Talk:List of ethnic groups in China

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject China, a project to improve all China-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other China-related articles, please join the project. All interested editors are welcome.
List This page is a List and does not require a rating on the quality scale.
More information about this article...
Zuni girl; photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1903 This article falls within the scope of WikiProject Ethnic groups, a WikiProject interested in improving the encyclopaedic coverage and content of articles relating to ethnic groups, nationalities, and other cultural identities. If you would like to help out, you are welcome to drop by the project page and/or leave a query at the project's talk page.
NB: Assessment ratings and other indicators given below are used by the Project in prioritizing and managing its workload.
??? This article has not yet been assigned a rating on the Project's quality scale.
??? This article has not yet been assigned a rating on the Project's importance scale.
After rating the article, please provide a short summary on the article's ratings summary page to explain your ratings and/or identify the strengths and weaknesses.
WikiProject Ethnic groups open tasks:

Contents

[edit] Question

I just disambiguated all the ethnic groups (people seem to move the articles but don't fix the redirects). Question: is the list in order of population? If so, this should be noted. Badagnani 07:00, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

It already says that. But I just added a reference for it. - Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 12:25, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Elaborate

While a list is nice to look at, where should I go to learn about why China defines 56 ethnic groups? There's got to be some kind of history to this. Which group was the most recent to be officially recognized? And other questions. Xaxafrad 08:01, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

See Ethnic minorities in China. Probably the policy was made post-1949 by the PRC government. But you have a good point about why 56 were selected, and not more (many others do exist but aren't recognized, or are grouped into other "official") ethnic groups). And what was the Nationalist government's ethnic policy up to 1949? I think all 56 may have been recognized at the same time. Badagnani 08:07, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ethnic flags of the officially recognized ethnic groups of China

According to a 1999 report posted on the Flags of the World website (Home page: [1]), each of the officially recognized ethnic groups of China has its own flag: [2]. Hopefully, at some time in the near future when this vexillological information is accessed, it will be possible to set up a display of each of those flags in this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Keraunos (talk • contribs) 2007-02-03 06:04:39

Unfortunately, a Google search in Chinese doesn't really turn up anything. These flags might not be widely used. Badagnani 06:14, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm doubting the authenticity of the claim. Something like that should probably have been mentioned right here in WP already. Even if the PRC is blocking access to WP, we still have plenty of editors who have been or even grew up in the PRC, people who presumably would have personal knowledge of something like this. Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 06:23, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
It's likely that at least some of the nationalities (or pro-independence groups like those in Xinjiang) have their own flags, some of which must be suppressed by the government. From the description of this program, it sounds like many of them did have their own flags. The nationalities (or Han people dressed in nationality costumes) are featured every year on the CCTV New Year Celebration so maybe the flags would show up on that program. Badagnani 06:28, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Politically Incorrect

First of all, the Republic of China does not refer to China, it is a clear fact, thats nothing to argue about. Second, Taiwanese aborigines are not an ethnic group in China. China here refers to the People's Republic of China. Which means that it is wrong to put or to write anything about Taiwanese aborigines under this title - "List of Ethnic Groups in Chiha".

I strongly advise you to rename the title to "List of Ethinic Groups in the People's Republic of China" to avoid confusion. And under this title you may have a subheading in which you will discuss the PRC government recognises Taiwanese aborigines as an ethnic group, called Gaoshan. --—Preceding unsigned comment added by Changchih228 (talk • contribs)

Firstly, it is disputable whether or not "China" refers to the Republic of China as well. There are opposing views on this issue. But this is a dispute that's better addressed at Political status of Taiwan. Secondly, even if we are to rename the article to "List of ethnic groups in the People's Republic of China", it still needs to mention the Taiwanese aborigines, because the PRC government officially categorises them. It's pointless to move it. Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 21:08, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Again, you are politically incorrect. China does not refer to the Republic of China. The government of China then refers to the Republic of China "as well as" the PRC government. China is a piece of massive land in Asia, Taiwan, on the other hand, is an island. However, Taiwan refers to the Republic of China and vice verca at the moment. I dont want to go off-topic. If you are talking about ethnic groups in China why should Taiwan be mentioned if Taiwan and China are clearly two separate lands. Furthermore, if you rename the title, then it is true that "the PRC government officially categorises the aborigines on Taiwan as one of their ethnic groups' provided that there is an evidence to support it. It then becomes less controversial. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Changchih228 (talk • contribs) 2007-02-04 21:31:04

We're not here to present only information that is politically correct. And again, it is disputed whether or not "China" includes the ROC. A lot of people think that China include Taiwan as well. Also, just look at the sources provided on this article, and you'll see that the PRC government categorises Taiwanese aborigines into the Gaoshan group. Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 21:40, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
Good discussion. I propose to add a sentence at the top of the Gaoshan section which clarifies the fact that the PRC claims the Gaoshan, when in fact it does not actually control this territory now, since 1949. This is not really made clear as the text stands now. Badagnani 21:49, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
I think it would be sufficient to just add something like that in the section for Taiwanese aborigines. But I fear inserting text like that is just inviting disputes and other editors will come in here to keep adding onto the text, eventually expanding it into a wordy explanation of Taiwan's political situation. Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 21:57, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
That's what I meant, the "Taiwanese aborigines" section. The wording could be very short; the article is simply a list so I don't think long is necessary. Badagnani 22:03, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I dont see taht is necessary, all you need is to rename China to PRC. Because Taiwanese aborigines are on an island calle Taiwan, not China. It doesnt make sense by listing the Taiwanese aborigines here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Changchih228 (talk • contribs) 2007-02-04 22:07:46

Well, of course Hainan is an island as well. Badagnani 22:10, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
That is a very biased POV. A lot of people consider Taiwan a part of China. And it's already explained that the ROC and PRC governments categorise the Taiwanese aborigine groups differently. Now, it's an undisputed fact that the PRC government categorises them as Gaoshan. It only makes sense to clarify what that really means in this list. It makes no difference if the article is renamed, the aborigine section should still be there. Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 22:14, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I've added text in the Taiwanese aborigines section to explain the political concerns. Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 22:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Two articles instead of one

This article should really be split in two - one article for the Republic of China and one for the People's Republic of China. The clarification I added to the opening sentence is really just a band-aid and it sort of awkward. There is no unanimous agreement as to what constitutes China (though it is usually used to refer to the PRC) so we either need to be clear that the article is about the PRC, or split it into two articles, one covering mainland China and the other covering Taiwan. Readin (talk) 18:18, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

The latter wouldn't work, as the Taiwan Aborigines are clearly one of the 54 ethnic groups in the PRC list. Badagnani (talk) 18:24, 18 March 2008 (UTC)