From Round to Square (and back)

For The Emperor's Teacher, scroll down (↓) to "Topics." It's the management book that will rock the world (and break the vase, as you will see). Click or paste the following link for a recent profile of the project: http://magazine.beloit.edu/?story_id=240813&issue_id=240610

A new post appears every day at 12:05* (CDT). There's more, though. Take a look at the right-hand side of the page for over four years of material (2,000 posts and growing) from Seinfeld and country music to every single day of the Chinese lunar calendar...translated. Look here ↓ and explore a little. It will take you all the way down the page...from round to square (and back again).
*Occasionally I will leave a long post up for thirty-six hours, and post a shorter entry at noon the next day.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Asian Ethnicities (1c)—Han 漢族

A year ago on Round and Square (8 July 2011)—Le Tour de la France: Disappointment and Perseverance
Click here for other posts dealing with East Asian ethnic majorities:  
China 1       China 2       China 3       Japan 1       Japan 2       Japan 3       Korea 1       Korea 2       Korea 3
The first three entries (each in several segments) for the Round and Square series "Asian Ethnicities" deal with the majority ethnic groups in China, Japan, and Korea. We are starting with these groups precisely because they permeate all of the nooks and crannies of their respective histories. Indeed, the history of China is often taught (and this is especially true in Chinese schools) as the history of the Han ethnicity. As we shall see, this is particularly problematic in China, since the history of China can better—this is my opinion—be taught as a constant set of interactions with ethnic groups to the west, south, and especially north. It is no less important in Japan and Korea, however. The relative homgeneity of those populations exacerbate the problems, and engagement with various ethnic groups tends to be even further marginalized. I hope to give, in these introductory posts, a way of thinking about majority ethnicity in China, Japan, and Korea. These are by no means my last word on the subject(s). As you can see from the introduction to this series, these are works in process and are meant to be essays in every sense of the term.
[b] Classic RF
Cultural Life  
Anyone fortunate to visit both the Shanghai Municipal Museum and the National Palace Museum outside of Taipei, Taiwan, surely has noted a great contrast. The difference between the two has a great deal to do with the way that we view Han ethnicity in China. The items one sees in Taipei’s National Palace Museum form the core of what most of us know as “Chinese culture.” Room upon room showcases scrolls filled with paintings and calligraphy—a plethora of writing from almost every period of Chinese history—as well as beautifully crafted furniture, lacquer ware, vases, and the like. The collections in the National Palace Museum have been lovingly preserved, in many cases over the entire length of China’s imperial history, two-thousand years.

A visit to the Shanghai Museum has a different, less refined, feel to it. There are coins, official seals, pots, urns, and sacrificial vessels. Most of the items on display have been recently unearthed. The pieces in the Shanghai Museum are newer—in that they were just recently discovered—and yet are in some cases the oldest known artifacts that deal with the history of China. Though it is not apparent at first, if one stands back, physically and intellectually, the difference between the two museums becomes clear. One shows a China represented in its written history and showing the powerful dominance of Han “authorship.” The other represents materials that have been buried for much of the past two millennia, and presents a surprisingly diverse ethnic heritage.

[c] Northern scene RF
This historical dimension, as well as the artifacts themselves, shows a much more ambiguous picture of Han ethnic dominance in China than we normally see in textbooks. For example, archaeological digs in southern China such as the Mawangdui excavations in the 1970s, provide a picture of southern religious, social, and economic life that had not yet been penetrated by intermarriage, even as major texts of Chinese culture were being copied and modified. This should be a lesson for anyone seeking to understand China through its ethnic groups. The narrative should always be one of conflict and assimilation, and we err when we assume the history of China to be the history of the Han ethnic group.

But what of Han culture? How was it shown over the course of two millennia of imperial history? Perhaps the most important form can be seen in the governmental institutions themselves. There is an old saying in China that to lead a family and to lead “all under heaven” require the same key skills. The good father has all the qualities of a good leader. This is as powerful an example of Han patriarchy shaping social and cultural institutions as can be imagined. From there, the formative power of the written language carried enormous sway in the molding of Han Chinese identity. The very governmental apparatus that forged a centralized government carried the seeds of a unified written language (which ethnic minorities were often prevailed upon to master if they were to stay on relatively even footing) and a bureaucracy that stretched into every county of the Chinese territory. Those bureaucratic posts, in turn, sent Han Chinese to virtually every corner of the country, leading to further adaptation, intermarriage, and assimilation.

[d] Chinese RF
The educational system—and the vast network of examinations that were the keys to individual and family (as well as clan and lineage) success—was a further result of this very centralization. In turn, the very nature of the examination materials produced a kind of service ideal that would affect almost all aspects of family life. For example, the best avenue to success over several generations for a member of a non-Han ethnic group would often be to gain commercial success, generating sizable amounts of family resources. These could be used to gain marriage alliances that might not otherwise be possible, followed by a plan for a second and third generation to achieve more traditional kinds of success through the examination system and holding of official office. Indeed, it is not unusual to see this very pattern playing out today in China’s north, southwest, and especially its far western provinces.
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The history of the Han ethnic group is interwoven with the history of China as a whole. There is virtually no part of the story in which Han peoples do not play a role—and often a significant one. It is equally impossible to give a fair estimation of China’s past without understanding the profound dynamics of conflict, cooperation, assimilation, intermarriage, and cooptation that have taken place in China for as long as we have written or archaeological evidence. The Han story is one of engagement, and the ongoing give-and-take with other ethnic groups can bee seen even today, as new eras of China’s history unfold.
[e] Center/periphery RF
Click here for other posts dealing with East Asian ethnic majorities:  
China 1       China 2       China 3       Japan 1       Japan 2       Japan 3       Korea 1       Korea 2       Korea 3

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