problems arising in connection with
the administration of the autonomous
areas (the Hui, the Mogols), based on
Marxist self-determination theory.
• The CCP policies of regional autonomy
and united front allowed not only peasants
but religious figures and wealthier
elements of the community to join forces
with the party as well.
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• In 1941, the Nationalities Institute was founded
at Yanan. Gao Gan 髙岗, Ulanfu 乌兰夫 and Li
Weihan 李維漢 were charged the affairs.
• The students learn the importance of patriotism,
internationalism and Marxist-Leninist theory on
nationalities question at the Institute.
• The party line on equality of nationalities,
freedom of religion, mutual respect for
nationalists customs, and opposition to both
Great Han chauvinism and local nationalism
were taught.
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Li Weihan
Ulanfu
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Gao Gang
• The Yanan system was essentially a working
model for future enlargement.
• The Yanan period saw the application of
Lening’s theory of regional autonomy to China’s
minorities, the extension of the united front
policy 统一戰線 to cooperation with minorities as
group, and the development of a system for
educating cadres for service in minorities areas.
• In 1947, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
established, Ulanfu became the leader of its
well-organized Chinese-Communist-oriented
core group.
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• In 1950, PLA crossed the Jinsha River 金
沙江 and marched to Changdu 昌都.
• In 1951, Seventeen Point Agreement was
signed by CCP and Lasha government:
the PLA will enter into Tibet in order to
consolidate the national defense, and the
Tibetan army would be integrated into the
PLA.
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• In 1949, a system of regional autonomy
was provided for in areas where national
minorities were concentrated.
• The level of the autonomous organs
involved depended on the population and
size of a given region.
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Social Mobilization by the CCP
• In 1950, two missions representing the
People’s government were dispatched to
the southwest and northwest served both
fact-finding and propagandist functions.
• The “patriotic upper strata” 愛國上層 as
the traditional elite was simply co-opted
into the governmental hierarchy.
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“Doing good and making friends.”
做好事、交朋友
• Small work teams composed of PLA, who were
often the sole representatives of the new
government of China in a minority area, would
go from hamlet to hamlet with the aim of winning
the trust of the masses.
• Dispending free seeds, tools, labor, and
entertainment, team members were to learn the
local language and propagandize party doctrine
and party nationalities policy.
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Identification of nationalities, minzu 民族
• Based on Stalin’s definition in 1913, a nationality
(minzu) is:
A historically constituted, stable community of
people, formed on the basis of a common
language, territory, economic life, and
psychological make-up manifested in a common
culture.
By 1979, the number of 55 nationalities has been
reached, which were identified from more than
400 ethnic groups.
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• Land reform was carried out in 1951 and the
Guangxi Zhuang autonomous Area established
in 1952. Democratic reform has begun since
1952 in Xinjiang.
• Some investigations of minorities work
summarized that, “primitive or slave
productive/society modes” made it difficult for
them to grasp communism, and some
democratic reforms were needed.
• Party structures were created in those areas
where they have not existed, the establishment
of People’s government set up an alternative
form of government and left traditional structures
to wither away.
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Cadres and the government
• Minorities cadres were to serve as a “bridge”
between party policies and their implementation
in minority areas.
• Central Nationalities Institute plus branches in
the Northwest, Southwest and Central-South
were founded.
• Up to 1952, 130 autonomous areas and over
200 coalition autonomous governments have
been established.
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Summary
• Chinese Communist minorities policy used Soviet policy
as a model.
• It was developed prior to liberation encompassing the
quality of nationalities:
1. the right to autonomy with a united states;
2. an united front with nationalities upper-class religious
personages who are willing to be cooperative;
3. respect for nationality forms;
4. the right to education in one’s native language.
• The CCP was able to profit from knowledge of KMT
mistakes in handling minorities’ problem.
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