Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

L'unité de ces cinquante-six minzu 民族 est promue comme fondement « naturel » et « historique » de la nation chinoise, ainsi définie par un corps multinational ou « multiethnique ». Cette conception de la nation est rendue visible et publique par le biais de manifestations spectaculaires autour des différentes « minzu minoritaires » (shaoshu minzu 少数民族), qui sont des occasions répétées de soutenir l'unité nationale et l'ordre social. Notre étude se penche sur les images des « minzu minoritaires » dans le cinéma de la République populaire de Chine, et tente de dégager leur implication dans le contexte historique de la construction nationale chinoise après 1949. Deux périodes sont analysées plus spécifiquement, de 1950 à 1965, et du milieu des années 1980 à 2005.

Ethnicity in China - Who are the Hui and Who are the Dungan? The thesis has three main objectives: (1) to develop a concept appropriate for the comparison of different ethnicities, (2) to use this concept to identify differences of ethnicity in China, and (3) to analyse these differences in the cases of the Huis and the Dungans. The second section postulates the concept of ethnicity as a secondary identity, and this becomes the main theoretical and methodological frame of the work. Six primary identities and dimensions, that together form the components of ethnicity, are discussed. Policy, which is interpreted as a context of ethnicity, and (ethno)culture, understood as an expression of ethnicity, are not seen as components. The concept enables the comparison of distinct perceptions (emic) and qualitative atributes (etic) of ethnicity from six main perspectives. The third chapter is focused on ethnicity and the ethnic policies of China. The central objective is to define a Chinese official category minzu, its position in the context of European concepts of ethnicity and nation, and its comparison with the concept of nation in the Soviet tradition, which represents minzu's template. Minzu is interpreted, unlike most other concepts, as an ethnic group rather than a nation, and is seen as a political...

This study examines ethnic minority students at Minzu University of China (Minzu) and the ways in which students form social capital and cross-ethnic friendships as strategies to support their academic and career pursuits. Minzu University of China (in Beijing) is selected as the site for the study because it is the leading minority university in China and its mission is to promote educational attainment and social integration among the nation’s ethnic minority population. The study calls on sociological work on social capital and schooling as well as work on cross-racial and cross-ethnic friendship formation to guide the theoretical and conceptual analysis. Three groups of students based on ethnic background and primary language spoken form the basis for the interview sample: 1) Han students whose primary language is Chinese Mandarin; 2) Min Kao Han students who are ethnic minorities fluent in Chinese Mandarin and who took the college entrance exam (the Gaokao) in Mandarin; and 3) Min Kao Min students representing ethnic minority students who took the college entrance exam in their native language and who may have limited Mandarin ability. The following research questions served to guide the study: 1) What differences exist among Han, Min Kao Han, and Min Kao Min college students in terms of the observable characteristics of their social connections and relations? 2) How do students form social relationships and connections and to what extent are there observable differences when comparing the three groups of students? 3) How do the students form cross-ethnic friendships and relations and to what extent are there observable differences across the three groups of students? 4) How does guanxi influence the formation of social relationships and connections among the three groups of students? Methodologically speaking, the study borrows from the qualitative tradition and emphasizes the kind of perspective taking critical to understanding the collegiate experiences of ethnic minorities. Field work was conducted during the spring semester 2017 over a five-month period and involved semi-structured interviews with 42 students (14 from each ethnic grouping and equal numbers of males and females), informal interviews, participant observation (mainly in the form of shadowing) and document analysis. Key research findings point to the fact that Min Kao Min students tend to lack confidence about their pre-college education and their Gaokao performance. The vast majority of students appreciated the cultural and ethnic diversity at Minzu University, although some reported shortcomings with the educational environment in terms of the academic quality and the campus infrastructure. Two major forms of social relations constituted students’ social capital formation—peer to peer connections and faculty/staff connections. Extracurricular activities and social media/online platforms provided important spaces for students to build social capital and cross-ethnic friendships. Guanxi, as a unique form of social capital in the Chinese cultural context, emerged as an important aspect of the collegiate experience and the formation of social connections. In terms of cross-ethnic friendship formation, Min Kao Min students tended to have the most homophilous friendship circles, whereas Min Kao Han students were more likely to have the most heterophilous friendships with Han students falling in the middle. The fact that Min Kao Min students are least likely to form cross-ethnic friendships was seen as an important factor in potentially limiting their social capital formation. / Sociology

Cette thèse, divisée en trois chapitres, traite de la question nationale en Chine. Le premier chapitre retrace l’évolution conceptuelle de la notion de nation, un concept importé en Chine de l’Occident en passant par le Japon, pour révéler comment la société chinoise s’adapte à cette nouvelle idée. Il établit surtout que le concept de minzu, à cause de son ambiguïté sémantique par une interprétation indécise ab initio, permet aux pouvoirs de le manipuler à des fins politiques et aux minorités ethnonationales de contester la légitimité du pouvoir. Sa nature indéterminée fait du concept de minzu une arme à double tranchant : d’une part, le gouvernement chinois s’attache à construire un État-nation ; d’autre part, il reconnaît et maintient un héritage multinational ancien. Le deuxième chapitre présente tout d’abord les politiques en vigueur relatives aux minorités ethniques en Chine par une approche descriptive et par une évaluation critique. Il démontre que le système d’autonomie régionale ethnique, basé sur une reconnaissance politique des minorités ethniques et aux caractéristiques antiséparatistes, paternalistes et développementalistes, va à l’encontre de ce que le Parti communiste chinois a voulu, à savoir une cohésion interethnique au sein de la nation chinoise. La deuxième section de ce chapitre examine le débat intellectuel contemporain sur la question nationale. En effet, plusieurs penseurs s’interrogent sur le pluralisme culturel qui renforcerait l’identité ethnique des minorités désireuses de se séparer si une citoyenneté commune ne s’impose pas. Le débat se déroule dans un environnement autoritaire. Il en résulte une opposition entre le sectarisme et l’étatisme. La dernière partie du chapitre est consacrée à un examen approfondi du confucianisme. Après avoir analysé le renouveau du confucianisme en tant que manifestation du nationalisme ethnique majoritaire, elle scrute les idées inhérentes à la philosophie chinoise pour révéler ses répercussions politiques et culturelles sur la politique identitaire d’aujourd’hui. Le troisième chapitre vise à explorer une solution pour la gestion de la diversité dans l’unité. Il commence par disséquer la stratégie nationaliste que l’État-parti promeut sous le couvert du patriotisme pour étayer sa légitimité. Face à un éloignement du nationalisme de la majorité, le nationalisme étatique ne peut pourtant que rouler sur la culture du groupe dominant pour représenter la sinité, laquelle est contestée à la fois par la majorité et à la fois par les minorités. Ensuite, nous examinons des expressions de la crise identitaire des Chinois contemporains et nous démontrons qu’une citoyenneté commune n’est pas capable d’unir les Chinois dans une Chine non démocratique. Nous nous interrogeons par la suite sur le rapport entre la démocratisation et la question nationale. Enfin, en rapprochant le patriotisme constitutionnel d’Habermas et le néotianxiaïsme, idée tirée des expériences locales, nous proposons que seule une identité chinoise bâtie sur une nouvelle civilisation qui elle-même prendra en compte toutes les civilisations et toutes les cultures présentes en Chine, sera partagée par l’ensemble des Chinois. Pour conclure, la Chine demeure un champ d’expérimentation pour tester l’idée d’État multinational et ses variantes. / This thesis divided into three chapters deals with the national question in China. The first chapter traces the conceptual evolution of the notion of nation, a concept imported into China from the West through Japan, to reveal how Chinese society adapts to this new idea. It demonstrates that the concept of minzu, because of its semantic ambiguity by an ab initio indecisive interpretation, allows political powers to manipulate it for political purposes and meanwhile, il enables ethnic minorities to challenge the legitimacy of power. The indeterminacy makes the concept of minzu a double-edged sword: on one hand the Chinese government is committed to building a nation-state and on the other hand it recognizes and maintains an ancient multinational legacy. The second chapter first presents the current policies on ethnic minorities in China through a descriptive approach and a critical evaluation. It demonstrates that the system of ethnic regional autonomy, based on political recognition of ethnic minorities characterized by antisecessionism, paternalism and developmentalism, runs counter to what the Chinese Communist Party wanted, namely inter-ethnic cohesion within the Chinese nation. The second section of this chapter examines the contemporary intellectual debate on the national question. Several thinkers wonder about cultural pluralism that would strengthen the ethnic identity of minorities who want to separate if common citizenship is not required. The debate takes place in an authoritarian environment, which leads eventually to an opposition between sectarianism and statism. The last part of the chapter is devoted to a thorough examination of Confucianism. After analyzing the revival of Confucianism as a manifestation of majority ethnic nationalism, it examines the ideas inherent in Chinese philosophy to reveal its political and cultural repercussions on today's identity politics. The third chapter seeks to explore a solution for managing diversity in the unity. It begins by dissecting the nationalist strategy that the party-state promotes under the guise of patriotism to underpin its legitimacy. The state nationalism, although distanced by majority nationalism, must rely on the dominant group’s culture to represent sinity, which is disputed by both the majority and minorities. Then we move to review different expressions of identity crisis of contemporary Chinese and we demonstrate that a common citizenship is not able to unite the Chinese in an undemocratic China. We then examine the relationship between democratization and the national question. By bringing Habermas’ constitutional patriotism and neo-tianxiaism, an idea drawn from local experiences, we propose in the end that only a Chinese identity built on a new civilization that shall take all the civilizations and cultures present in China into account, shall be shared by all Chinese. To conclude, China remains a test bed to test the idea of a multinational state and its variants.