ABSTRACT
This chapter describes minority distribution in China's urban areas, focusing on stereotypes about ethnic groups and on how such stereotypes affect the relations between the majority population and the minorities and the relations among different minorities. The Han population accounts for the majority. As the population of the other 55 ethnic groups is relatively small, they are customarily referred to as minorities'. Inter-ethnic marriages are a key element in the fusion of different cultures, for they make it possible for the original social relationships to lose strength. Stereotypes are generalizations about a group of people, whereby a defined set of characteristics is attributed to it. The attendant classifications can be positive or negative, such as when various nationalities are classified as friendly or unfriendly. Trans-ethnic relationships include various social and cultural exchanges, as well as economic exchanges. As Ralf Darhendorf pointed out, Rousseau and Marx were unrivalled in their insistence on property as the sole cause of social inequality'.
