Recognition Of Changes In The Yuan

"Identity" is not only a kind of psychology activity but also a kind of social activity formed in daily life of human beings. There are many kinds of identity:primodial identity and situational identity, ethnic identity and regional identity, entire group identity and small group identity in big group. Identity has the characteristic of situational, multiple and segementary. In this thesis the author choose the famous historical immigration issue called "Go West"(lasted from Qing dynasty to Minguo, people went to today's Inner Mongolia from Shanxi, Shan'xi, Hebei and Gansu province due to drought disaster, hungry in their hometown and for the fertile uncultivated land in Inner Mongolia, most of the immigrants are Han people.) as research object. The author went to Donghe, which is the older section of the second largest city Baotou in Inner Mongolia where most of the residents are immigrants or immigrants ancestry of Go West who are mainly from Shanxi province. Based on the fieldwork, questionnaires and in-depth interview, the paper described the multiple identities of the immigrants and their ancestry which formed in the process of making.a living in a new immigrant environment. From the multiple identity of the Go West immigrants the author explained the primodial, situational and segementary characteristics of identity further more. By this way people can understand identity theory better. This paper includes six parts:First part introduces the research Origins, significance, review of relative theory, innovation and research methods. Second part is background introduction. The author introduced the conception, time, place, nature, reason and historical walking line of Go West macroscopically and microcosmically from checking out various historical literatures, interviewing old immigrants who had experienced the Go West themselves.Third part and forth part describes and analyzes the identity in two dimensions:the regional identity and ethnic identity mainly use the methods of checking out historical literatures, participant observation and in-depth interview. The third part is regional identity changing research. From the observation and interview in the fieldwork the author summed up that the Go West immigrants'identity was changing in a wave-like way from Shanxi to Inner Mongolia and then back to Shanxi. At the initial time of their immigration, they had strong identity of Shanxi, the association of Shanxi province, cave dwelling construction of Shanxi construction pattern and the compact settlement pattern shows that. However, in order to adapt the new living environment, their regional identity turned to Inner Mongolia. They studied local language, married with local people, and for same historical reason they rejected to admit they came from Shanxi. After they totally stayed in Inner Mongolia they still have the identity of Shanxi. For example, reserved eating habits of Shanxi, Culture and Customs of Shanxi, buried back to Shanxi after died, and built temple in Shanxi after they became prosperous by their own.Froth part is the research on ethnic identity changing. In order to adapt to the new environment, immigrants not only changed their regional identity but also changed their ethnic identity from Han to Mongolia in the process of interaction of economy and culture, marrage, getting more profit from preferential policies.Fifth part, the author tried to study identity longitudinally. In this part comparison and analysis are done based on the questionnaires and in-depth interviews of the first generation, second generation and third generation of the Go West immigrants.Sixth part is the conclusion part. From lateral research of regional identity and ethnic identity and longitudinal research of generations, the author found that the changes of all kinds of identities have the same characteristics:people chose different identity in different situation in order to meet their material demands to make a living and meettheir spiritual demands to comfort their heart.Generally speaking, from the subjective stand, people choose their identity in different situation to find their communication circle helping each other to meet their material needs. From the objective stand, identity is a kind of spiritual demands innate in. Identity makes one feel safe and brings spiritual sustenance to people. Generally speaking, people's identity changes under different situations and in different time.