| dc.description.abstract | This thesis treats a broad selection of Chinese academic articles, all of which concern different aspects of Dungan culture and language. The articles are, without exception published in Chinese academic journals after the year 2000. The notion of “Chineseness” as a quality of the Chinese ethnicity, the Zhonghua minzu can be said to be the superior theme of the thesis. However, the research question of the thesis is divided into two. Through my research, the ultimate goal has been to attempt to understand the actual definition of the term Zhonghua minzu and what it signifies to be a part of the ethnicity.
Subsequently, the Dungan people have been used as a specific example, as affiliated with China, to better understand how ethnic groups are connected to the Zhonghua minzu. The Dungans, an ethnic group mainly situated in the Central Asian countries of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, are examined in this thesis within the scope of Chinese academia’s point of view on the notion of “Chineseness”. I have studied how different attitudes regarding ethnicities, especially ethnic minorities, appear within the topical medium, how they shape and are shaped by the social discourse.
In my research, one of the main findings in regard to the Zhonghua minzu- the Chinese ethnicity was that the ethnicity in itself did not match the Stalin based criteria traditionally used to define ethnicity within China. Whilst these criteria are based on common psychological makeup, territory, religion, economy and language, the Zhonghua minzu is solely based on a broad and general explanation of what it means to be Chinese: The people of the republic of China and overseas Chinese. This can be interpreted as to be focused on an ancestral bond. Nevertheless, the analysis shows language as integral, if not the most important factor, in terms of determining affiliation with the Chinese ethnicity.
Furthermore, the analysis displays how Chinese academia, through different voices and perspectives, imparts both China and various ethnicities a myriad of roles and traits. This will show, both in theory and praxis, how it mirrors the official and unofficial Chinese language politics.
| eng |