Economic Development in China's Northwest: Entrepreneurship and Identity Along China's Multi-Ethnic Borderlands by Joshua Bird

Author:Joshua Bird [Bird, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Political Science, World, Asian, Regional Studies, General
ISBN: 9781351703802
Google: HkgrDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 35637183
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

Minority identity and the nature of economic engagement

The situation of Tibetan entrepreneurs in Qinghai’s provincial capital of Xining provides a strong argument that minority nationality identity remains a powerful force shaping the behaviour of China’s minority nationality entrepreneurs. Economic participation is experienced in line with one’s minority nationality, with motivations, industry and market choice all influenced by the identity of the individual.

For Tibetan entrepreneurs in Xining, business opportunities – where they are perceived to exist at all – largely focus on the sale of Tibetan goods and services to the mainstream non-Tibetan market or the sale of products to the Tibetan market. This appeared to be true across generations. Older entrepreneurs, often more restricted by education and language deficiencies, showed a tendency to rely upon more traditional goods and services than their younger counterparts, but both groups shared a reluctance to attempt business outside a Tibetan paradigm. The Tibetan character of most Tibetan business is further reinforced by the high reliance on co-ethnic Tibetan staff, and the maintenance of strong links back to the densely concentrated Tibetan areas of their home.

The specific and unique challenges confronted by Tibetan entrepreneurs in Xining also limit the integrating effects of market engagement. Tighter regulation of domestic and international travel, and political sensitivity regarding core cultural industries impede the capacity of Tibetan entrepreneurs to maximise their business opportunities. Other more general obstacles, such as lower education rates, poorer Chinese language skills and geographical remoteness are not unique to Tibetans, but are suffered disproportionally by them as compared to Han Chinese. Finally, pre-existing cultural misgivings of entrepreneurship meant Tibetans were slower than many of China’s other nationalities to take up the opportunities presented by China’s economic growth, leaving them at a disadvantage that continues up to the present generation. It is therefore possible to assume that, as Hechter predicted, in the short term, the ethnic identities of Xining’s Tibetans will persist regardless of economic development.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.