Creating a 'new Yi' for the Chinese nation. Rethinking modernity and the Yi during the republican period
This paper proposes to re-examine the relationship of the Yi people of southwest China with the many aspects of modernity that began to imbricate China's southwest borderlands during the Republican period (1912-1949). This repertoire of Chinese Republican modernity which emphasized anti-imperia...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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2012.
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| Online Access: | Get fulltext |
| Summary: | This paper proposes to re-examine the relationship of the Yi people of southwest China with the many aspects of modernity that began to imbricate China's southwest borderlands during the Republican period (1912-1949). This repertoire of Chinese Republican modernity which emphasized anti-imperialism, ethnic equality, modern education and warfare among others were key elements in the shaping of a modern Yi identity among a young elite that was brought into the Guomindang orbit. This paper in particular focuses on the career of a young Yi tusi, Ling Guangdian, who was trained under the Guomindang and then served in the Liangshan region. Ling's career and actions during this period evidenced the ways in which ethnic minorities in China could use these discursive elements of modernity for the benefit of their own people conceived as a nation (minzu) albeit within the confines of the Chinese nation-state. |
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