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it has in the rest of the countryside, but its long-term effects remain as yet limited in the minority regions. The most obvious signs of these changes, the reappearance of both daily morning and periodic rural markets, are very much in evidence (not for the first time since 1949). In general the minority areas lag behind the slow development of China's rural economy, and efforts at both county and provincial level are being taken to remedy this situation. Although ethnic minorities are estimated to account for 6.1 million sq. km. or 60 percent of China's total land area, much of this is barren and infertile, particularly when one takes the requirements of fodder for animals into account. At the same time there has been a great revival of religiosity among the minorities, which if anything supersedes that in more predominantly Han areas. As a medium of ethnic nationalism, religious beliefs play a crucial role in articulating the identity formation and maintenance of many of the ethnic minorities, and recent official policies have encouraged the growth of a kind of religious revivalism, which I consider below.
Ethnicisation
There have been four major trends in the development of the Southern Chinese ethnic minorities since the Liberation of 1949. The first of these has been the growing politicisation of ethnicity. Bracketing for the moment the question of whether ethnicity itself is not a political phenomenon (Cohen 1969), ethnicity and ethnic conflict were particularly strong in Southwest China before 1949 (Winnington 1959). Positive discrimination by the state towards the members of officially designated minority nationalities since 1949 has resulted in a strengthening of ethnic separatism rather than in assimilation or integration. Pass marks at colleges and universities are lower for minority members than they are for Han students, in specific areas members of minorities may have up to three or four children, in contrast with the official one-child one-family policy adopted in the majority of the Han areas. And in certain jobs, in China's growing service industries for example, minority members can be favoured. Posts are reserved for minority representatives at Central Committee, Provincial and County level, while at the same time what particular representative of which particular minority is chosen may depend very much on
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it has in the rest of the countryside, but its long-term effects re- main as yet limited in the minority regions. The most obvious signs of these changes, the reappearance of both daily morning and periodic rural markets, are very much in evidence (not for the first time since 1949). In general the minority areas lag behind the slow development of China's rural economy, and efforts at both county and provincial level are being taken to remedy this situation. Al- though ethnic minorities are estimated to account for 6.1 million sq. km. or 60 percent of China's total land area, much of this is barren and infertile, particularly when one takes the requirements of fodder for animals into account. At the same time there has been a great revival of religiosity among the minorities, which if anything supersedes that in more predominantly Han areas. As a medium of ethnic nationalism, religious beliefs play a crucial role in articulating the identity formation and maintenance of many of the ethnic minorities, and recent official policies have encouraged the growth of a kind of religious revivalism, which I consider below.
Ethnicisation
There have been four major trends in the development of the Southern Chinese ethnic minorities since the Liberation of 1949. The first of these has been the growing politicisation of ethnicity. Bracketing for the moment the question of whether ethnicity itself is not a political phenomenon (Cohen 1969), ethnicity and ethnic conflict were particularly strong in Southwest China before 1949 (Winnington 1959). Positive discrimination by the state towards the members of officially designated minority nationalities since 1949 has resulted in a strengthening of ethnic separatism rather than in assimilation or integration. Pass marks at colleges and universities are lower for minority members than they are for Han students, in specific areas members of minorities may have up to three or four children, in contrast with the official one-child one- family policy adopted in the majority of the Han areas. And in certain jobs, in China's growing service industries for example, minority members can be favoured. Posts are reserved for minor- ity representatives at Central Committee, Provincial and County level, while at the same time what particular representative of which particular minority is chosen may depend very much on
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