Local government agency - Manipulating Tujia identity

Examination of the manipulations of Tujia identity does more than demonstrate the fluidity of identity that is now well documented in China and elsewhere. It shows how local officials effectively stand between local interests and state policies. In creating what is now the Enshi Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture and classifying its population, local officials came together to create both a minority population sufficiently large for establishing an autonomous prefecture and a Han population sufficiently larger for escaping scrutiny or further Han immigration. They also appear to have taken deliberate steps to preclude individual resistance that might draw unwanted state attention. In short, it appears that local government officials operated very shrewdly to further local economic development. However, it should be recognized that the specific tactics discussed here are conceivable only in the highly unusual context of Enshi and perhaps other Tujia areas outside Hunan. The Tujia think of themselves as Han, so they apparently do not object to being treated like Han elsewhere. Moreover, the ethnic classification of individuals as Tujia was not carried out anywhere until after the Cultural Revolution, which in Enshi was free of ethnic overtones, so there was no recent ethnic conflict to foment a non-Han minority consciousness in that region. Ironically, although people in Enshi were not Han enough to be officially identified as Han at the group level, they are (still) sufficiently Han to make their classification as Tujia manipulable by local officials in ways that are both economically beneficial and politically safe.