Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
China's ethnic classification project (minzu shibie), launched in Yunnan Province in 1954, lies at the heart of this book, which includes a preface by Benedict Anderson. In this first monograph resulting from his doctorate thesis, Thomas S. Mullaney proceeds from a simple observation that leads to a series of more complex issues: during the 1953 census organised by the Communist government, more than 200 groups in Yunnan claimed minzu status, but a mere 25 of them received state recognition in 1954. What became of the unrecognised groups? Which taxonomic theories prevailed in the classification? How was the China-of-56-minzu discourse diffused through this classification? Proceeding from the postulate that this was a key moment in modern Chinese history, Mullaney seeks to open the "'black box' of the fifty-six minzu paradigm sic" (p. 6) so as to understand the adoption and implementation of the classification of populations. In this task, he has relied on extremely rich and previously unseen archives, as well as
Vanessa Frangville (Sat,) studied this question.