Click here for other posts dealing with East Asian ethnic majorities:
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.
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.
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| [c] Northern scene RF |
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.
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| [d] Chinese RF |
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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.
Click here for other posts dealing with East Asian ethnic majorities:
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| [e] Center/periphery RF |
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