More than skin deep

Recent unrest in Tibet has brought the struggles of ethnic minorities in China once again to the forefront of news from China. While Tibetans are now recognized as a persecuted minority, many in the West are unaware of many other ethnic minorities in China and the prejudices that still exist in this vast country. The majority in China, 97%, are Han but, many other ethnic groups are represented by China’s population. As occurs in every other country there exists prejudice against any group that is deemed “different.” Lian Yue, a blogger from China, recently addressed some of the prejudice that still exists in China. One comment left on his site reflects the strong feelings. “I slowly discovered that we all more or less have a deep-rooted concept that Uighurs are thieves, Tibetans are brutal, Shanghainese are shrewd calculators, Hunanese are hot tempered, Northeasterners love fighting, Northern Jiangsuers are very country, and so on …. .. Before getting to know the people we already divided them by this or that kind of identity.” We tend to divide people that we do know but, from a western viewpoint we tend to lump everyone together when we don’t know them.

Another man, who lives in Inner Mongolia wrote, "The Mongolians around me in general feel very lost. They are in conflict with the Han Chinese sentiments, but get along very well with Han Chinese in daily life. But the feeling of being lost is strong there, I can sense that. I think I may be alarmist, but if there are days when the intensification of ethnic conflicts arise, the two sides will immediately turn on each other.” While our western media often covers the problems between Sunni and Shia, between black and white, and between Catholic and Protestants, we have not been as aware of the deep seated feelings that still linger in the People’s Republic of China.