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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations

China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 23k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the complex dynamics of ethnic relations, bilingual education, cultural identity, and separatism in China's autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet. It delves into issues such as the exclusion of Uyghurs, language policies for ethnic minorities, economic development, and the challenges of integrating different ethnic groups within the Chinese state.

  • Xinjiang
  • Uyghur
  • Tibet
  • Bilingual Education
  • Ethnic Minority
  • Han Chinese
  • Cultural Identity
  • Language Policy
  • Separatism
  • Nationalism
Research works
23k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+45%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
50% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations

Which countries lead China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (802 and 273 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 802 works
  2. 2 United States 273 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 107 works
  4. 4 Russia 83 works
  5. 5 Türkiye 77 works
  6. 6 France 64 works
  7. 7 Uzbekistan 55 works
  8. 8 India 48 works
  9. 9 Kyrgyzstan 48 works
  10. 10 Germany 47 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 50.1%United States: 17.0%United Kingdom: 6.7%Russia: 5.2%6 others listed: 21.1%50%largest
China802 · 50.1%United States273 · 17.0%United Kingdom107 · 6.7%Russia83 · 5.2%6 others listed338 · 21.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations research?

By volume in 2022-now, Minzu University of China publishes the most China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations research, followed by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Minzu University of ChinaChina 33 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of Social SciencesChina 27 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 25 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 22 works
  5. 5 Peking UniversityChina 18 works
  6. 6 Kyrgyz State National UniversityKyrgyzstan 17 works
  7. 7 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 16 works
  8. 8 University of ChicagoUnited States 16 works
  9. 9 National University of MongoliaMongolia 14 works
  10. 10 Al-Farabi Kazakh National UniversityKazakhstan 12 works

Who are the leading researchers in China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations?

The most-cited researchers publishing on China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations include Jin Li.

  1. 1 Jin Li China 132k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations?

The most cited paper in China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations is "Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar" (Stephen A. Wadley, Charles N. Li, Sandra Annear Thompson, 1987), with 2,921 citations. Next come "Cultural Encounters on China’s Ethnic Frontiers" (633) and "A State-Led Nationalism: The Patriotic Education Campaign in Post-Tiananmen China" (516).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar Stephen A. Wadley, Charles N. Li, Sandra Annear Thompson · Journal of the American Oriental Society Jul 1987 2,921
2 Cultural Encounters on China’s Ethnic Frontiers Millie Creighton · Pacific Affairs Sep 1996 633
3 A State-Led Nationalism: The Patriotic Education Campaign in Post-Tiananmen China Suisheng Zhao · Communist and Post-Communist Studies Sep 1998 516
4 National Humiliation, History Education, and the Politics of Historical Memory: Patriotic Education Campaign in China Zheng Wang · International Studies Quarterly 19 Nov 2008 506
5 Lineage Organization in Southeastern China G. William Skinner · Pacific Affairs Jun 1959 453
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations research done?

The largest centres of China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Paris (France) and Chengdu (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Bishkek, Ulaanbaatar and Almaty.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 176 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 66 works
  3. 3 ParisFrance 41 works
  4. 4 ChengduChina 40 works
  5. 5 BishkekKyrgyzstan 37 works
  6. 6 LondonUnited Kingdom 34 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 33 works
  8. 8 GuangzhouChina 32 works
  9. 9 TashkentUzbekistan 32 works
  10. 10 Xi'anChina 27 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BishkekKG · 37.1 works72×
  2. UlaanbaatarMN · 27.3 works41×
  3. AlmatyKZ · 24.4 works12×
  4. TashkentUZ · 31.8 works10×
  5. ÜrümqiCN · 20.0 works8.5×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations than the world average.

See China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations on the map

Where is the best place to study China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Cambridge, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Minzu University of China score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 14.5%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Cambri…Chinese University o…Peking UniversityMinzu University of …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 60.924.9%3.9×8 +69.4%
2Chinese University of Hong KongChina 59.217.5%7.0×10 +2.3%
3Minzu University of ChinaChina 55.63.4%62.5×33 +33.2%
4Peking UniversityChina 53.08.8%4.8×18 +147.1%
5University of ChicagoUnited States 51.910.8%10.0×16 +223.7%
6Beijing Normal UniversityChina 49.611.0%10.8×16 +77.0%
7University of NottinghamUnited Kingdom 48.315.6%5.9×8 +145.9%
8East China Normal UniversityChina 47.224.8%10.2×9 +108.7%
9Shanghai International Studies UniversityChina 44.615.3%56.2×10 +92.3%
10Xiamen UniversityChina 40.712.9%6.7×11 +39.1%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations, country by country

Is China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 45% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2011. The fastest-growing topics are China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0081% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations0.0095% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations10.3% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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