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Sinicization, sinofication, sinification, or sinonization (from the prefix , 'Chinese, relating to China') is the process by which non-Chinese societies or groups are acculturated or assimilated into Chinese culture, particularly the language, societal norms, cultural practices, and ethnic identity of the Han Chinese—the largest ethnic group of China.
Areas of influence include Chinese cuisine, Chinese Writing, Chinese industry, education, Chinese language, Chinese law, architectural style, Chinese politics, philosophy, religion, science and technology, value systems, and lifestyle.
The term sinicization is also often used to refer to processes or policies of acculturation or assimilation of norms from China on neighboring East Asian societies, or on minority ethnic groups within China. Evidence of this process is reflected in the histories of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam in the adoption of the Chinese writing system, which has long been a unifying feature in the Sinosphere as the vehicle for exporting Chinese culture to other Asian countries.
In recent times, the term "Sinicization" has sometimes been used more narrowly in reference to specific policies of the Government of China towards ethnic minorities as well as the promotion of "ethnic unity".
In China there are 292 non-Mandarin languages spoken by native peoples of the region. There are also a number of immigrant languages, such as Khmer language, Portuguese, and English.
As early as the 11th century BC, some of the Baiyue peoples in the Yangtze River Delta started to sinicize, marked by their establishment of the Wu State. These Yue peoples, together with their southerner neighbours who formed the Yue State centuries later, are collectively termed as Yuyue peoples. Over time, the mutual contact between Baiyue peoples and Han Chinese, as well as southward spread of Han Chinese, mostly as war refugees, led to the sinicization of most of the Baiyue populations that remained in southern China, be they in the Yangtze Valley or in coastal areas from the mouth of the Yangtze to the Gulf of Tonkin. The remnants of these peoples who were not fully sinicized are now recognized officially as the ethnic minorities of the People's Republic of China.
Historical Shatuo Turks founded three sinicized dynasties in northern China. Descendants of Buddhist Uyghurs (see also Yugurs, Kingdom of Qocho and Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom) who migrated to Taoyuan County, Hunan, have assimilated into the Hui people population and adopted Chinese culture practice Chinese customs, speaking varieties of Chinese as their language.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao initiated the policy of settling Xiongnu nomads away from the frontier near Taiyuan in modern Shanxi province, where they would be less likely to rebel. The Xiongnu abandoned nomadism and the elite were educated in Chinese-Confucian literate culture. (2025). 9781134553532, Routledge. ISBN 9781134553532 The migration of northern Chinese people to the south further settled China as a multi-ethnic empire.
He founded a "Chinese style" city called Zhongjing Cheng, where modern Kunming is today, and ordered that a Buddhist temple, two , and a Confucian temple be built in the city.(Original from the University of Virginia) The latter temple, built in 1274 and doubled as a school, was the first Confucian temple ever to be built in Yunnan. By incorporating Chinese and consequently Confucian thought in the dynasty, scholars now deem Kublai Khan as an adopted Chinese citizen of Mongol ethnicity, rather than simply being mutually excluded from the definition of fellow Chinese he governed. As such, Sayyid Ajall would be the one to introduce Confucian education, rituals, and traditions into Yunnan, including Chinese social structures, funeral rituals, and marriage customs. He would go on to construct numerous Confucian temples throughout his reign.
Confucian rituals were taught to students in newly founded schools by Sichuanese scholars. The natives of Yunnan were instructed by Sayyid Ajall in such Confucian ceremonies as weddings, matchmaking, funerals, ancestor worship, and kowtow. The native leaders had their "barbarian" clothing replaced by clothing given to them by Sayyid Ajall as well. The governor was praised and described as making "the orangutans and butcherbirds become unicorns and phoenixes and their felts and furs were exchanged for gowns and caps" by He Hongzuo, the Regional Superintendent of Confucian studies.
Sayyid Ajall would also be the first to bring Islam to the area, and thus the widespread presence of Islam in Yunnan is credited to his work. Both Marco Polo and Rashid al-Din Vatvat recorded that Yunnan was heavily populated by Muslims during the Yuan dynasty, with Rashid naming a city with all Muslim inhabitants as the "great city of Yachi."(Original from the University of Virginia) It has been suggested that Yachi was Dali City ( Ta-li), which had many Hui people.(Original from the University of Virginia)
Sayyid Ajall's son Nasir al-Din became Governor of Yunnan in 1279 after his death.( )(Original from the University of Virginia)
Historian Jacqueline Armijo-Hussein has written on Sayyid Ajall's confucianization and sinicization policies in various papers, including in her dissertation "Sayyid 'Ajall Shams al-Din: A Muslim from Central Asia, serving the Mongols in China, and bringing 'civilization' to Yunnan" (1997); and in "The Origins of Confucian and Islamic Education in Southwest China: Yunnan in the Yuan Period" (n.d.) and "The Sinicization and Confucianization in Chinese and Western Historiography of a Muslim from Bukhara Serving Under the Mongols in China" (1989).
consisted of more than the two or one syllable , and when phonetically transcribed into Chinese, they made no sense at all. The meaning of the names that Manchus used were also very different from the meanings of Chinese names. The Manchus also gave as personal names.
Historical records report that as early as 1776, the Qianlong Emperor was shocked to see a high Manchu official, Guo'ermin, not understand what the emperor was telling him in Manchu, despite coming from the Manchu stronghold of Shengjing (now Shenyang).Yu Hsiao-jung, Manchu Rule over China and the Attrition of the Manchu Language By the 19th century even the imperial court had lost fluency in the language. The Jiaqing Emperor (reigned 1796–1820) complained that his officials were not proficient at understanding or writing Manchu.Edward J. M. Rhoads, Manchus & Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928. University of Washington Press, 2000. Pages 52–54. . Partially available on Google Books
Eventually, the Qing royal family (the Aisin Gioro) gave their children Chinese names, which were separate from the Manchu names, and even adopted the Chinese practice of , although its usage was inconsistent and error-ridden. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Manchu royal family stopped using Manchu names.
The Niohuru family of the Manchu changed their family name to Lang, which sounded like "wolf" in Chinese, since wolf in Manchu was Niohuru; thus forming a translation.
Although the Manchus replaced their Manchu names with Chinese personal names, the Eight Banners followed their traditional practice in typically used their first/personal name to address themselves and not their last name, while Han Chinese bannermen used their last name and first in normal Chinese style.
Usage of surnames was not traditional to the Manchu while it was to the Han Chinese.
Chinese clothing was also adopted by the Vietnamese people. Variations of them are still being used today.
Strict surveillance and mass detentions of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang internment camps is a part of the ongoing sinicization policy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Since 2015, it has been estimated that over a million Uyghurs have been detained in these camps. The camps were established under CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping's administration with the main goal of ensuring adherence to national ideology. Critics of China's treatment of Uyghurs have accused the Chinese government of propagating a policy of sinicization in Xinjiang in the 21st century, calling this policy a cultural genocide, or ethnocide, of Uyghurs.
The process of re-asserting non-Chinese identity, as in the case of ethnic groups in Taiwan, is sometimes known as desinicization. This is an issue in, for example, the Taiwan independence movement and Taiwanization.
The TSPM and China Christian Council arranged a conference in Shanghai on August 4–6, 2014, commemorating the anniversary of the TSPM. This conference included a seminar on the sinicizaton of Christianity, with Fu Xianwei, chairman of the TSPM, saying "churches in China will continue to explore the sinicization of Christianity and ensure Christianity takes root in the soil of Chinese culture, ethnicity, and society... To advance the sinicization of Christianity, churches will need guidance and support from government agencies in charge of religious affairs."
In 2019, TSPM chairman Xu Xiaohong made a pledge to eliminate any Western "imprint" from Chinese faith saying "We must recognise that Chinese churches are surnamed 'China', not 'the West'" and "No matter how much effort or time it takes, our resolution in upholding the Sinicisation of Protestantism will never change, and our determination to walk a path that is adapted to a socialist society will never waver."
In December 2023, Wang Huning stated that Christian groups must "adhere to the direction of the sinicisation of Christianity."
In March 2018, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States within the Holy See's Secretariat of State, said that "two expressions or, more precisely, two principles stand out, which should interact with each other, namely "sinicization" and "inculturation." I am convinced that an important intellectual and pastoral challenge arises in an almost natural way from the bringing together of these two terms, which indicate two real visions of the world."
In June 2018, the Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China and the Catholic Patriotic Association issued a "Five-Year Plan on Carrying Forward the Catholic Church's Adherence to the Direction of Sinicization in Our Country". This document calls for Catholics to accept Communist party leadership, love the motherland and obey the state, as well as to embrace the state's directive to implement Chinese cultural integration within Catholicism. Churches in Hebei province and the Yibin Diocese of Sichuan province began holding training seminars immediately.
Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, in a 2019 interview with the CCP-owned Global Times newspaper, claimed that sinicization was a form of 'inculturation', which is a Catholic missionary term that refers to adopting local culture to proclaim the gospel. He cited Matteo Ricci as an example and pointed out that the Chinese leadership had promised not to undermine the doctrine and nature of each religion. He stated in the interview: "These two terms, "inculturation" and "sinicization," refer to each other without confusion and without opposition: in some ways, they can be complementary and can open avenues for dialogue on the religious and cultural level."
, 'No opposition between sinicization and inculturation'
, 帕罗林枢机："我们与中国正在开创一种积极的方法", Vatican News
Yang Faming, leader of the Islamic Association of China, said in a 2018 speech that "We must allow traditional Chinese culture to permeate Islam and jointly guard the spiritual homeland of the Chinese people." He encouraged Chinese characteristics to be present in religious ceremony, culture, and architecture.
In 2018, over one million Chinese government workers began forcibly living in the homes of Uyghur Muslim families to monitor and assess resistance to assimilation, and to watch for frowned-upon religious or cultural practices. These government workers were trained to call themselves "relatives" and have been described in Chinese state media as being a key part of enhancing "ethnic unity".
, it was estimated that Chinese authorities may have detained one and a half million people in secretive internment camps. The vast majority of those forcibly interned are Muslim Uyghurs but Kazakhs and other minority groups have also been included.
In September 2020, sinicization policies targeted Muslim in Hainan province. Restrictions included limiting the size of mosques, requiring a Communist Party member on mosque management committees, forbidding the use of Arabic words on food stalls (such as "halal"), and banning the hijab in schools and government offices.
In June 2023, CNN reported that Chinese authorities had forcibly rebuilt a number of mosques to eliminate traditional Islamic architecture (e.g. minarets, domes) and replace them with Chinese architecture. In July 2023, the United Front Work Department's Central Institute of Socialism developed a plan to "meld Islam with Confucianism" using the Han Kitab texts as a guide.
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