Rongxing Guo

Multicultural China: A Brief View

Throughout history, race, language and religion have divided China as much as physical terrain, political fiat and conquest. However, it is always a politically sensitive issue to identify those non-Han people as different ethnic groups. As a result, the total number of ethnic groups has never been fixed precisely in China. For example, in 1953, only 42 ethnic peoples were identified, while the number increased to 54 in 1964 and 56 in 1982. Of course, this does not include the unknown ethnic groups as well as foreigners with Chinese citizenship.

Employment and Wages

The ratio of employees to rooms for the industry is about 7 employees to 10 rooms (.72 employees per room). This ratio is lowest for the small establishments with 5 to 10 rooms that employ .42 persons per room, while the largest businesses with 100 rooms or more employ .85 people per room. Many medium and large lodging businesses such as hotels and country inns provide other than lodging services, such as dining and recreation, requiring additional staff.