Sinization
Sinization means to shape a social culture in Chinese. It could be seen as a form of transculturation , or it could be described as “the acculturation process centering on Chinese culture ”.
background
Sinization can on the one hand mean the transcription of foreign languages into Chinese , on the other hand it is often used in the social sciences to describe the assimilation of peoples into Chinese culture . This is how the Manchu were sinized when they made the emperors of China during the Qing Dynasty .
The process of sinization had z. B. Great influence on the Mongols , the Asian Turkic peoples, Southeast Asian cultures and Japanese culture , because the Japanese Kanji largely correspond to the Chinese characters . The situation is similar in Korea or Vietnam , where the Chinese characters were only replaced by their own script (Korea) or the Latin alphabet (Vietnam) in recent history .
Sinization was sometimes enforced. In particular, the governments of attempted People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan , the high Chinese by the compulsory education to establish itself as a primary language.
Nowadays, Sinization usually refers to the often targeted settlement of Han Chinese in the settlement areas of Chinese minorities or in the autonomous regions such as Tibet , Xinjiang , Kyrgyzstan and other countries. The accusation is often raised that the ethnic groups become a minority in their own homeland and that their culture and language are marginalized.
Sinization as an acculturation process
Generally, the term Sinization is used unilaterally as the influence of the influencing culture or its representatives, i. H. the so-called Chinese . But a look at Chinese history shows that acculturation processes were very often stimulated by those who were “influenced”. B. the active adoption of the script, the Confucian system of officials, etc. For this reason, the many dynasties, whose bearers were not Han Chinese (which in this form only formed as such in the course of long history, i.e. "sinized") have) and which we like to call "foreign dynasties", in China itself as Chinese dynasties: because of their voluntary acculturation (ie active Sinization), which mostly showed a self-image as state power of the Middle Kingdom ( 中國 / 中国 , Zhōngguó = China ) . For this reason it would make sense to distinguish between an active and a passive sinization - depending on which side the acculturation processes are or were triggered by. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that these are usually not one or the other alone.
Examples
“ Nevertheless, Buddhism could fit in ( sinize ) and become part of Chinese culture. "
Under Mao Zedong a " Sinization of Marxism " took place.