Ethnicity on the move: Understanding the ethnic identity construction of Zhuang university students experiencing educational mobility in China

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates a cohort of Zhuang university students’ perceptions of their ethnicity, and the way they construct and negotiate their ethnic identity as they migrate from an inland, ethnic, autonomous province to study in an eastern, coastal municipality. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that the construction of ethnic Zhuang identity is influenced by the interplay between institutional power, sociocultural environment and individual agency. Specifically, participants show three divergent patterns of ethnic identification, namely: receivers, who readily accept their official ethnic classification but have limited ethnic awareness; constructors, who have strong ethnic awareness and strive for ethnic language transmission and heritage culture protection; and utilizers, who are keen on the instrumental values brought by their ethnicity. It is further found that the Zhuang language does not facilitate or strengthen ethnic Zhuang identification due to differences among language varieties.