Ethnic Chrysalis: China’s Orochen People and the Legacy of Qing Borderland Administration (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series)

Ethnic Chrysalis is the first book in English to cover the early modern history of the Orochen, an ethnic group that has for centuries inhabited areas now belonging to the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. The Qing dynasty (1644-1911) was a formative period for Orochen identity, and its actions preserved the Orochen as a separate ethnic group. While incorporating the Orochen into the imperial political domain through military conscription and compulsory resource extraction, the Qing government created two Orochen subgroups that experienced disparate levels of social and economic autonomy. The use of "Orochen" as an official modifier by Qing officials forms an early layer of the chrysalis that embodies various senses of ethnic identity for people who have been identified, or self‐identified, as Orochen. Since the Qing, the Orochen have continued to cherish the perception that their Qing‐period ancestors were key players in the defense and economy of northeast China. Tracing the evolution of Qing policies toward the Orochen along the Chinese‐Russian borderland, Loretta Kim examines how the impact of political organization in one era can endure in a group's social and cultural values. Ethnic Chrysalis: China’s Orochen People and the Legacy of Qing Borderland Administration 3 Contents 7 List of Illustrations and Tables 9 Acknowledgments 11 Abbreviations 14 Conventions for Transliteration, Dates, and Measurements 15 Personnel Ranks and Units in the Qing Military and Civil Bureaucracies 19 Introduction 25 1. From Tribe to Banner, Domain to Region 47 2. The Heilongjiang Administrative Region 81 3. Multipurpose Specialists 131 4. The Finale of the Frontier 183 5. Region, Heritage, and Belonging 227 Conclusion 285 Bibliography 313 Index 345 Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 365 "Details the early modern history of the Orochen, an ethnic group that has for centuries inhabited areas along the China-Russia borderland. Traces the evolution of Qing policies toward the Orochen and examines how the impact of political organization in one era endures in the group's social and cultural values"--Provided by publisher