Quote:
Originally Posted by LeoXiao
In some parts, perhaps. A majority of Texans still speak English as their primary language. If English were to be diminished to the point of only being spoken by a minority as its 1st language, then yeah the area would get the Spanish color. The same holds true for the Chinese map.
My linguistics professor is Chinese and writes research papers on this kind of stuff, I'm pretty sure she knows what she's talking about. Moreover, the map does not care about historical possession or whatnot, so that's irrelevant here.
The map is still mostly correct.
It's called an "ethnolinguistic map" because it documents both the main ethnic groups of China as well as generalized linguistic categories. The language of the Uighur people is a Turkic, non-Chinese language, so it gets its own color. Now, you might say, there are also Han Chinese who speak Mandarin living there. Not historically. Tibet was Tibetan and whenever it was under Chinese control there were not many Chinese there to make the local language anything other than Tibetan. There is still at least a plurality of Tibetan speakers in Tibet. That is where the language is spoken, why should the map not reflect this?
Where is the map incorrect? There are not enough categories. There should be six more colors south of the Yangzi river because down there they speak dialects that cannot be understood by a fluent Mandarin speaker, because they are in fact different languages. But then again if it lumps the Tibetan and Burmese languages into one color I don't see why it shouldn't do the same with the Chinese ones. The map is right after all.
I think what you're getting riled up because you're seeing China presented as not one pure group, which in your mind might legitimatize separation and thus weaken the country. But there should be nothing to fear since, after all, Cantonese and Mandarin speakers have been able to see themselves as equally Chinese for 2000 years since their land got totally incorporated into China. I'm sure the Tibetans would be willing over time to do the same, provided they continue to see "Chineseness" as something positive...
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Bahh, if I didn't made myself clear enough with the Texas example, just check the ethnic decomposition on wikipedia. There are about 80% Han Chinese in inner Mongolia (aka more than the percentage of Whites in Texas), and many those who are classified as Mongol are bilingual. Can you tell the difference between 南疆 (i.e., southern Xinjiang) and 北疆 (northern Xinjiang)? Know anything about the history and geography about them? What are their ethnic compositions?