ABSTRACT
In the centre of Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province, Tibetan entrepreneurs gather to sip tea, talk and do business. On the other side of town, in one of the city's most popular western-style coffee chains, a new generation of Tibetan entrepreneurs meet. In many ways, these two scenes represent the generational shift that has taken place among China's Tibetan entrepreneurs in the last ten years. Interviews with Tibetan minority nationality entrepreneurs were organised to analyse the persistent influence of minority nationality identity in their experiences of market participation. The data produced from these interviews suggests that although Xining's Tibetans are entering the market in greater numbers, they are doing so in a way which reinforces minority identity and divisions. The pan-Tibetan identity, largely coterminous with the People's Republic of China's (PRC's) concept of the Tibetan minority nationality, is the focus of the study presented in the chapter.
