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

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often alienate the majority, and in China this has led to The Taiwan aboriginal movement should be monitored
resentment and ethnic conflict in some areas. This is as to its impact on Republic of China policy and its
particularly true for groups such as the Hui, Manchu, coverage in the People's Republic of China media. The
She, and Zhuang, who closely resemble the Han outcome over this debate about indigenous peoples'
majority in their areas. It has led to accusations that land rights, their desire for native language training,
these groups are faking ethnic identity in order to have and the need for cultural preservation will have serious
more children or receive special government assis- repercussions on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
tance (see my discussion of the "two-child Hui" Mus-
lims, Gladney: The Journal of Asian Studies). The military has been drastically overhauled since
questions were raised about regional loyalty during
Popular culture should be monitored as an indication the Tiananmen incident. Further attention should be
of the rising importance of ethnic or cultural differ- paid to the origins and cultures of the officers in
ence. In Beijing, whereas only' a few years ago South- charge and of the forces under their commands.
erners and southern accents were pilloried and China's military districts occupy important macrore-
stigmatized by many "crosstalk" comedians and enter- gions that William Skinner (1965) once argued were
tainers, Cantonese terms and accents are now highly entirely separate focuses around which the rest of
valued and affected. Canton, Shenzhen, and Hong China moved. Although China, unlike the USSR, has
Kong songs, movies, clothing styles, and entertainers not employed many "official" minorities in the mili-
are extremely popular throughout China, even though tary, many commanders and their forces may have sig-
they are frequently not understood. At the same time, nificant local and regional attachments. Military
"ethnic art" that exoticizes, romanticizes, and often researchers have tended to dismiss these local and
eroticizes the minorities in Yunnan and Tibet, is regional differences because of certain assumptions
extremely popular inside and outside China, leading to about Han and Chinese identity. The ethnic and cul-
the founding of the Yunnan Ark School (see Gladney: tural makeup of the military may not have much influ-
Asian Visions of Authority: Religion and the Modern ence on military decision making, nonetheless, it may
States of East and Southeast Asia). effect the relationship with the local populations, as
we saw briefly in Beijing.
The ethnic makeup of "floating populations" and other
labor groups should be examined, particularly as it In the mid-1980s, political scientists initiated a series
relates to large migrations of peoples and the growth of studies and conferences under the rubric of "bring-
of ethnic economic niches. Dorothy Solinger in a ing the state back in" (see Skocpol 1985), leading to a
series of articles has documented the rising promi- stronger consideration of the role of the state in defin-
nence of "floating" migrant populations but has not ing state-society relations. This was an added correc-
analyzed why it is that most of the groups are mem- tive to earlier, particularist studies, which emphasized
bers of certain ethnic sub-Han communities. For microeconomic and community or individual-actor-
example, almost all shoe repair in China is dominated based approaches. However, in both approaches cul-
by Zhejiangese from a certain county; child care ture as a political force was somehow lost. As a politi-
workers and domestics in Beijing almost all come cal and cultural anthropologist, I am arguing for the
from one part of Anhui; the Subei people dominate necessity of bringing culture back into the debate, not
specific "unclean" occupations in Shanghai (see as a determining'force in social relations but as an
Honig 1991); Cantonese now cbntract almost all of important factor in understanding the options avail-
their agricultural labor to Hunanese peasants; and, able to political actors in the field of social relations.
until recently, the Uighur dominated the moneychang-
ing black market.
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