The Domestic and Foreign Factors that Transformed China into a Multiethnic and Multicultural Eurasian Country and Its Political, Social and Cultural Significance

China is known to be one of the world’s largest multiethnic and multicultural country in the world today. This is a transformation that most scholars have taken time to analyze over the years. Various studies conducted by various scholars indicate that an outsider can view the Chinese society as a homogenous society but in the real sense, it is a country with a very diverse population. Its population is made up of various ethnic groups and cultures. The contemporary China has about 56 ethnic groups which are already in the records of the national government. The ethnic majority group among these is the Han. The rest of the 55 ethnic groups have smaller populations which have made them referred as the minorities. Even though the 55 ethnic groups are known to be the minorities, they live in vast areas scattered throughout the country. It is estimated to cover over 64 percent of the entire country mainly in the north-eastern, Northwestern, South West and the Northern parts of the country. All these areas are the borders and the rural areas of China. The major economic activities done by these minorities is either farming or pastoralism. The structure of the Chinese country took shaped since the Song and the Qing Dynasties’ long history. The most diverse of its provinces is the Yunnan province which hosts over 20 ethnic groups. The other ethnic groups live in compact communities in the various regions of the country noted above. This diversity has shaped and influenced the Chinese political, cultural and social activities through the interactions between the 55 ethnic minorities and the Han. All these transformations were influenced by both domestic and foreign factors discussed in this paper. The paper also discusses the significance of the transformations on the social, political and the cultural aspects in China. The Factors that Transformed China to multiethnic and multicultural Country The Foreign Factors Immigration Immigration is the movement of people across international borders, from one country to the other. During the 18th and the 19th century, the movement of people around Asia led to various transformations in the countries they moved into. In China, such migrations led to the multiethnic relations and the multicultural relations that exist today. The migratory processes formed the new cultures and the ethnic groups evident in the country. As they moved into the country, most of these ethnic groups remained compact since most of them wanted to live closer to their kin after coming from their places of origin. This was mainly for the solidarity purposes as well as reproduction which has led to the vast and diverse population in the country. Since ethnic identity is a dynamic process, the Chinese ethnic groups inserted themselves into ethnic enclaves sharing a common ancestry and common cultural various that makes them unique and transforming over time. Most these migrations from other countries into China were caused by various reasons such as the search for job opportunities among other factors.