Abstract:

As a common ingroup, the Chinese nation community has unique characteristics. First, its properties are complex. Second, as an entity, it has various components. However, previous studies focused more on macro analysis, theoretical generalizations, and policy interpretations and less on microscopic arguments and empirical studies. Therefore, an empirical study on the identity of the Chinese nation community must be carried out. This study employs senior high school students who grew up in Tibetan areas and are current hinterland senior high school students to participate in three experiments. The most special characteristic of Tibetan students is their experiences on cross-ethnic communication and cross-cultural life.

In Experiment 1, 50 Tibetan students in hinterland senior high school were employed as subjects. The relationship of the container and the community for the Chinese nation was investigated through the Spatial Stroop Paradigm. In Experiment 2, 50 Tibetan students were also employed as subjects. The Emotional Stroop Paradigm was used to explore the attitude of Tibetan students toward domestic and foreign ethnic groups. In Experiment 3, 320 Tibetan students were employed. Situational tasks of Money Helps and Time Helps were used to test the willingness to help someone from the domestic ethnic group or foreign ethnic group.

Experiment 1 exhibited that the reaction time was significantly shorter when a domestic name appeared in the circle, F (1, 46) = 8.82, p = 0.005, 95% CI = [49.64, 80.81], or a foreign name appeared outside the circle, F (1, 46) = 17.09, p = 0.001, 95% CI = [28.67, 48.83], which revealed that Tibetan students constructed the community for the Chinese nation as a container, placed the domestic ethnic groups in the container, and placed the foreign ethnic groups outside the container (see Table 1). Experiment 2 unveiled that the judgment reaction time of the positive target word was significantly shorter when the prime word was a domestic ethnic group name, F (1, 48) = 121.04, p = 0.001, 95% CI = [-255.26, -176.37], and the judgment reaction time of the negative target word was significantly shorter when the prime word was a foreign ethnic group name, F (1, 48) = 31.06, p = 0.001, 95% CI = [-161.95, -76.08], indicating that Tibetan students preferred the domestic ethnic groups and prejudiced the foreign ethnic groups (see Table 2). Experiment 3 showed that Tibetan students donated more money, M_domestic = 65.08, M_foreign = 35.80, 95% CI = [10.23, 17.96], and time, M_domestic = 50.98, M_foreign = 27.24, 95% CI = [6.14, 10.99], to someone from the domestic ethnic group who needed help, signifying that Tibetan students in hinterland senior high school had a stronger willingness to help domestic ethnic groups (see Table 3).

This study suggests that Tibetan students in hinterland senior high school with rich experience on cross-ethnic communication and cross-cultural life constructed the Community for the Chinese nation as a container, and placed domestic ethnic groups in the container. Conclusively, Tibetan students had varying attitudes and different levels of help willingness toward domestic and foreign ethnic groups.

Key words: Tibetan students in hinterland senior high school, community for the Chinese nation, container metaphor, intergroup attitude, helping tendency