State management of diversity is a modern enterprise. China's need to temper the push for national unity with policies of variety and difference is no exception. "Marginalization in China: Recasting Minority Politics," a collection of historical and contemporary accounts of gender, ethnic, class and religious minority formation, debunks popular misconceptions about China's highly centralized state and seemingly homogeneous society. Drawing on archival research, interviews and field work it documents how state and citizens meet in a politics of minority recognition, and so inform the growing awareness of rights in China. Rich and timely, this volume reminds everyone that China has the power not only to attract attention to itself but invite reflection back on every polity's approach to diversity.

Bringing together historians, sociologists, and political scientists, this volume documents persistent prejudices against consistently marginal groups in China, and the moral claims they have mustered in response.