Based on fieldwork archival research and interviews this book critically examines the
building of modern Chinese discourse on a unified yet diverse Chinese nation on various sites
of knowledge production. It argues that Chinese ideology on minority nationalities is rooted in
modern China's quest for national integration and political authority. However it also
highlights the fact that the complex process of conceptualizing investigating classifying
curating and writing minority history has been fraught with disputes and contradictions. As
such the book offers a timely contribution to the current debate in the fields of
twentieth-century Chinese nationalism minority policy and anthropological practice.
