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Apply to join the Qiang nationality in Fengxian, ShaanxiPosted by Eric Mu, December 23, 2008 7:44 PM
Today's Chinese Business View reprints an article from Oriental Outlook magazine reporting that that people in Fengxian (凤县), a small city in Shaanxi Province, are rushing to abandon their status as members of the Han nationality and change their registration to Qiang (羌族), one of 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups in China. Here are some excerpts:
Fengxian's total population is about 120,000 people. Metal mining, particularly zinc and lead, have dominated the local economy, but the city is seeking other ways of making money. So over the past two years, Fengxian has invested 650 million yuan in developing local tourism:
Their efforts paid off: in 2007, Fengxian received 250,000 tourists and saw 225 million yuan in tourism income. And for the past two summers, hotels were completely booked, something that was once unthinkable.
The city sent off to Sichaun's Aba region for dance instructors to obtain the pieces of Qiang culture that Fengxian lacked:
The city held its first Qiang-themed cultural tourism festival on November 9, to which it invited ethnic Qiang from the Sichuan earthquake zone. It apparently was quite successful: tourism director Liang said, "at this pace, we will achieve our 20 year plan in three to five years." These plans probably don't include Fengxian becoming an autonomous county. Although some people have suggested that promoting Qiang ethnic registration is driven by a desire to obtain financial support from the state, Fengxian county officials say that to meet national requirements, Qiang residents would have to represent around 30% of the total population. Individual villages could apply for autonomous status on their own, however. Zhang Shanyuan provided some background on ethnicity changes in other regions:
Wu Shuangxing, a official with the local Public Security Bureau, said that Fengxian has had "more than one thousand people apply to change from Han to Qiang" to date. Links and Sources
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Comments on Apply to join the Qiang nationality in Fengxian, Shaanxi
Quite funny
Han Chinese is the dominant ethnic group in China who are deeply practical, getting more benefits with only a change of the status of ethnic is truly a bargain.
I duono whether this happen in anywhere other than China
There was a photo in the Guardian today of ethnic Qiang cheering for the farewell of Tuantuan and Yuanyuan: link
Happy minority. I bet they spend most of the day singing and dancing.
reality in Fengxian is even bleaker than Jia Zhangke's fiction had led us to believe.
Minority groups have advantages in many aspects of social lives, such as in College Entrance Exams - they have bonus scores over Han Chinese, and 'one child per family' policy doesn't apply to them. One of my childhood friends has a Han father and a Manchu mother. At the time he was born his parents chose Han race in his birth registration but he later switched to Manchu since it will give him plus points in exams.
In many careers such as in entertainment industry and public service, the number of minority celebrities exceeds the ratio of their populace. Check this incomplete list for their traditions and famous minorities.
I think china is the only country where minority races are privileged over majority, this policy was intended to maintain racial harmony but it's turned out to do the exact opposite. time to make everyone equal.
"Sincerity" (on the part of Han's who wish to convert to reap more ethnic-identity-based benefits) is definitely there; what about "Authenticity"?
I take comfort in the belief that time will wash off the absurdity of a man-made cultural identity and leave an interesting anecdote in China's and the world's ethnography. But wait, ain't all cultural identities "man-made" in some ways? And who are we to say that intentional concoction must be worse than historical coincidence? Let's all count the bonus hand-out and help turn the world into a universal theme park.