Negotiating Ethnicities in China and Taiwan (review)

Reviews 377 Melissa J. Brown, editor. NegotiatingEthnicities in China and Taiwan. China Research Monograph series, 46. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1995. 335 pp. Paperback, isbn 1-55729-048-2. This collection often essays illustrâtes the excitement ofongoing research in the rapidly expanding area ofminorities, race, and ethnicity in East Asia as well as some ofthe usual difficulties of fieldwork in politically sensitive and geographically remote regions. Despite the rather preliminary nature of some ofthe findings and the occasional forays into cultural-studies chic, which in a couple ofinstances is made to substitute for substantive discussion, these chapters generally provide new and stimulating material suggestive of the kind ofwork now being undertaken in this area of research. The authors—nine anthropologists and one social historian—share a focus on issues related to national identity and emnicity; however, they diverge greatly in geographic and linguistic terms, ranging over a vast, ethnically diverse region from Inner Mongolia in the north of China to Hainan Island in the south and from Taiwan to the far southwestern province ofYunnan. Stevan Harrell sets the stage for the volume in his introductory chapter by stressing the fluidity and manipulability of identity—qualities of use to modern nation-states attempting to create a loyal citizenry out of culturally diverse populations. Harrell further reminds his readers of the need for research on the non-Han populations of China and its significance for more "mainstream" research on Asia—a point that most of the subsequent chapters fully support. The strongest chapters are those by Patricia Ebrey and Keng-fong Pang. Ebrey's discussion ofChinese surnames as definitive markers of "Han Chinese" identity begins this collective foray into what is and is not "Chinese." Although this initial chapter is brief, her overall argument that the adoption of a singlecharacter surname has become one of the unifying traits of a now vast Chinese population is persuasive and should provide a point ofdeparture for further research . More extensive is Keng-fong Pang's excellent chapter on notions of identity among the Ustat/Hui of Hainan Island. Based on extensive fieldwork, Pang's discussion is well grounded in the history ofSouth China and Southeast Asia, and, unlike several other chapters in the volume, has the advantage of a great wealth ofmaterial, all ofit carefully and clearly presented. She tackles head-on the difficulties in defining such "slippery" terms as ethnic, identity, and cultural, and© 1998 by University provides a model from which other researchers, including several whose work is ofHawai'i Pressalso included in this volume, could benefit. Although graduate-student enthusiasm is important to maintaining forward momentum in new areas of research, the need for greater preparation and more 378 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1998 careful research methods is evident in several chapters by then-graduate-student authors. For instance, in discussing the identity of Han Chinese on Taiwan, Hai Ren, who is originally from the PRC, spent a summer in Taiwan exploring the ways in which the Chinese there are not Chinese. Writing as though no one had ever thought about the myriad regional differences among China's vast Han population, Ren belabors the obvious for some pages before offering his own observations on the identity ofTaiwan Chinese. Most ofhis conclusions suffer from too short an acquaintance with Taiwan, and the resultant conclusions include some assertions that are supported only by the author's opinion. For example, he asserts that Taiwan's population lives in fear of a repeat of the February 28 incident , which despite its importance is not explained in his article. There is no indication ofhow many people he spoke with or whether he attempted to survey residents in any systematic way, which brings into question this and other findings. Taiwan's aboriginal population is better served. Melissa Brown addresses the transformation of the formerly 'barbarian" aborigines into Han Chinese over the course of several generations. Much of her discussion is of great interest insofar as this topic, like several others addressed in this volume, has received much less attention in international scholarship than it should. However, throughout the chapter she adopts the term "Aborigine" (capitalized to equate it to Chinese or other ethnonyms...