Learning to Be Tibetan: The Construction of Ethnic Identity at Minzu University of China

(Hardback)

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Since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese Community Party (CCP) has launched a nation-wide ethnic identification project to recognize ethnic minorities, which are widely considered as peripheral, barbarian, inferior, backward, and distrusted. State schooling is expected to play a significant political role in civilizing and integrating these ethnic minorities. As an important part of Chinese state schooling, fifteen tertiary minority institutions have been established, assuming a primary goal of cultivating minority officials who are loyal to the CCP. This study, situating in the context of Minzu University of China (MUC), the best university designated specifically for the education of ethnic minorities, seeks to explore the intersection between state schooling and ethnic identity construction of Tibetan students. Ethnographic data has revealed how educational backgrounds of MUCs Tibetan students have influenced the ways in which they interpret, negotiate and assert their Tibetan-ness. Four patterns of ethnic identification are discussed: (1) For the min kao min students (meaning having received bilingual education in Chinese and Tibetan prior to MUC) in Tibetan studies, being Tibetan means assuming an ethnic mission of promoting Tibetan language and culture; (2) For the min kao min students in other majors, being Tibetan embodies having a different physical appearance, wearing different clothing, engaging in different religious practices, holding cultural beliefs and generally under-achieving academically in Han-dominant settings; (3) For the inland Tibetan school graduates, being Tibetan means having a reflective awareness of their cultural and language loss due to their dislocated schooling and a determination to make up for the past by innovatively initiating, organizing or participating in Tibetan cultural programs; (4) For the min kao han (meaning having received mainstream education the same as Han Chinese prior to MUC) students, being Tibetan is simply a symbolic identity that they sometimes utilize to gain preferential treatments. With the exception of most of the min kao han students, Tibetan identity has been revitalized and strengthened after studying and living in MUC. In the process, the unity of the Tibetan group has been promoted and enhanced. Tibetan students different approaches to ethnic identification provide us with useful lessons about ethnic identity dynamics in relation to education, culture, and ethnic politics. As opposed to other interpretations that see Tibetans as exotic ethnic others, this study reveals that Tibetan students ethnic identification is meaningful when they strategically negotiate with the Han-Chinese-dominant narratives. This study contributes to the understanding of ethnic politics and interethnic dynamics in China.

Reviews

Yangs book is...a welcome contribution to the study of the role that education plays in constructing ethnic identities in China. It will hopefully provoke further discussion amongst both Sinologists and Tibetologists, and will also make a useful contribution to undergraduate and graduate reading lists on education and ethnicity in China. * Frontiers of Education in China *
Learning to be Tibetan is a richly-nuanced ethnographic account of the politics of education and ethnicity among Tibetan students at the Minzu University of China in Beijing. Miaoyan Yang adroitly works through the everyday reflections and struggles of the Tibetan students she came to know in the course of her fieldwork, bringing alive their hopes, frustrations, and at times critical reflections on the meaning of Tibetan identity in China, which is at once globalizing and still deeply suspicious of its internal ethnic others. Engaging Chinese language scholarship in China and the history of western, English-language scholarship on ethnicity in China, she opens up space for new theoretical debates about the politics of inclusion, exclusion, belonging, and autonomy. This is a groundbreaking work that will surely generate heated discussion and debate. -- Ralph A. Litzinger, Duke University
This book is a timely examination of the cultural politics of Tibetan ethnic identity development within the national higher education system in China. Miaoyan Yangs work provides a fresh look at minoritymajority power dynamics in the worlds most populous country and introduces the complexity of those dynamics in an approachable way to readers who may not be familiar with Chinas multiculturalism. The study not only makes a significant contribution to understanding Chinas diversity, but also provides a framework within which to consider the complex geopolitical landscape of todays world. -- Rebecca Clothey, Drexel University
Miaoyan Yang provides readers with a rare glimpse into daily life at the Minzu University of China (MUC)the premier tertiary institution for ethnic minorities in the Peoples Republic of China. Thorough and compelling, yet sensitive, Learning to be Tibetan methodically untangles the wadded threads of influence that bind the ethno-national identities of MUCs Tibetan students. This book is an impressive contribution to the field of ethnic minority education in China. -- Timothy A. Grose, RoseHulman Institute of Technology
Following the model of the USSR, in the 1950s the Chinese government established a school system for ethnic minorities, parallel to the standard school system for the Han and other groups for whom Mandarin was their mother tongue. Minority universities are important parts of this system. What role do these minority universities play in building of group identity Learning to Be Tibetan: The Construction of Ethnic Identity at Minzu University of China tries to answer this question based on ethnographic research among Tibetan students at Minzu University of China and will provide a better understanding of ethnic policies and their impact on nation-building processes in contemporary China. -- Ma Rong, Peking University

Author Bio

Miaoyan Yang is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Xiamen University.