Zhonghua Minzu

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The Chinese nation or Zhonghua minzu (Template:Zh-tsp), is a Chinese term that in modern China refers to the notion of a "Chinese nationality" transcending ethnic divisions - in other words, a civic "nationality" as opposed to an "ethnic" one, with a central loyalty to China as a whole. This "nationality" contains all peoples within the territorial boundaries of China integrated as one national, political, and perhaps even ideological-moral group. Many hold that this concept was introduced by Chinese nationalists to justify the forced political integration of various ethnic groups of China.

"Zhonghua" refers to the concept of "Chinese" independently from ethnic concepts such as the Han ethnic group. It includes not only the Han Chinese but also other minority ethnic groups within China, such as the Mongols and Tibetans. However, these minority ethnic groups (or indeed individuals within the majority Han ethnicity) do not necessarily accept that they belong to the Zhonghua minzu and may not regard themselves as Chinese in any sense other than political. The history of these nations often reflects a high degree of independence, and while some have politically been a part of China for many centuries, others have only recently been integrated. In any case, their current political status does not necessarily reflect cultural and ethnic identities.

Nonetheless many ambiguities exist. The degree and nature of the independence held to by the Tibetan people is relatively clear cut. Other groups, such as those of south-central/western China, including the Miao, Zhuang, and Yi, may not be culturally "Chinese" (that is, Han), yet it would be difficult to consider them politically or geographically independent from China. Even greater difficulty arises when considering groups like the Manchus, whose cultural identity was originally quite distinct from the Han Chinese but have become tightly intertwined with the Chinese state and nation, to the extent that they have lost their ancestral language and customs. Finally, there is also the matter that individuals within these groups will construct their own identities.

The boundaries of who is or is not a member of Zhonghua minzu have always been somewhat fuzzy and rather inconsistent. For example, whether overseas Chinese are considered part of Zhonghua minzu depends on the speaker and the context. The logic often stems from geographic location and political status--a Mongol living in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia would be considered by most to be part of Zhonghua minzu, while a Mongol living in the independent state of Mongolia may not; likewise there is even a Russian minority in China who are Chinese citizens politically, and many Chinese nationalists would want them to be considered Chinese in an ideological-moral sense as well.

The concept can give rise to real conflicts when staking claims to history. For instance, Genghis Khan is claimed to be a "Chinese" by China (because the Mongolians are part of the Zhonghua Minzu) and a "Mongolian" by Mongolia. A dispute of a similar nature has arisen over the status of the state of Koguryo in ancient history, with the Chinese claiming it for China and the Koreans maintaining that it was Korean.

The immediate roots of the Zhonghua Minzu lie in the Qing Empire, a multi-ethnic empire created in the 17th century by the invading Manchus. In the 19th century, a new Chinese identity was needed that would fit with Western concepts of ethnicity and nationality. Nationalists such as Sun Yat-sen and Liang Qichao planned to overthrow the Manchu Dynasty and establish a Chinese nation state modelled after Germany and Japan. At the same time, they intended that Outer China, where languages, religions, cultures and administration systems were completely different from those of the Han Chinese, should remain part of the Chinese nation. To resolve the contradiction, the concept of Zhonghua minzu was invented and was advocated by Chinese nationalists from 1895.

In the background was a fear that an overly restrictive view of the nation state would have dissolved the Empire into several different nations, which would almost definitely have allowed the Western powers to dominate China. The unifying and centralizing principles of Japan and Germany were considered examples China should follow, while the ethnically divided Ottoman Empire was seen as an example of what Chinese nationalists feared.

The concept of Zhonghua minzu has continued to be invoked and remains a powerful concept among Chinese nationalists into the 21st century. It continues to hold usefulness as the leaders of China need to unify into one political entity a highly diverse and potentially incohesive set of ethnic and social groups.

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