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H-ASIA April 22, 2007 On the usage "laowai"/Chinese ideas of ethnicity ************************************************************************ From: "Peter L Huston" <plh25@cornell.edu> >Dimon Liu <DimonLiu@aol.com> wrote: > > The Chinese attitude towards ethnicity isn't fixed, if one looks at time > longer than 20 years. The so-called "Han" ethnicity is no older than 200 years, > and it is an European concept, supposedly scientific. <snip> Of course, Dimon Liu is correct when he writes this. And, of course, looking back on my own post, the situation is not as simple as I stated. Perhaps it is significant that both of the incidents I described took place in Taipei in 1987 and 1992 respectively. (Taipei has a much larger percentage of mainland Chinese than most places in Taiwan, and it is quite possible, that mainland Chinese may have different, and much more rigid, attitudes on ethnicity and "Chineseness" than most Fujian-descended, long-resident Taiwanese. There are several reasons for this possibility including that the "scientific" concept of a "Han race" arose during the time when Taiwan was a Japanese colony.) Furthermore, with the rise of Taiwanese nationalism, this in itself has led to many interesting shifts, or at least relabeling, of what is "Chinese culture" and what is referred to as "Taiwanese culture." But I have found it significant that often Chinese of my acquaintance (including Taiwanese) often refer to cultural traits in a much more "racialist" manner than we would in the USA. (i.e. another example, years ago, I mentioned to a Taiwanese acquaintance with a mainland father and strong Kuo Min Tang ties that I had read of Taiwanese troops in the Japanese army during the rape of Nanjing. "This could not be!" she said. "It defies the natural order!") Peter L Huston M.A. Candidate, East Asian Studies. Cornell University ************************************************************************* To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: <H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu> For holidays or short absences send post to: <listserv@h-net.msu.edu> with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/
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