The official Chinese government stance toward minorities has not always been positive. During the Cultural Revolution, minorities were the subject of persecution and assimilationist policies. Despite this, the numbers of citizens identifying as minorities has steadily risen.
More favourable and inclusive policies were implemented in the 1980s. Could China’s controversial One-Child Policy have been partially responsible for the rise?
Nationally representative census data show minorities made up 6.7 percent of China's population in 1982. This figure rose to 8.0 percent in 1990, and 8.8 percent in 2000.
The uptick was not due to demographic forces alone, according to recent research by Andrew Francis-Tan, a visiting associate professor at the LKY School of Public Policy and Zheng Mu, an assistant professor at the NUS Department of Sociology.
The authors of Racial Revolution: Understanding the Resurgence of Ethnic Minority Identity in Modern China, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Population Research and Policy Review, have suggested the One-Child Policy, introduced in 1980, was instrumental in this shift.
"Everyone assumed that growth in the minority population was due to differential fertility, that ethnic minorities were simply having more children," said Professor Francis-Tan. "But we discovered something else was going on."
"For example, take the 1970 birth cohort. Census statistics show only 6.8 percent were identified as a minority in 1982. By the 1990 census, it was 8.0 percent, and by the 2000 census, it was even higher. This was happening for all birth cohorts. The One-Child Policy appeared to be shifting people's ethnic identification."
Supporting minority identification
When the policy was implemented, 26 Chinese provinces allowed ethnic minorities to have an additional child.
The remaining five provinces - Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Hubei - had no special policies for minorities. They were subject to the same One-Child Policy restrictions as the majority, who identified as Han Chinese.
Monetary fines were also imposed for unauthorised births. These varied according to the year of the offence, and the province where it was committed.
The paper did not view these fines as monetary amounts that households were made to pay. Instead, it saw fines as a proxy for social costs, that households faced when deliberating an additional birth.
After crunching the numbers, the researchers found there was a positive correlation between fines and minority identification, in provinces where minorities were allowed to have an extra child.
The effect of the One-Child Policy was even bigger in those provinces with a higher historical concentration of minorities.
The effect was also higher among families with lower education, which makes sense given that people with lower socioeconomic status wanted to have a greater number of children.
The shift was pronounced. Drawing from evidence, the paper suggested that tens of millions of individuals – including entire families – shifted from identifying as Han Chinese to an ethnic minority during the 1980s and 1990s. This tapered down by 2000, when the official system for identification became stricter.
There are differing interpretations as to why Chinese citizens chose to identify as minorities.
"On one hand, it could be that people were strategically claiming minority identification to circumvent the One-Child Policy," said Professor Francis-Tan. "On the other, it could be that people felt comfortable to express their true selves as the political and social environment became more accepting of minorities."
Looking into the past
The tension between maintaining ethnic identity and conforming to the state-supported discourse of national identity has created fluid boundaries across ethnic groups
Today, Han Chinese make up just over 90 percent of the population, according to the 2010 census. In addition, there are 55 state-recognised ethnic minority groups. The categorisation was only finalised in 1982.
Shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state made an effort to officially register ethnic groups based on language, religion, and culture. More than 400 ethnic groups had applied for recognition, but only 41 were listed in the 1953 census.
The Cultural Revolution, the climax of China’s communist radicalism from 1966 to 1977, was devastating for minorities who were subject persecution and pressure to assimilate.
During the 1980s, official policy toward ethnic minorities began to shift. This was aimed at maintaining national security, promoting cultural autonomy, and reducing socioeconomic inequality between minorities and Han Chinese.
China re-established religious sites and founded ethnic autonomous regions. It also minted favourable policies for minorities with respect to fertility, political representation, employment and education.
During this time, the percentage of Chinese who identified as ethnic minorities dramatically increased. The research by Francis-Tan and Mu is the first to rigorously link changes in the policy environment (specifically, the One-Child Policy) to changes in minority identification.
Surprisingly, there is publicly available evidence the Chinese government was aware of the phenomenon. In 1990 the People’s Daily, the state’s most authoritative official outlet, published a short article that noted many more people identified as ethnic minorities on the 1990 census and suggested it might be related to policies favoring minority groups.
Looking into the future
The authors believe the share of Chinese minorities will continue to rise, given the trends among youth.
Nowadays, policy incentives related to fertility are much weaker, but policy incentives for minorities, particularly with respect to higher education, remain.
Indeed, the researchers also found that children with parents of different ethnicities were more likely to be identified as a minority, the more educated their parents were.
On the whole, more quantitative research needs to be done in China and elsewhere in Asia on ethnoracial identity.
The paper had to rely on census data, because surveys during the period of interest had limited representation of ethnic minorities. It also didn't explore how One-Child Policy directives were understood by families and officials on a micro level.
In 2015 it was announced that the One-Child Policy would be abolished. Today, the policy is widely criticised and considered responsible for the current demographic imbalance the super-power is experiencing. Whether intended or not, it is clear the policy did change patterns of ethnic minority identification in China.