1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

C00123268
preoccupation with order and harmony in a society revolution. The critical link between Sun Yat-sen's
held tenuously together by proper relationships may Five Peoples policy and his desire to unify all of
be one reason why these categories have never been China is made crystal clear from his discussion of
challenged. The very Confucian practice of the "recti- nationalism-the first of his Three People's Principles
fication of names" (zheng ming) is of primary concern (Sanmin Zhuyi). It is here that Sun argued the Chinese
to the Chinese ethnographers; once the Han and all the were a disconnected, loose sheet of sand, with no
minority nationalities have been identified or named, sense of the nation.
order is restored, and all is well in the world. I would
argue that it is the anxiety about differences within It is also not at all surprising that Dr. Sun should turn
Chinese society, not the affection shared within, that to the use of the all-embracing idea of the Han as the
has managed to hold China together. national group, which included all the regional peo-
ples and Sino-linguistic speech communities. Sun Yat-
The notion of "Han ren" (Han person) has existed for sen was Cantonese, raised as an overseas Chinese in
many centuries as those descendants of the Han Hawaii. As one who spoke little Mandarin, and with
dynasty, which had its beginnings in the Wei River few connections in northern China, he would have
valley. However, I submit that the notion of "Han zu" easily aroused traditional northern suspicions of
or "Han min" (Han nationality) is an entirely modern southern radical movements extending back to the
phenomenon-it arises with the shift from empire to Song dynasty (10th century) that were, of course, well
nation, as argued above. While the concept of a Han known to him. This recurring historical pattern and the
person certainly existed, the notion of a unified Han traditional antipathy between the Cantonese and
nationality that makes up 94 percent of China's popu- northern peoples would have posed an enormous bar-
lation gained its greatest popularity under Dr. Sun Yat- rier to his promotion of a nationalist movement. Dr.
sen. Dr. Sun was most certainly influenced by strong Sun found a way to rise above deeply embedded
currents of Japanese nationalism during his long-term north-south ethnocentrisms. The use and perhaps
stay in Japan. Sun argued that the ruler-subject rela- invention of the term "Han minzu" was a brilliant
tion that had persisted throughout China's dynastic attempt to mobilize other non-Cantonese, especially
history would need to be fundamentally transformed if northern Mandarin speakers, and the powerful Zhe-
a true nationalist movement were to sweep China and- jiang and Shanghainese merchants into one overarch-
engender support among all its peoples. More practi- ing national group against the Manchu and other
cally, Dr. Sun needed a way tomobilize all Chinese foreigners during the unstable period following the
against the imperial rule of the. Qing, a dynasty Unequal Treaties. The Han were seen to stand in
founded by a northeastern people who became known opposition to the "Others" on their borders-the Man-
as the Manchu. By invoking the argument that the chu, Tibetan, Mongol, and Hui, as well as the Western
majority of the people in China were Han, Sun effec- imperialists. By distinguishing these "Others" in their
tively found a symbolic metaphorical opposition to midst, the nationalists cultivated the imagined identity
the Manchu to which the vast majority of peoples in of the "we" Han, as opposed to the "they" minorities
China would easily rally. and foreigners. In Ben Anderson's terms, Dr. Sun was
engaged in "stretching the short, tight skin of the
Dr. Sun Yat-sen advocated the idea that there were nation over the gigantic body of the empire."
"Five Peoples of China" (wuzu gonghe): the Han, the
Man (Manchu), the Meng (Mongolian), the Zang The Communists stretched this skin even further, fol-
(Tibetan), and the Hui-a term that included all Mus- lowing the Soviet model and identifying not five, but
lims in China who are now divided into the Uighur, 55, nationality groups, with the Han in the 91-percent
Kazakh, Hui, and so forth. This recognition of the majority. My argument is that both for the nationalists
Five Peoples of China served as the main platform for and the Communists, it was not only the political
his Nationalist revolution, which overthrew the Qing
empire and established the first "People's Republic."
One must have peoples if there is to be a people's
113