Studies on Ethnic Groups in China Stevan Harrell, Editor Studies on Ethnic Groups in China Cultural Encounters on China’s Ethnic Frontiers Edited by Stevan Harrell Guest People: Hakka Identity in China and Abroad Edited by Nicole Constable Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China Jonathan N. Lipman Lessons in Being Chinese: Minority Education and Ethnic Identity in Southwest China Mette Halskov Hansen Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928 Edward J. M. Rhoads Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China Stevan Harrell Governing China’s Multiethnic Frontiers Edited by Morris Rossabi On the Margins of Tibet: Cultural Survival on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier Åshild Kolås and Monika P. Thowsen The Art of Ethnography: A Chinese “Miao Album” Translation by David M. Deal and Laura Hostetler Doing Business in Rural China: Liangshan’s New Ethnic Entrepreneurs Thomas Heberer Communist Multiculturalism: Ethnic Revival in Southwest China Susan K. McCarthy COmmUNIst MUltICUltURALIsm Ethnic Revival in Southwest China SUSAN K. McCArthY university of washington press • Seattle and London This publication is supported in part by the Donald R. Ellegood International Publications Endowment. © 2009 by the University of Washington Press Printed in the United States of America Design by Pamela Canell 14 12 11 10 09 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. University of Washington Press, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145 U.S.A. www.washington.edu/uwpress Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McCarthy, Susan K. Communist multiculturalism : ethnic revival in southwest China / Susan K. McCarthy. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Studies on ethnic groups in China) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-295-98908-2 (hardback : alk. paper) isbn 978-0-295-98909-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Yunnan Sheng (China)—Ethnic relations. 2. Tai (Southeast Asian people)—China—Yunnan Sheng. 3. Bai (Chinese people)—China—Yunnan Sheng. 4. Hui (Chinese people)—China—Yunnan Sheng. I. Title. II. Title: Ethnic revival in southwest China. ds793.y8m4 2009 305.800951'35—dc22 2008045990 The paper used in this publication is acid-free and 90 percent recycled from at least 50 percent post-consumer waste. It meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. ∞ Q Contents Foreword by Stevan Harrell vii • Preface xi • Acknowledgments xv Introduction 3 — 1 — Culture, the Nation, and Chinese Minority Identity 20 — 2 — The Dai, Bai, and Hui in Historical Perspective 49 — 3 — Dharma and Development among the Xishuangbanna Dai 70 — 4 — The Bai and the Tradition of Modernity 100 — 5 — Authenticity, Identity, and Tradition among the Hui 130 Conclusion 167 Chinese Glossary 179 • Notes 181 • Bibliography 199 • Index 219 Foreword usan McCarthy’s Communist Multiculturalism, the eleventh volume in the Studies on Ethnic Groups in China series, exemplifies in many ways the methods and the message that the series employs and deliv- Sers. If we want to understand ethnicity, ethnic groups, and ethnic relations in China, we cannot rely on the study of single groups or single time peri- ods, nor can we use the methods and theories of single disciplines. Rather we need to address full-on the complexity of the Chinese nation and its component parts. This means not only context, but detail. We need to rec- ognize that we can understand a group only in relation to others with whom the group interacts; we can understand a historical period only in the con- text of what happened before and after. And we have to recognize above all that no group is quite like any other group, that no group can stand for “minorities,” and that no group’s relationship with the state is quite like that of any other group. In short, we need to compare, and to compare the details. And to do this comparison effectively, we need to employ the methods of many disciplines, which is why our series has already included authors and contributors from history, anthropology, political science, lit- erature, linguistics, and geography. But more significantly, all our authors employ concepts and methods from multiple disciplines in single books and chapters. vii viii Foreword Communist Multiculturalism embodies this approach and philosophy. McCarthy spent two years in Yunnan, learning through intensive field research and everyday experience just how varied and complex China’s eth- nic groups and ethnic relations are. In her rich yet rigorous synthesis of her findings among the Dai, Bai, and Hui, she offers a detailed empirical dem- onstration of some of the most important aspects of ethnicity in China. To begin with, ethnic groups are not the same. Not only do their cul- tures differ—a rather obvious point—but their ways of being ethnic dif- fer as well. Dai are very different culturally from Han Chinese and other non-Theravada-Buddhist peoples, as well as being proud of their descent from the formerly independent polity of Sipsong Panna. They are what the Chinese ordinarily think a minority should be—different, but not sepa- ratist. The Bai, long subjects of various Han-ruled regimes, are much less different culturally but still take pride in their ethnic uniqueness. The Hui are even less different from the Han—they speak Chinese as their primary language and their major differences relate to their Islamic religion. But they have a reputation for being oppositional to the state and thus rather dangerous. These different ways of being ethnic may be interesting in and of them- selves, but, more important, they serve to point out important truths about relationships between minorities and the state that are otherwise easy to overlook. Difference, celebration of difference, revival of identity, ethnic pride—all may add up to separatism or ethnic conflict in some cases, but they do not need to. There are certainly separatist sentiments and organi- zations among China’s best-known minority ethnic groups—the Tibetans and the Uyghurs—but separatism is unimportant or nonexistent among the groups McCarthy describes. They are all part of the Chinese polity and have made little or no attempt to separate themselves from it. But even counting out separatism, there are varying degrees and different modes of ethnic conflict. In recent years, Hui have had disputes with Han and other ethnic groups in Yunnan and elsewhere, but there has been no overt conflict, and in fact little contention, between Bai and their neighbors. Put succinctly, ethnic identity and nationalism are not synonymous, nor are ethnic conflict and ethnic separatism. But we would be oversimplistic if we saw these differences merely as a range from conflict with the state to no conflict with the state. A third lesson emphasized in McCarthy’s study is that the state can—and in fact is usually wise to—not only not suppress certain forms of ethnic revival and ethnic identity but actively encourage and support them, as it does with Foreword ix the Bai and Dai in particular. This can promote ethnic groups’ support of the state and identification with the multiethnic nation. But still, this does not always work—many Hui, despite being loyal citizens of China, have frequent conflicts with other ethnic groups. In short, the questions of ethnicity and nation-building in China are complex and cannot be reduced to a simple formula. Nor can they be understood through a single discipline, as McCarthy, a political scientist, shows when she combines theories and concepts mostly from her own dis- cipline with methods drawn heavily from anthropology and with insights from history and the arts. We are thus delighted to present Communist Multiculturalism to the reading public. It tells us many things we need to know if we are to under- stand today’s multiethnic China. Stevan Harrell Seattle, March 2009 Preface his book is the fruit of many years of thinking about questions of cultural identity in the Chinese context. It analyzes the politics of post-Mao cultural revival among three Chinese minority groups, Tthe Dai, Bai, and Hui, and explores how minority cultural practice and identity reflect, refract, and challenge broader Chinese discourses of mem- bership and national identity. It also considers the implications of the Dai, Bai, and Hui revival for common conceptions (and misconceptions) of culture, identity, and the nation. My interest in the subject of Chinese minorities grew out of experi- ences teaching English in China in the late 1980s. During the year I spent in Yunnan, it was obvious that minority culture was undergoing a renais- sance of sorts, following decades of enforced conformity. I wondered how minorities perceived this revival, and what it meant to them. I also won- dered about the state’s role in promoting it. What oversight did the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Republic of China exercise over minorities’ cultural activities? Did officials merely tolerate this revival, or did they participate in more active ways, and if so, why? Moreover, what did this ethnic and cultural ferment mean for the coherence and viability of the Chinese nation? xi xii Preface It was several years before I began to investigate these issues in a more systematic fashion. As a graduate student of political science in the mid- 1990s, I found myself drawn to questions of culture and identity. These issues were particularly salient during that time of the Soviet Union’s col- lapse, the genocide in Rwanda, and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugosla- via.