Reading Notes - The Pattern of Diversity and Unity of the Chinese Nation (Fei Xiaotong)

1. There are many reasons why China has such a strong vitality and cohesion, and the fundamental reason is that China is formed as a unified country by a multiethnic group, with the Huaxia/Han playing the backbone role, and other ethnic groups making indelible contributions.P126

2. Over the course of thousands of years, various ethnic groups have ****ed together to create a unified, multiethnic China, which has been the mainstream of China's ethnic relations, and unity has been the P127

3. China has been a multi-ethnic country since ancient times, and the question of ethnicity has always been one of the important issues affecting the overall situation in China's social and political life. The invigoration of the Chinese nation on the basis of modernization is not only a new development in the history of the Chinese nation, but also a great contribution to world peace and the development of civilization.P131

4. The gathering of the strengths of each of China's nationalities has resulted in the formation of a glorious and splendid Chinese culture. All the nationalities of China have made their own contributions to the creation of Chinese culture. The development of the characteristics and specialties of the various ethnic groups in China and the development of the ****similarity of the Chinese nation have a complementary, mutually reinforcing, ****similar development relationship. Once the specialties of one or some nationalities have been accepted by all or many nationalities in the country, they will become the ****same specialties, i.e. the ****similarity of the Chinese nation.P139

5. In our country, each nationality, in addition to speaking the language of its own nationality, also speaks the language of other nationalities, and this is a decision dictated by the necessities of life, and by the fact that the distribution of the various ethnic minorities of our country is determined by the circumstances of their small clusters and large dispersions, rather than by anyone else. This is a necessity of life, determined by the distribution of the ethnic groups in our country, which are in small clusters and widely dispersed, rather than by anyone's subjective wishes. In this regard, there are two features: one is a national feature, with a large proportion of many minority nationalities being able to use the Chinese language and the Chinese script, and some minority nationalities using the Chinese language and the Chinese script as a common language; the other is a municipal and regional feature, with the even smaller number of minority nationalities in the five autonomous regions and in the multi-ethnic provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Guizhou being able to use the Mongolian language, the Viennese language, the Tibetan language, the Zhuang language, and the Miao language, respectively, Yi, etc. In the use of language in China, there exists both the characteristics of multi-ethnicity and the ****similarity of the Chinese nation.P141

6. There is no country in the world as old as China which has never separated its cultural traditions; and there is no country like China which, after the division of a united empire, has gone through a period of confrontation between the northern and southern dynasties and a division of kings and khans, and then has moved back to a higher level of Unification. After two or three such repetitions, it was finally established as an indivisible unified multinational state. This unique history can only be scientifically explained by the continuous development of the intrinsic links between the many ethnic groups in China.

Western China is not insignificant in the history of Chinese culture because of its sparse population. On the contrary, it contains the precious treasures formed by the convergence and fusion of Chinese nationalities and Chinese and Western cultures, and occupies a special and important position in the colorful cultural history of the Chinese nation.P226-227

7. The Chinese nation, which is the general name for all Chinese nationalities in ancient and modern times, is a collection of nationalities that has been gradually formed by a large number of nationalities in the course of the long period of historical development that has led to the formation of a unified country. Each of the many nationalities has its own history and culture of development, which is the plurality of the Chinese nation; with a long period of time in the unified state **** at the development of its unity inseparable links, and ultimately consciously united into an indivisible whole, which is the unity of the Chinese nation. Therefore, the dialectical unity of the Chinese nation's plurality and oneness, there have been more than 2,000 years of development process, only in the modern anti-imperialist, anti-feudal struggle, this extremely profound inner connection is recognized, thus rising to the unity of China and the Chinese nation's unity, has become a concentrated expression of patriotism of the Chinese people of all races. p253

8. Nation, is stable, but is also developmental People***same body, is a product of history, it has different levels of development. Nation and state, in England, France, Germany, these languages, is the same word, that is because these countries in the period of rising capitalism national unity, or the process of national movement, the formation of a single nation-state, but our country is a united multi-ethnic country with thousands of years of development; in fact, now, including the above mentioned countries, most of the countries of the world more than one kind of ethnicity.P300

9. The Chinese nation refers to the overall identity of all the brotherly peoples of China. This overall national identity is a reflection in the national consciousness of the objectively existing consistency between the interests of the nation as a whole and the fundamental interests of the various nationalities, and is not subjectively prescribed.P301

10. "Pluralism" refers to the fact that the origins of these nationalities are diversified, and that they have developed unevenly in various regions, and that they are characterized by plurality in terms of their cultures, customs, and languages, etc.

11, Religion, etc. are also characterized by pluralism; "one" means that regardless of their origins and differences in economy, culture, language, religion, etc., they are all identified as one people.P304