Abstract:

Ethnic minorities (non-Han peoples) in modern China have undergone many changes imposed on them by state authorities and by self-motivated choices. Use of languages is one of the facets in their lives that have developed in different directions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. While knowledge of spoken and written Chinese has become imperative to perform quotidian functions and to communicate with members of ethnic groups other than their own, ethnic minority communities have also preserved aspects of their heritage languages in various ways. This talk will discuss how Daur people (Dawo'erzu 達斡爾族) have created historical records using multiple scripts, concentrating on evidence from the genealogy of the Dedule clan, that expresses hybrid cultural and linguistic characteristics, and exemplifies the resilience of minority identities in a political and social environment that encourages the adoption of homogenized norms including language use.

Biography:

Loretta KIM (PhD Harvard, 2009) is associate professor and coordinator of the China Studies programme at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong. She is a historian of late imperial and modern China. Her primary research areas include the comparative history of borderlands and frontiers, Sino-Russian cultural relations, and Chinese ethnic minority languages and literatures. She is the author of Ethnic Chrysalis: China’s Orochen People and the Legacy of Qing Borderland Administration (Harvard University Asia Center, 2019).