great video, you made me realize that China is dealing with these majority/minority issues. Its easier to overlook when it isn't as visible as it is in the United States. I think most han will not objectively analyze it in this way due to just how great the majority is. I think we can also apply our learnings as Americans as a culture to how China could possible approach these problems.
What I also find puzzling is that very little is known of how profoundly the non-Han peoples of China have influenced Chinese civilisation. After all, since the unification of China under the Qin Shi Huang (roughly 2,200 years), non-Han dynasties (the Yuan and Qing) have ruled China for 350 years. These periods are frequently glossed over as ' the Mongols(Yuan)/Manchus(Qing) were sinicized'- perhaps this was the case- because this was a strategy the Mongols (Yuan) and Manchus (Qing) pursued to rule China and get buy-in from the Han, but it does not necessarily mean that elements of Mongol and Manchu culture did not influence core Han culture. There is very little academic scholarship on this issue- perhaps it is not a focus area in Chinese acedemia.
THE RANGE OF THIS CHANNEL! Literally I was so here for the sausage video last week that made me laugh and I thought was cool, and then also talking about serious stuff like this! I’ve thought about this a lot actually, and as a non-Asian who’s dedicated to learning more about Asian cultures and history, I’ve unfortunately come across a fair share of Han supremacist sentiment. Because diaspora tend to keep to their own communities in other countries, I don’t think it’s really recognized as a phenomenon in the English speaking world. I enjoyed the detail and thought of this video, and there’s a lot of parallels that could be explored (racial ideas in Japan for example also sound eerily similar) although ofc I respect the Taiwan/China focus of your channel. Super fascinating, super important, amazingly done!
I always found the idea that the Han were 'pure' to be ludicrous because of China's geography and history and that being Han was a lot more about certain practices and self-identification than anything else. As in you could be Mongolian but see a period drama and see the Chinese Empire and think "those are my people" and look at the barbarians and think "dirty barbarians" this would make you a lot more Han than Mongolian.
I've seen this kind of mentality seep into regular people too, who probably aren't really into hanfu or the whole idea of han supremacy. When I went with my mainland friends to eat at a xinjiang restaurant, they detested the idea and thought the style of cooking was ridiculous, saying "this is minority food" or "this is not the way to cook".
Out of the “four confidence” that the CPC is promoting today, the last one is “cultural confidence”. This idea on one hand promotes Han supremacy as idiots quickly draws the equal mark between Han culture and the full spectrum of culture in China. On the other hand, the idea of culture confidence also promotes realization that the minorities have contributed so much on the grand scale of Chinese culture. As you mentioned, many blame the 100 years of humiliation purely on the Manchu ruling of China, and therefore regard them as inferior. However, what they failed to see is that Chinese culture on a grand scale saw a significant leap during the Manchu ruling. Many aspects of the Chinese culture today such as the most dominant form of Chinese Opera - Peking Opera which only existed because of the Manchu court who brought together Elements from Anhui and Hubei. As Han Chinese, we must recognize the historical contribution and culture achievements of the minorities. Because that is essentially respecting our own culture.
Good video. Han Chauvinism, like white privilege, isn't an ideology as much as a pervasive force in society that effects a lot of people in different ways, from the party officials forcing assimilationist policies on ethnic minorities to the CEO throwing out a job application due to the long, ethnic-sounding name leading him to doubt the applicant's Mandarin proficiency, to the college student dreaming of bringing hanfu back as China's national dress, to the little old lady clutching her purse tighter as a Uyghur-looking male walks by. China under the Xi regime is full of contradictions, officially claiming to be a harmonious multiethnic society but meanwhile equating Chinese culture with Han culture - China's holidays are Han holidays, its official language is Han language, its heroes are Han heroes, its music is Han music, its architecture is Han architecture, and its history books recount Han history. Xi Jinping quotes the old folk song "Descendants of the Dragon" to paint an essentialist image of China as a country of people with "black hair" and "yellow skin" from ancient times until today, even when the original songwriter, from Taiwan, detached himself from that particular lyric decades ago after meeting ethnic minority student activists.
Nothing pisses the Chinese in Malaysia than the phrase: "if you don't like it here, you can go back to China" Yet every single day uncles and aunties : "China so great" "China so rich" "China number 1" "China has restored its honor" "China gonna take over the world" Hello, wtf? Even though they are Cantonese or fujian(hokkien/min) or hakka and not really Han Han. Chinese all grouped themselves together praise the Han race because they see the opposite would be the government that started the whole affirmative action against them
I thought blood purity refers to India's Brahmin caste. If I were not misinformed, it seems a pure Brahmin must maintain that purity seven generations back. I wonder how many could adhere to this practice. From the Chinese texts I've read (maybe quite limited as, there're just too much of ancient history of China to be read) never had I heard of blood purity of the Han people (not even today) except that practised among the emperors empires and smaller kingdoms whereby only families of same social status could inter marry to uphold and protect their status quo. The Han Chinese (I'm not sure of other tribes) maintained ancestral logbook (listing the names of newborns in a clan) and one of the purposes was to prevent marriages between close relations. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I don't deny that the Chinese have picked up their self esteem after 200 years of humiliation pre WWII and after the infamous cultural revolution and after its 30 years of self exclusion from world affairs. Looking back at China's 5000 plus years of recorded history where the Chinese were always at war (between own race or minority tribes or races outside of central China), I think the Chinese government is doing the right thing - mix up the races so that no one race should feel superior to another. As an overseas Chinese I'm proud of being a Chinese. From where I live and from observing the world politics, the racial discrimination is rampant everywhere. You have to appreciate China's effort to bring peace and racial harmony to its people. China must NOT follow former western countries' (especially the British and America) divide and rule policy - they separated the races and encouraged them to cling tightly to their religious beliefs and culture and false assumptions of others' "evil" intention (in the name of humanity) that in the end they could never unite as a nation. In the end these western powers benefit from other countries' internal strife. Look at Myanmar today... etc
A thing with non-immigrant-open nations, no matter how much ethnic variety is suppressed in the PRC, a non-east-asian fluent can't become Chinese (I know, not many ppl migrate to China instead of to be America /Canada/etc, given the choice). Doesn't make suppression okay. Though such suppression isn't much in Taiwan and Japan, they're reckoning with immigration v shrinking populace? Prob not relevant to this vid
What do you think about the state sponsored immigration of Han into minority groups? And what about the Xinjiang camps? How can the CCP protect minorities and commit genocide at the same time?
I would say that I don't speak for the Party. You might have to ask them and see if you can get an answer. My core point in the video is to say that the government's written goal is to protect and favor its 55 ethnic minorities. Whether or not it actually happens, well, it wouldn't be the first time a government has not lived up to its credo.
Mao's CCP: We must work to improve and protect the lives of minority populations in China. Xi's CCP: We will make the Uyghurs act more Han whether they want to or not.
From a human rights perspective, Xi forcibly imprisoned a mere 2 million Uyghers in his 8 years in office while the estimates are that Mao killed 40-80 million people during his leadership. To be fair, Mao's assumed power in 1949, so 8 years into his rule was still prior to the 1958 Great Leap Forward and the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. It will take at least another 20 more years to make a fair comparison on whether Mao or Xi has the larger impact on China's population and their human rights.
@@shazmosushi I was comparing their attitudes towards China's minorities. Mao, despite committing democide, apparently had a good view of them according to the video. Xi, despite being "better" in that he hasn't killed millions of people, acts worse towards Uyghurs than even Mao was.
Well, Western Values are based on the Judeo-Christian world view, there is no way around that. Combined with ancient Greek understanding of governance, you get the bedrock for liberty and democracy.
@@Asianometry Well, then I find it strange that you chose to characterize the acknowledgment of mongol and manchu rule as foreign invasions to be "supremacy". How is mongol and manchu rule different from the japanese invasion, or britain's invasion and colonization of India, for that matter?
You're right, I don't make that characterization and if it seemed that way I misspoke. Manchu and Mongol rule were a colonization and there are a lot of parallels between itself and British India for example. I don't character that acknowledgement as an example of Han supremacy - if you acknowledge it, it doesn't make you a Hanist. Rather, my point is that feelings of Han supremacy color what you feel (and say) about the Manchu then and today. And historical revisionism of any form is something that bothers me. When starting this channel I felt lots of apathy for the Qing Dynasty conquest and the Manchu people behind it. But I've read a lot into it over the years and learned a lot more about the nuance and historical dynamics - and it has definitely caused me to rethink what I thought I knew about that era. The Ming dynasty was long outclassed and backwards, unable to govern and clearly had lost the Mandate of Heaven. The Qing managed to "crown itself" by convincing a Han and his army to back them instead of another Han - leading to a situation where a significant portion of the Qing armies were Han. So Han fighting Han. A Han named Zuo Guofan helped the Qing beat back the Taiping Rebellion and keep the Qing in power. Times were different back then - and looking at it in a simplistic manner to suit a present day narrative I believe is deeply flawed. Regardless of the past though, what should not happen is that we mistreat members of ethnic minority today based on actions their race took hundreds of years ago.
@@Asianometry Yes, the Ming was collapsing. There were Han rebel factions such as that led by Li Zicheng. I don't think anyone who supports the Han rebels could be labelled as race traitors or hanjian, but those who aided the manchus certainly were. In fact, to this day wu sangui is infamous and has a bad reputation for aiding the manchus. Han fought Han but if some Han fought for their manchu masters, it is no longer simply a case of Han fighting Han. It is Han fighting hanjian. As for Han officials like Zeng guofan who kept the manchus in power, Sun Yat sen denounced them as hanjian as well. My personal criteria for labelling one a hanjian is a person who works against the interests of the Han race, chief of which is to help a foreign race like the manchu or japanese gain power. Perhaps the negative view of manchus had been amplified by Han nationalists today, but the fact of the matter is Han were racially discriminated and treated as second class citizens on our native land by a foreign race. Nobody except extremists blame the manchus today for the actions of their ancestors, but historical facts prove that manchu rule was devastating for Han people. I see no fault in denouncing it. In fact, I have to agree with Hanfu activists that manchu clothing are not Chinese - they were forced upon Han people under the threat of death. Acknowledging these facts is not "supremacist", it is simply accepting the truth and reviving Han culture.
I think it's okay to revive Han culture, BUT we must also celebrate Chinese minorities' cultures too including Manchu
@@dw3695 likewise with communist Han 🇨🇳
@@kylin3197 Dude c'mon chill with the hammer and sickle
definitely this comment. koreans have revived hanbok to a certain extent. waiting on china to do similar.
great video, you made me realize that China is dealing with these majority/minority issues. Its easier to overlook when it isn't as visible as it is in the United States. I think most han will not objectively analyze it in this way due to just how great the majority is. I think we can also apply our learnings as Americans as a culture to how China could possible approach these problems.
What I also find puzzling is that very little is known of how profoundly the non-Han peoples of China have influenced Chinese civilisation. After all, since the unification of China under the Qin Shi Huang (roughly 2,200 years), non-Han dynasties (the Yuan and Qing) have ruled China for 350 years. These periods are frequently glossed over as ' the Mongols(Yuan)/Manchus(Qing) were sinicized'- perhaps this was the case- because this was a strategy the Mongols (Yuan) and Manchus (Qing) pursued to rule China and get buy-in from the Han, but it does not necessarily mean that elements of Mongol and Manchu culture did not influence core Han culture. There is very little academic scholarship on this issue- perhaps it is not a focus area in Chinese acedemia.
THE RANGE OF THIS CHANNEL!
Literally I was so here for the sausage video last week that made me laugh and I thought was cool, and then also talking about serious stuff like this!
I’ve thought about this a lot actually, and as a non-Asian who’s dedicated to learning more about Asian cultures and history, I’ve unfortunately come across a fair share of Han supremacist sentiment. Because diaspora tend to keep to their own communities in other countries, I don’t think it’s really recognized as a phenomenon in the English speaking world. I enjoyed the detail and thought of this video, and there’s a lot of parallels that could be explored (racial ideas in Japan for example also sound eerily similar) although ofc I respect the Taiwan/China focus of your channel.
Super fascinating, super important, amazingly done!
I always found the idea that the Han were 'pure' to be ludicrous because of China's geography and history and that being Han was a lot more about certain practices and self-identification than anything else. As in you could be Mongolian but see a period drama and see the Chinese Empire and think "those are my people" and look at the barbarians and think "dirty barbarians" this would make you a lot more Han than Mongolian.
I like to hear about the criticism and successes of China's affirmative action plan.
I've seen this kind of mentality seep into regular people too, who probably aren't really into hanfu or the whole idea of han supremacy. When I went with my mainland friends to eat at a xinjiang restaurant, they detested the idea and thought the style of cooking was ridiculous, saying "this is minority food" or "this is not the way to cook".
Out of the “four confidence” that the CPC is promoting today, the last one is “cultural confidence”. This idea on one hand promotes Han supremacy as idiots quickly draws the equal mark between Han culture and the full spectrum of culture in China. On the other hand, the idea of culture confidence also promotes realization that the minorities have contributed so much on the grand scale of Chinese culture.
As you mentioned, many blame the 100 years of humiliation purely on the Manchu ruling of China, and therefore regard them as inferior. However, what they failed to see is that Chinese culture on a grand scale saw a significant leap during the Manchu ruling. Many aspects of the Chinese culture today such as the most dominant form of Chinese Opera - Peking Opera which only existed because of the Manchu court who brought together Elements from Anhui and Hubei.
As Han Chinese, we must recognize the historical contribution and culture achievements of the minorities. Because that is essentially respecting our own culture.
Blood purity and roots that go back hundreds, even thousands of years....
Where have I heard that before...
Ah I know, history class... Germany.
This type of behavior happens in general throughout the Sinosphere
Very interesting listen!
Good video. Han Chauvinism, like white privilege, isn't an ideology as much as a pervasive force in society that effects a lot of people in different ways, from the party officials forcing assimilationist policies on ethnic minorities to the CEO throwing out a job application due to the long, ethnic-sounding name leading him to doubt the applicant's Mandarin proficiency, to the college student dreaming of bringing hanfu back as China's national dress, to the little old lady clutching her purse tighter as a Uyghur-looking male walks by. China under the Xi regime is full of contradictions, officially claiming to be a harmonious multiethnic society but meanwhile equating Chinese culture with Han culture - China's holidays are Han holidays, its official language is Han language, its heroes are Han heroes, its music is Han music, its architecture is Han architecture, and its history books recount Han history. Xi Jinping quotes the old folk song "Descendants of the Dragon" to paint an essentialist image of China as a country of people with "black hair" and "yellow skin" from ancient times until today, even when the original songwriter, from Taiwan, detached himself from that particular lyric decades ago after meeting ethnic minority student activists.
Han genes is most pure lolwut, does that site realize southern han are more closely related to south east Asia than they are to the North.
The gene test was based on Y-DNA, so only the father's line matters
Love these videos! Very insightful and concerning.
Nothing pisses the Chinese in Malaysia than the phrase: "if you don't like it here, you can go back to China"
Yet every single day uncles and aunties :
"China so great"
"China so rich"
"China number 1"
"China has restored its honor"
"China gonna take over the world"
Hello, wtf?
Even though they are Cantonese or fujian(hokkien/min) or hakka and not really Han Han. Chinese all grouped themselves together praise the Han race because they see the opposite would be the government that started the whole affirmative action against them
I thought blood purity refers to India's Brahmin caste. If I were not misinformed, it seems a pure Brahmin must maintain that purity seven generations back. I wonder how many could adhere to this practice. From the Chinese texts I've read (maybe quite limited as, there're just too much of ancient history of China to be read) never had I heard of blood purity of the Han people (not even today) except that practised among the emperors empires and smaller kingdoms whereby only families of same social status could inter marry to uphold and protect their status quo. The Han Chinese (I'm not sure of other tribes) maintained ancestral logbook (listing the names of newborns in a clan) and one of the purposes was to prevent marriages between close relations. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
But I don't deny that the Chinese have picked up their self esteem after 200 years of humiliation pre WWII and after the infamous cultural revolution and after its 30 years of self exclusion from world affairs. Looking back at China's 5000 plus years of recorded history where the Chinese were always at war (between own race or minority tribes or races outside of central China), I think the Chinese government is doing the right thing - mix up the races so that no one race should feel superior to another. As an overseas Chinese I'm proud of being a Chinese. From where I live and from observing the world politics, the racial discrimination is rampant everywhere. You have to appreciate China's effort to bring peace and racial harmony to its people. China must NOT follow former western countries' (especially the British and America) divide and rule policy - they separated the races and encouraged them to cling tightly to their religious beliefs and culture and false assumptions of others' "evil" intention (in the name of humanity) that in the end they could never unite as a nation. In the end these western powers benefit from other countries' internal strife. Look at Myanmar today... etc
Thank you for this!
Not sure about this supposed preference or so fro ethnic minorities. What about Uyghurs?!
A thing with non-immigrant-open nations, no matter how much ethnic variety is suppressed in the PRC, a non-east-asian fluent can't become Chinese (I know, not many ppl migrate to China instead of to be America /Canada/etc, given the choice). Doesn't make suppression okay. Though such suppression isn't much in Taiwan and Japan, they're reckoning with immigration v shrinking populace? Prob not relevant to this vid
funny how nobody cosplays a Han - non Nobels
What do you think about the state sponsored immigration of Han into minority groups? And what about the Xinjiang camps?
How can the CCP protect minorities and commit genocide at the same time?
I would say that I don't speak for the Party. You might have to ask them and see if you can get an answer. My core point in the video is to say that the government's written goal is to protect and favor its 55 ethnic minorities. Whether or not it actually happens, well, it wouldn't be the first time a government has not lived up to its credo.
Mao's CCP: We must work to improve and protect the lives of minority populations in China.
Xi's CCP: We will make the Uyghurs act more Han whether they want to or not.
From a human rights perspective, Xi forcibly imprisoned a mere 2 million Uyghers in his 8 years in office while the estimates are that Mao killed 40-80 million people during his leadership. To be fair, Mao's assumed power in 1949, so 8 years into his rule was still prior to the 1958 Great Leap Forward and the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. It will take at least another 20 more years to make a fair comparison on whether Mao or Xi has the larger impact on China's population and their human rights.
@@shazmosushi I was comparing their attitudes towards China's minorities. Mao, despite committing democide, apparently had a good view of them according to the video. Xi, despite being "better" in that he hasn't killed millions of people, acts worse towards Uyghurs than even Mao was.
@@creatoruser736 Mao did forcibly take over Tibet, causing a massive exodus and their religion was suppressed.
Well, Western Values are based on the Judeo-Christian world view, there is no way around that.
Combined with ancient Greek understanding of governance, you get the bedrock for liberty and democracy.
wow
Out of curiosity, are you Han yourself?
Yes I am.
@@Asianometry Well, then I find it strange that you chose to characterize the acknowledgment of mongol and manchu rule as foreign invasions to be "supremacy". How is mongol and manchu rule different from the japanese invasion, or britain's invasion and colonization of India, for that matter?
You're right, I don't make that characterization and if it seemed that way I misspoke. Manchu and Mongol rule were a colonization and there are a lot of parallels between itself and British India for example. I don't character that acknowledgement as an example of Han supremacy - if you acknowledge it, it doesn't make you a Hanist. Rather, my point is that feelings of Han supremacy color what you feel (and say) about the Manchu then and today.
And historical revisionism of any form is something that bothers me. When starting this channel I felt lots of apathy for the Qing Dynasty conquest and the Manchu people behind it. But I've read a lot into it over the years and learned a lot more about the nuance and historical dynamics - and it has definitely caused me to rethink what I thought I knew about that era. The Ming dynasty was long outclassed and backwards, unable to govern and clearly had lost the Mandate of Heaven. The Qing managed to "crown itself" by convincing a Han and his army to back them instead of another Han - leading to a situation where a significant portion of the Qing armies were Han. So Han fighting Han. A Han named Zuo Guofan helped the Qing beat back the Taiping Rebellion and keep the Qing in power. Times were different back then - and looking at it in a simplistic manner to suit a present day narrative I believe is deeply flawed.
Regardless of the past though, what should not happen is that we mistreat members of ethnic minority today based on actions their race took hundreds of years ago.
@@Asianometry Yes, the Ming was collapsing. There were Han rebel factions such as that led by Li Zicheng. I don't think anyone who supports the Han rebels could be labelled as race traitors or hanjian, but those who aided the manchus certainly were. In fact, to this day wu sangui is infamous and has a bad reputation for aiding the manchus. Han fought Han but if some Han fought for their manchu masters, it is no longer simply a case of Han fighting Han. It is Han fighting hanjian. As for Han officials like Zeng guofan who kept the manchus in power, Sun Yat sen denounced them as hanjian as well. My personal criteria for labelling one a hanjian is a person who works against the interests of the Han race, chief of which is to help a foreign race like the manchu or japanese gain power.
Perhaps the negative view of manchus had been amplified by Han nationalists today, but the fact of the matter is Han were racially discriminated and treated as second class citizens on our native land by a foreign race. Nobody except extremists blame the manchus today for the actions of their ancestors, but historical facts prove that manchu rule was devastating for Han people. I see no fault in denouncing it. In fact, I have to agree with Hanfu activists that manchu clothing are not Chinese - they were forced upon Han people under the threat of death. Acknowledging these facts is not "supremacist", it is simply accepting the truth and reviving Han culture.
Good video
HAN TAIWAN NUMBA WAN!!!
Keep the comments civil and constructive rather than flippant -- you don't want OP to start disabling comments like the old days
@@shazmosushi lol I was being sarcastic... 🤦♂️
@@Halflifex Fair point -- it's hard to tell sometimes (Poe's law)
@@shazmosushi wow. Least I learnt of something today. Poe's law. That's new.
@@Halflifex You knew the sarcasm wasn't clear, and commented that yell anyway. Not funny even with sarcasm
Han Chinese don't know most of the 2,000 years of foreign occupation.
im curious, what was the 2,000 years of foreign occupation?
Make a video about the Three gorges dam