As a relatively low-profile ethnic group, the Chuanqing people have found it impossible to be formally recognized as China's 57th official ethnicity. As such, most are now trying to become integrated into another group, one close in culture and customs. 

But even this dream is hard to fulfill and the Chuanqing are clinging to the hope that the day will come when they will enjoy the same preferential policies as other official ethnic minorities. 

China identifies itself as a unified multi-ethnic country with 56 ethnic groups, including 55 ethnic minority peoples, but few know that these nationalities were recognized one by one after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

The Chuanqing people remain one of the formally unrecognized ones. Most of them are spread across two counties Guizhou Province, Zhijin and Nayong, with each harboring around 200,000 members of the Chuanqing. 

Denying your own identity

"Most of us now want to be integrated into the Tujia people with only a few seeking to join the Yi ethnic minority, as we are traditionally and culturally closer to the Tujia," said Zhang Chengkun, 73, who retired as a public servant in Zhijin county 12 years ago.

Zhang said the Chuanqing and the Tujia originally hailed from the same family long ago, but became split down the years.

Currently, the Tujia population in Guizhou stands at over 1.4 million, with 8 million nationwide across Hunan and Hubei provinces as well as Chongqing Municipality according to a 2010 census.

Zhang told the Global Times that those seeking a union with the Yi are politically motivated. "They either want to get promoted up the official ranks more quickly or have more guanxi [connections]," he said.

In Guizhou Province, representatives of the Yi hold much more power than those from the Tujia, explaining why the Chuanqing are split.

"Only a few people side with the Yi, but the situation is explained by the fact that Chuanqing people are struggling to secure their status as an ethnic minority as it is always postponed," said Zhang Chengkun.

Zhang Huaiping, a 56-year-old civil servant, is one of those who want to be integrated into the Yi. "I choose the Yi because we live in an area densely populated by Yi people," he told the Global Times. "It would be more convenient."

However, not everyone truly cares which ethnicity they are eventually paired up with. "Students and officials care more because this decision will help determine their future, but to ordinary people like me doing business, it makes no difference," said one man, running a fast-food joint selling rice noodles in Zhijin county.

His main concern is for the traditions of the Chuanqing, different from those of the Han nationality, to be kept. However, he sees this process as likely being too difficult, with many young people leaving to find work and settling down elsewhere.

Struggles in the modern world

Zhang Chengkun says that although the Chuanqing are not officially listed among China's ethnicities, they have always been treated as such. 

Years ago, when the family planning policy was still rigidly observed across China, Chuanqing couples could still give birth to a second child, as well as enjoy other special policies, normally only granted to official ethnicities. 

 Zhang explains that some Yi representatives have local nationalistic ideas. "They want to obtain the right to autonomy and if we joined them, the Yi ethnicity would have a larger population," said Zhang.

Chuanqing people have protested several times in the past after they were listed as having the Han nationality on their identity cards. Eventually, authorities relented and allowed them to use their Chuanqing status on their ID cards. 

Some preferential policies they enjoy are only effective inside Guizhou. "When Chuanqing students are admitted to universities, they get 20 grades more as a favor inside Guizhou, but most universities in other provinces don't follow this policy," said Zhang. Again, this disparity is due to not enjoying that elusive ethnic minority status.

"People such as college students usually have to choose other ethnicities, and this choice will be permanent," Zhang stated, adding that it is impossible for them to change back to being Chuanqing once they have made this choice for their studies or careers.

Unidentified ethnicities

"In my opinion, it's more about power and social status," Xiong Kunxin, a professor with Minzu University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times.

A number of ethnic minorities are seeking for the government to admit their status as a single nationality, with the Chuanqing people being just one of them, said Xiong. He said that such expectations are reasonable, since all the current ethnicities were recognized one at a time.

Ethnic identification was first started on the Chinese mainland in 1953. Two years later, sociologist Fei Xiaotong (1910-2005) went to Guizhou Province to identify the Chuanqing people. He concluded that they belonged to the Han, and were not a separate ethnic minority.

Fei was a professor of sociology and anthropology, and is well-known for his studies among many ethnic groups in China.

But several Chuanqing people in Zhijin county told the Global Times that their customs and beliefs are different from the Han, and that their clothing is not the same, although they speak the same dialect as the other Han residents since their own language has died out.

Zhang Chengkun said he had never tried clothes "with long sleeves and loose legs."

There are still over 50 ethnic minorities that remain unidentified, whose population varies from about 400, such as the Zhelaizhai living in Gansu Province, to 400,000, like the Bunu people in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region.

The Zhelaizhai are categorized as belonging to the Han, while the Bunu people are integrated into the Yao.

However, some ethnicities have a too small population, and the task of distinguishing them has been suspended, said Xiong.

"A spirit of national consciousness and unity must be highlighted since China is a unified multi-ethnic country. People should bear in mind that they are first Chinese, and then belong to an ethnic minority or the Han," said Xiong.