Abstract
This chapter investigates the characteristics of multipolar nationhood and ethnicity in the local history of western Hunan in late imperial China. It also studies their impact on the development of nationalism in western Hunan in the Republican period (1912–1949). Changes of nationalist and ethic identities are examined through analysing the relationship between indigenous communities (mainly the Hmong ethnic group) and the central imperial government. It shows that through state rituals and official documentation from imperial and the Republican periods, a national identity was gradually formed and shaped. Multipolar ethnic identities emerged as a result of negotiating with the central government over issues concerning land use, taxation and the quotas for civil service examination degrees. New approaches are taken by a current generation of native scholars to continually shape Hmong identity in west Hunan.
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Peng, L. (2020). Nationhood and Ethnicity at the Frontiers: A Study of Hmong Identity in Western Hunan. In: Zhouxiang, L. (eds) Chinese National Identity in the Age of Globalisation. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4538-2_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4538-2_9
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