Comment by xorcist
2 years ago
Wait what? China as an ethnic state? That would require a pretty large stretch. Europe is populated by Europeans, but saying it's an ethnic state is not very useful. China is a huge country with many ethnic groups with their own identities. The Han may dominate but the country functions more like a colonial empire.
Calling France an ethnic state is saying the Normans are the same group as the Provençal. It's like doing the same in Spain; a sure way to lose new friends. France and Spain are also old empires.
Japan is something else. The description makes sense there. Maybe also for the Nordic countries of Europe.
> The Han may dominate but the country functions more like a colonial empire.
At the level of spoken language, Han natively speak several mutually unintelligible languages; even at the written level, most of the mutually intelligibility only exists in the more formal registers. Are Han really one ethnic group then? Or more like a family of closely related ethnic groups?
> Japan is something else. The description makes sense there
Are Ryukyuans the same ethnic group as Yamato Japanese?