ABSTRACT
Minority ethnic groups in China are increasingly exposed to forces of transformation through contact with the state and the market. Ethnic citizens have been learning how to adapt to these forces. Indeed, in the name of modernization and globalization, forces of transformation are able to instill into these areas a lifestyle and a value system that formerly prevailed mainly outside ethnic areas. The expectation of the state is that eventually minorities will have to experience cultural conversion and assimilation. This will be good for ethnic citizens, it is believed, because assimilation will make them identical with the Han majority and prepare them for their equal participation in state and market activities.
