Ethnic Classification in the People’s Republic of China

by Joakim Enwall (Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University)

Tuesday 19 Feb 2008, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Stockholm

Roslagstullsbacken 35

The 1.3 billion citizens of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are officially divided into 56 ethnic groups or nationalities (minzu): one majority, the Han; and 55 ethnic minorities. In the early 1950s, an ethnic classification project was launched for the inhabitants of the PRC, at that time around 600 million people. In collaboration with Soviet specialists, principles for classification were worked out in accordance with the Marxist-Leninist ethnic policies, and a huge number of field-workers were sent out to all parts of the PRC for surveying. In the materials collected over 400 ethnonyms appeared, but in the 1953 census only 41 nationalities were recognized. This reduction of the number of nationalities was clearly in disregard of the opinions of the Soviet specialists, who soon withdrew from this work. In 1964, 53 nationalities were recognized, and in the 1982 census the number had risen to 56, which is still the official figure. However, several groups have tried for decades to be officially recognized as separate ethnic groups. This paper discusses the background, the processes and the effects of the ethnic classification in the PRC.