Abstract
The People's Republic of China is one of the few countries with an official definition of ethnic groups. Most of the official nationalities were created and begun to be introduce to Chinese society in the 1950s. Now some nationalities are given ethnic symbols by outsiders, for example, drum towers and wind and rain bridges as symbols of Dong nationality.
This paper tries to explain how the ethnic symbols of Dong nationality were born and have prevailed in Chinese society, mainly by analysis of articles in Chinese newspapers, periodicals and books on Dong nationality, and examination of the process and influence of the exhibition of Dong ethnic architecture and customs held in Beijing in 1985. From these analyses three points become clear.
(1) There are mutual interactions between the center and the peripheral elites of Guizhou Province. Appeals by the peripheral elites to the center for purpose of improving their stigmatized regional identity are especially important.
(2) There also are competitions for symbol which based on regional ethnic identity among local Dong elites. The local Dong elites of Guizhou Province want to claim superiority over other Dong by emphasizing that the drum towers are the local ethnic symbol of the Dong of Guizhou Province.
(3) On the other hand, according to Chinese ethnological theory, it is thought that all members of the same nationality should have/have had a common culture and language. It is applicable to the case of Dong nationality.
