Ethnic identification refers to the identification of ethnic components and ethnic names of a nation. In the early days of the founding of New China, ethnic names were quite complicated. According to the first national census in 1953, there were more than 400 ethnic groups registered and reported, some claimed to be themselves and some claimed to be others. Some are Chinese transliteration of different nationalities; Some are named after residential place names; Others are named after special production and lifestyle, and so on. Ethnic identification of these ethnic names is to find out whether the identified people are Han or ethnic minorities; If it is a minority, it is a single minority or a part of a minority.
Since the early 1950s, the Party and the state have organized a large number of ethnic researchers and ethnic workers to go deep into ethnic minority areas, applied Marxist ethnic theory, closely combined with the history and reality of China, conducted a comprehensive investigation and analysis on ethnic names, ethnic origins, distribution areas, languages, economic life, psychological quality, social history, etc., and scientifically identified more than 400 ethnic names put forward by the whole country on the basis of fully respecting the wishes of the people of this ethnic group.
China's national identity has gone through three stages. The first stage was from the founding of New China to 1954, during which the Zhuang, Buyi, Dong, Bai, Kazak, Hani, Dai, Li, Yi, Miao, Yi, Korea and Manchu nationalities were recognized. The second stage, from 1954 to 1964, identified Tujia, She, Daur, Mulao, Bulang, Gelao, Achang, Pumi, Nu, Benglong (later changed to De 'ang), Jing and Dulong. The third stage is from 1965 to 1979. Barrow was confirmed in 1965, and Jino was finally confirmed in 1979. So far, after more than 40 years of efforts, 55 ethnic minorities in China have been recognized, and 56 ethnic minorities, including the Han nationality, have basically completed the ethnic recognition work in China. In ethnic identification, under the condition of scientific basis, we should fully respect the wishes of ethnic groups and "follow the Lord by name" in ethnic appellation. For example,1April 1963, the Wa nationality changed to the Wa nationality,1June 1965, the Dong nationality changed to the Zhuang nationality, and1September 1985, the Benglong nationality changed to the German nationality.