What do Chinese Minorities Think of the Han?

The two real minorities are the Uyghurs and the Tibetans and China is actively repopulating their lands in order to effectively assimilate them as they have largely done with other minorities.  Otherwise, we are seeing the usual artifact of education or its lack and past government intentions.

Putting aside the ethics of it all what is necessary going forward is a central policy of equal opportunity and mutual respect led through the education system.  Nothing else works as the Han will naturally lord it over a non Han if tacitly allowed by government complacency.


Thus we have a note from an eye witness such as this one that pretty clearly spells out the current situation.  Its is not awful but it is also a long ways from been good enough.   Good enough may well be possible in China and a future policy of multiculturalism will placate all provided they all speak Chinese and have  similar opportunities. That is the possible bottom line.


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What do Chinese minorities think of the Han?

Yakup Muhammat, Born and grown up in Xinjiang, China

 25.6k Views • Upvoted by Michael Chan, worked in China from 2004 to 2013.

 https://www.quora.com/

    As a minority from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, i would like to write something here.

    I am an Uyghur, I was born in Hami(Kumul) city of the region which is the closest city to the inner China (内地）. As a result of geographical location of Hami and immigration of Han Chinese to the western region, there are more Han Chinese than Uyghurs in my city. I grew up in countryside which is 75 km away from city center and almost all of the population in my village was Uyghurs. I had not personally spoken to any Han Chinese until i visited Guangzhou in the summer of 2003. (where my father has been doing fruit business for almost two decades. i was only 10 at that time)

    There are lots of misunderstandings among most of Han Chinese about minorities. especially those from Tibet and Uyghur region. Even-though i was very small at that time, i still could feel the hatred from surrounding while walking in the streets. My only thought was "Han Chinese do not like us"

    It was so different. because we were taught about the ethnical relationship of minorities and Han Chinese from the first day of school. it was written in the walls of our classrom that we are all living equally under the People's Republic of China. however, i could feel the ethnical difference and social exclusion at the age of 10. Nevertheless, we can debate about some Uyghur people who were, and still are doing some illegal activities in some big cities of main land China; However it does not mean that an ethnic group can be labeled as theifs, terrorists, killers or criminals.

    Before asking how minorities look at Han Chinese, we have to answer how well Han Chinese understand Minorities? about their tradition, culture and religion? (other than seeing them on TVs?)  about the strict regime in Xinjiang and Tibet and the social exclusion of minorities in many parts of China? ( i would like to state that i faced many problems in Beijing and Guangzhou just because i am Uyghur; for example, hotels rejected hosting me by stating they do not want to have trouble with police control; i had especial treatments in airport, train station and etc.) naturally, i feel different.

    Lets have an conclusion, how do i look at Han Chinese community as a minority? Fisrtly, i believe good people are good, and bad people are bad regardless of ther ethnicity or race. Secondly, i feel there is a big gap between Han people and minorities caused by the difference in language, culture and religion. Thirdly, i personally think that some policies applied in Uyghur region are making everything related to ethnical relationships (民族关系）extremely sensitive. due to this sensitiveness, i dont feel comfortable in Chinese community. Moreover, it is said that minorities have especial rights in getting into universities and so on. but nobody talks about the afterwards. There is indeed discrimination in labor market in Xinjiang that caused high unemployment among young Uyghurs, mostly the graduates. (as far as i know, most of job are taken by the inflow of labor from inner region of China.) Lastly, i think Han Chinese do not like me. (i dont think this is because of personality, since i am very outgoing person and i have many good friends from different nationalities). it is not just my feeling. i am saying this depending on my own experiences. Honestly, i have not had any Chinese friends(yet).  i have tried many times either in China or outside, but i could not succeed. (我跟他们只是熟人）

    This is my personal opinion, and i do not want to talk about political issues, ethnic conflicts, or so called seperatism. I might not be the right person to talk about Han Chinese and Minorities since i do not know many Chinese people. But this is how i feel and think.

    ps. i would like to state that, there are 56 ethnic groups in China. however, most of them are loosing /lost their language and culture. it might be subjected to urbanization, or other issues. Uyghurs and Tibets are example of those ethnics that are trying to protect their language, culture and religion from the assimilation or similar policies. There are many minorities that have no difference with Han people other than their ethnic written in their ID.

Greetings to Quara friends! this is my first answer here. ;)