Empire and Identity in Guizhou

Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804811This historical investigation describes the Qing imperial authorities’ attempts to consolidate control over the Zhongjia, a non-Han population, in eighteenth-century Guizhou, a poor, remote, and environmentally harsh province in Southwest China. Far from submitting peaceably to the state’s quest for hegemony, the locals clung steadfastly to livelihood choices—chiefly illegal activities such as robbery, raiding, and banditry—that had played an integral role in their cultural and economic survival. Using archival materials, indigenous folk narratives, and ethnographic research, Jodi Weinstein shows how these seemingly subordinate populations challenged state power.

Using archival sources, recent Chinese-language histories, and Zhongjia folklore, Weinstein gives a detailed account of a 1797 uprising. She argues that Zhongjia actions can best be understood as ‘livelihood’ strategies . . .The conclusion summarizes this argument and reflects on the hierarchy of ethnic groups under the Qing., Weinstein painstakingly pieces together images of Guizhou's changing landscapes and, in particular, those of an ethnic people that were somewhat absent from previous scholarly discussions. Building on solid historical studies…which emphasize indigenous response to China's colonization of the region, Weinstein's book also carries analytical and methodological significance. Most importantly, the in-between position of the Zhongjia and their semi-state spaces open up a productive venue to engage the interactive dynamics of structure and agency, as well as of state and society. Rather than treating 'Sinicization' as teleology, Weinstein suggests that 'advancement towards civilization' was by no means a fait accompli., [A] brief but well-researched and contextualized study. . . [A]n important study of the late imperial encounter between the Zhongjia people of Guizhou Province in southwestern China and immigrants identified as Han, or “Chinese,” bearing the dominant Confucian culture., Weinstein adds to the rich body of English-language monographs on the relationship between China’s late imperial empires and non-Han peoples living on the borderlands of China proper. . . . An important contribution to the new Qing history with this solidly researched study of the Zhongjia and their resistance to Qing rule.

Jodi L. Weinstein teaches history at The College of New Jersey.