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Empire and Identity in Guizhou: Local Resistance to Qing Expansion by Jodi L. Weinstein (review)

Empire and Identity in Guizhou: Local Resistance to Qing Expansion, by Jodi L. Weinstein. Studies on Ethnic Groups in China Series. Seattle & London, University of Washington Press, 2014. xiii, 217 pp. $75.00 US (cloth) $30.00 US (paper). With Empire and Identity in Guizhou: Local Resistance to Qing Expansion, Jodi Weinstein adds to the rich body of English-language monographs on the relationships between China's late imperial empires and non-Han peoples living on the borderlands of China proper. This literature grows out of one of the major insights of the new Qing history: that the last "Chinese" dynasty, the Qing, founded in 1644 by conquering Manchus, established an empire that extended far beyond the borders of China proper, incorporating many non-Han populations. Long treated as just another Chinese empire ruled by foreigners who quickly embraced Chinese ways, the Qing has now come to be seen as fundamentally different in nature in part at least because of its territorial ambitions and the distinctive strategies it designed to prosecute them. What contribution does Empire and Identity in Guizhou make to this revisionist history of the Qing? First, it fleshes out our knowledge of the Qing imperial project in a little studied area, Guizhou, one of the poorest provinces of the empire and home to a variety of non-Han peoples. More specifically, it introduces one of these peoples, the Zhongjia, who have not received much attention from Western scholars. Second (and more importantly), it highlights the resistance of the Zhongjia, treating them as active agents in shaping their relationship with the Qing. Here Weinstein draws on the "livelihoods approach" of the anthropologist Jean Michaud "to show how members of this ethnic group created viable livelihoods and maintained their identity while negotiating the imperial state's plans for standardization and centralization" (5). Weinstein's argument is set out clearly in four substantive chapters. The first describes the landscape, human and natural, of Guizhou and describes the "ethnic mosaic" of the province, which was also home to, among others, Lolo, Nasi Yi, and Han peoples. "The Consolidation of Qing Rule" (chapter three) concisely narrates the largely successful efforts of the Yongzheng emperor (ruled 1722-1735) to bring the Zhongjia, perceived to be violent and uncivilized, more tightly under Qing control. Here Weinstein applies many of the insights of James Scott about what it means to "see like a state." The heart of Weinstein's argument is set forth in the next two chapters. "Livelihood Choices in the Mid-Eighteenth Century" (chapter four) illustrates Weinstein's application of the "livelihoods approach" to the Zhongjia; she narrates three cases that show Zhongjia men and women making livelihood choices that engaged them in the manipulation of Indigenous religious networks, Indigenous beliefs (the power of charms to bring wealth and good fortune), and Han institutions--all of which empowered them to undermine the state or openly call for rebellion. …