Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Changing Logic of Ethnic Classification in China

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

SES 0927424 Thomas Gold Christopher Sullivan University of California, Berkeley This research project examines the changing logic of ethnic classification in China. In the mid-1950s, a gathering of preeminent Chinese social scientists and Communist Party cadres was given the task of partitioning China?s diverse population into distinct ethnic categories using explicitly non-biological criteria. Yet less than 50 years later, the development of the field of genetics in China and the initiation of the Chinese Human Genome Project in 1991 have spurred a flurry of medical and genetic research on ethnicity in China. This dissertation research project explores three questions: 1) why has ethnic classification in China shifted from a socio-linguistic project in the 1950s to a biologically based one beginning in the early 1980s; 2) what are the resulting tensions between these two competing logics of ethnic classification; and 3) why it is necessary for the Chinese government to distinguish between who is and who is not ethnically Han Chinese? This project examines the changing logic of ethnic classification using a combination of archival research, content analysis, and interview data. Data will be collected in seven Chinese cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Urumqi, Guangzhou, Guilin and Lanzhou. China offers an interesting case to explore the importance of racial and ethnic classification projects in modern state formation and nation building, economic development and modernization, and in shaping systems of racial and ethnic domination. Broader Impacts This project seeks to create opportunities to engage the public on how genetic science and research has influenced our understandings of ethnic identity and ethnic boundaries. Of particular interest is finding ways to engage the public on how seemingly objective categories like race and ethnicity vary over time and place--issues that are beyond the scope of the public's everyday imagination. Such research is necessary not only in the classroom, but also in public discourse. In addition, this research project will foster knowledge in a part of the world where race and ethnicity are often overlooked. This research project's commitment to producing public sociology will contribute to the National Science Foundation's goals of integrating research and education; advancing diversity in science; enhancing scientific and technical knowledge; and benefiting society.