Kinship, overseas connection and ethnicity : reconstructing social landscape in a She minority community in southern Fujian province during China's reforms

Abstract

Based on fieldwork in a She minority community in southern Fujian, this study, by discussing strategies the locals used to construct their ethnicity in the 1980s, attempts to explore lineage as a form of ethnicity being manipulated by a group of people surnamed Lan in ZP county to interact with the state. From the emergence of famous lineage members during the Kangxi reign, to the active performance of local heroes in the Republican era, to the negotiation between overseas relatives and the state during the 1950s to 1960s, and again in the application to be reclassified as members of the She minority in 1984, the local elite function as local agents in different historical periods to maintain the running of the Lan lineage. To understand local elites’ role in state-society relations, this thesis focuses on the following questions: from where does the power of the local elite come? How can we comprehend relations within local elites in different periods? Grounded in fieldwork, this study attempts to describe the reconstruction of the social landscape among the She community in the last several decades, a process which has been based on cooperation and negotiation between the local elite and the state. Meanwhile, this reconstruction has also reshaped family relationships within the Lan community.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology