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Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the
Chinese Community Party (CCP) has launched a nation-wide ethnic
identification project to recognize ethnic minorities, which are
widely considered as "peripheral," "barbarian," "inferior,"
"backward," and "distrusted." State schooling is expected to play a
significant political role in civilizing and integrating these
ethnic minorities. As an important part of Chinese state schooling,
fifteen tertiary minority institutions have been established,
assuming a primary goal of cultivating minority officials who are
loyal to the CCP. This study, situating in the context of Minzu
University of China (MUC), the best university designated
specifically for the education of ethnic minorities, seeks to
explore the intersection between state schooling and ethnic
identity construction of Tibetan students. Ethnographic data has
revealed how educational backgrounds of MUC's Tibetan students have
influenced the ways in which they interpret, negotiate and assert
their Tibetan-ness. Four patterns of ethnic identification are
discussed: (1) For the min kao min students (meaning having
received bilingual education in Chinese and Tibetan prior to MUC)
in Tibetan studies, being Tibetan means assuming an ethnic mission
of promoting Tibetan language and culture; (2) For the min kao min
students in other majors, being Tibetan embodies having a different
physical appearance, wearing different clothing, engaging in
different religious practices, holding cultural beliefs and
generally under-achieving academically in Han-dominant settings;
(3) For the inland Tibetan school graduates, being Tibetan means
having a reflective awareness of their cultural and language loss
due to their dislocated schooling and a determination to make up
for the past by innovatively initiating, organizing or
participating in Tibetan cultural programs; (4) For the min kao han
(meaning having received mainstream education the same as Han
Chinese prior to MUC) students, being Tibetan is simply a symbolic
identity that they sometimes utilize to gain preferential
treatments. With the exception of most of the min kao han students,
Tibetan identity has been revitalized and strengthened after
studying and living in MUC. In the process, the unity of the
Tibetan group has been promoted and enhanced. Tibetan students'
different approaches to ethnic identification provide us with
useful lessons about ethnic identity dynamics in relation to
education, culture, and ethnic politics. As opposed to other
interpretations that see Tibetans as exotic ethnic others, this
study reveals that Tibetan students' ethnic identification is
meaningful when they strategically negotiate with the
Han-Chinese-dominant narratives. This study contributes to the
understanding of ethnic politics and interethnic dynamics in China.
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