| Summary/Abstract |
Studies on ethnic minorities for the Republican period (1912–1949) highlight the political agency these groups displayed in their negotiations with the modern Chinese state. Most of this work has focused on those non-Han groups officially recognized as part of the Five-Race Republic (wuzu gonghe). Little is known, however, about those excluded from the early Republic’s flag such as the Yi inhabiting southwest China. This article discusses the role played by a group of Yi leaders who engaged with Sun Yat-sen’s ideology of nationalism, racial equality, and anti-imperialism in their attempts to obtain both recognition and aid from the Chinese nation–state. Rather than rejecting the commonly used term to identify China’s non-Han population of ‘weak and small races’ present in Sun Yat-sen’s ideology, Yi elites appropriated this term to their advantage seeking aid from the Guomindang but at the same time placing boundaries to what they perceived to be a Han-centered state.
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