Social Anthropological Research on Urban Ethnic Groups

This paper provides theoretical reviews on the urban ethnic studies from the social anthro-pological perspective. It also provides the possible directions and the methods on the urban ethnic studies. This paper points out that there are at least three kinds of studying areas on the urban ethnic studies in China. One is the representing study of overseas Chinese ethnic identity, cultural identity and national identity in Chinese cities; another is the representing study of minority ethnic groups, cultural and social identities after their blending in the big cities; and the third is the study of regional ethnic identities after the new migrants entering the cities. The author thinks that in research, we should pay attention to all these problems of primordialism, ethnogenesis, rational choice of ethnic identity and the function of historic memory in construct.