A Study Of The Salars’ Ethnic Identity

Ethnic identity is one of the hot issues of humanities and social science research both in China and abroad. China is a unified multi-ethnic country, with the increase of the contact of domestic various ethnics and the advancement of urbanization, as well as the development of common prosperity of all ethnic groups, people pay more attention to the importance of their ethnic identity and begin to maintain their ethnic’s image, therefore, manifesting their ethnic’s cultural characteristics. At the same time, in order to maintain national integrity and unity, countries are also trying to construct citizen’s identity to the state.Therefore, it is a long-term and complicated major historical task that China meets; it is how to guarantee the continuation and development of all ethnics’characteristic culture with the deepening and expansion of the country’s internal unity, forming the pattern of coexisting harmoniously and maintaining difference as well as all the nations’harmonious coexistence in a unitary state. Based on this, this thesis tries to explore the general principle of ethnic identity and national identity in the process of Chinese nation’s construction by conducting the empirical research of the Salars that has a unique history and culture in the multi-ethnic region, the thesis tries to analyze the previous ethnic identity theories, make the comprehensive understanding of the relationship between ethnic identity and national identity; the purpose of it is to provide case analysis and academic information for integration of China’s ethnic identity and national identity.Chapter one is the introduction, which first analyzes the research significance, then this part discusses the definitions of the basic concepts and some relevant theories, research status, as well as the review, lastly, it points out the research methods and fields point selection.Chapter two is the general review of the Salars, which analyzes the source of this ethnic, its population and its distribution, as well as the ethnic characteristics, so the ethnic situation and social background of the ethnic identity study of this ethnic has been explained.In the third chapter, the author analyzes the ethnic identity of the Salars from the perspective of history. This chapter studies the series of changes of the Salars since its ancestors’ settlement in Xunhua area. It includes the change from the tribe with a nature of military to an ethnic group, the change from the identity of the "guest" to citizens of the Chinese nation family, the change from being seen as the branch of "foreign tribe" or "Hui ethnic group" to become an equal members of the family in Chinese nation, which is called the Salars officially. In the span of the changes, Islam, Jiezi(birthplace of the Salars) and grass-roots social organizations play an important role in maintaining the Salar’s ethnic boundary.The fourth chapter is the empirical research on the current situation of the Salars’ethnic identity. The analysis in this chapter shows that the current Salars has strong ethnic identity, in their daily lives, the ethnic identity is illustrated and maintained by living patterns, ethnic languages, ethnic communication and ethnic pride, and etc.Chapter five is the analysis of the influence factors of ethnic identity of the Salars. This chapter points out that historical memory, inter ethnic interaction, state power and ethnic elite play an important role in construction and maintenance of the Salars’ethnic identity. In the process of the formation of ethnic identity and development, these factors play the role synthetically, although the degree of each kind of factor varies, the role of each of these factors has the characteristic of long-term, and this effect is often complicated and intertwined.In Chapter six, the author explores the harmonious coexistence of the Salars’ethnic identity and national identity. In this chapter, the relationship between the Salars’ethnic identity and national identity has been discussed based on the study of the status of the Salar’s national identity, and then it reveals the implication of harmonious coexistence of the Salars’ethnic identity and national identity, finally it discusses the importance of the factors to achieve the harmonious coexistence of the Salars ethnic identity and national identity, such as, economy, politics, culture, and society.The last part is conclusion. Some basic ideas in this thesis have been interpreted further, points out the situationality and complexity of the identity, and summarizes the current ethnic identity theory with the combination of the study of the Salars, pointing out, being two different levels of identity, ethnic identity and national identity could coexist harmoniously. It also illustrates the long-term characteristic of the implementation of the harmonious coexistence, at the same time, the limitation and the further suggestion for future study have been stated in order to carry out the better future researches.