Chinese Whispers: what is it to be 'Chinese'?
Best of the Spectator
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What Is China and What Is Not?
The debate about the han chinese versus other ethna cities. People in inner asia, they remembered the han dynasty and kept on referring to the people over the hills over there as the han. But this name is not really adopted by the people who were being called han until the very end of the nineteenth century. It seems to be a word that inerasian people use to describe the chinese, rather than the word that the chinese used to describe themselves. And then it's all bound up with debates about whether there is a yellow race or if there is an entire nation. The manshu ore problem: We've got to get rid of the mans
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