Sigur Center Asia Report, Issue 26: Contestation and Adaptation: The Politics of National Identity in China

Sigur Center for Asian Studies

GW Work

Sigur Center Asia Report, Issue 26: Contestation and Adaptation: The Politics of National Identity in China Open Access

As an ethnically heterogeneous country, China faces a unique challenge in its nation building efforts: establishing a unified Chinese national identity that satisfies both the Han Chinese majority and China’s various ethnic minority groups. Thus far the results of these efforts have been mixed: while most of China’s 55 ethnic minority groups have assimilated into a “Chinese” national identity, other minority groups, most notably the Tibetans and Uighurs, have forcefully contested the idea of Chinese national identity on multiple occasions.