Event

This talk attempts to shed light on the largely unknown trajectories of the resurgence and evolution of Yuan non-Han ancestries in north China from the late eighteenth century through the early twentieth century. By exploring three relatively well documented cases of the resurgence of the Yuan non-Han ancestry, this talk offers two tentative conclusions. First, the commemoration of the non-Han ancestries seems to have been roused by the two-century-long Gazetteers of the Great Qing Empire compilation project, over the course of which the state reiterated extensive surveys of local worthies, widow chastity, and martyred loyal subjects, including those from the previous dynasties. Second, apart from the intention of the Qing court, gazetteer compilation projects functioned as a classification project of some kind, if not ethnicity. The ancestries classified by the Qing came to compete with modern minzu identities classified by the Ethnic Classification Project during the mid-twentieth century.