ABSTRACT
The term ‘ethnic minority’ is the usual English translation of the Chinese shaoshu minzu, which means literally ‘minority nationality’. The word minzu is understood as a community of people with a shared history, territory, language, economic life and culture. First proposed by Stalin in 1913, this definition was adopted by the PRC in its early days and has survived sub - stantially unchanged ever since. Chinese-language texts from the PRC still talk of the shaoshu minzu; those in English having changed to current usage from ‘minority nationality’ or ‘national minority’.
