Tibetans, Uyghurs, and multinational “China”: Han-minority relations and state legitimation

The speaker is a musician who calls himself “Lolo,” after a traditional name for his Southwest China ethnic group that the Chinese state had renamed “Yi.” Lolo and many other Lolo/Yi do not regard the changing of their name as legitimate. With a 2000 population of 7,762,272,3 the Lolo/Yi have a strong and probably growing sense of ethnic identity that appears strongly resistant to any attempts to assimilate them.