Chinese outcasts
Subtitle: discrimination and emancipation in late imperial China
By: by Anders Hansson.
Series: Sinica Leidensia -- v. 37
Publisher: E.J. Brill
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Leiden; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 193
Subjects: Social classes -- China.; Outcasts -- China.; China -- Social conditions.
Description: Outcasts and pariahs are known to exist in several Asian countries but have usually not been associated with traditional Chinese society. Chinese Outcasts shows that some Chinese were in fact treated as outcasts or semi-outcasts. They include the boat people of South China and certain less well-known groups in different regions, e.g. the 'musicians' households' and the 'fallen people'.

The reasons for their inferior status and perceived impurity is examined, as well as the intent behind a series of imperial emancipation edicts in the 1720s and 30s. The edict provided an escape route from inferior legal status but failed to put a quick end to customary social discrimination.
Notes: Includesbibliographical references (p. (179)-189) and index.