Desinicization

Desinicization (que zhong hua, de + sinicization, meaning making non-Chinese) is a term which appeared within the political vocabulary of Taiwan in 2001. It is mainly used by groups which support Chinese reunification to describe what they are opposed to, and to distinguish it from the Taiwanese localization movement which is generally considered to be a good thing.

The term exists to emphasize that pro-unification groups are not opposed to the development of a Taiwanese identity or local symbols such as language, but are opposed to viewing such an identity and symbols as separate from a broader Chinese identity.

The Shan drug-lord[?] Kun-Sa[?] of Myanmar is also an example of desinicization; he belongs to the second generation of Kuomintang officers who sought refuge in the Shan State[?].

The Dungans of Kyrgyzstan represent a less conscious process of desinicization, in the course of which (300 years since early Qing) a Hui population became alienated from the literary tradition and local culture of Shaanxi and Gansu.

One can also observe the process of desinicization of the cultural superstate of Vietnam, which was of creole Chinese origin, since the political autonomy of the state in the 900s, characterized by its slowly melding with the non-Sinitic Viet-Muong[?] and Tai-Kadai[?] cultures.

The notion of desinicization has also been applied to Chinese Americans with the pejorative term banana (i.e. yellow on the outside, white on the inside.)