China’s "foreign land"

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Originally posted by Yungsiyebu_Uriankhai

Exactly, The so called east Turkestan was "the west regions" during the Han dynasty, there were many oasis kingdoms in the region,  not to mention the same area was under Tang dynasty's control, the Uyghurs were but late comers.
However, East Turkestan was not Uyghur territory until around the 8th century A.D. , and China claimed the region 800 years previously, during the Han Dynasty.  Thus, the whole "we Uyghurs were there first and always" argument falls apart. 

If your read Chinese official history documents about E.Turkistan, Inner Mongolia, or other area, you would find out similar opinions to those statements above. Who are the Uighurs? A group of steppes nomads migrated from Mongolia to Xinjiang where Chinese ever ruled since ancient times. Who are the Mongols? A group of forest Hunters named Shiwei migrated from Manchuria's borders to Mongolia where Chinese ever ruled since ancient times... Chinese have been always attempting to minimize the history of the ethnic groups to give themselves reasons to claim those land populated by non-chinese people.  
Did the Uighurs from Mongolia steppes replace those natives of E.Turkistan? No! they absorbed these non-Turkic groups to form a new nation which is far different from the ancient Uighurs in Mongolia.  so, Modern Uighurs are the descendants of both the natives of E.Turkistan and the ancient Uighurs from Mongolia. On the other hand, Chinggis Khaan also didn't replace all tribes of Mongolia steppes, such as Naiman, Keriet, Ongut, Khitans, etc, with his own tribe, but unified all of them to form a nation named Mongolian. Even if Chinggis Khaan's ancestors were actually originated from shiwei like that most chinese scholars argue about, Modern Mongols as a nation are also the descendants of many ancient steppe nations such Hsiung-nu, Sian-pei, Juan-Juan, Turuk, Uighur, ect. 
Replacing a naion's history with a tribe's, is one of the most popular ways for Chinese to achieve their aims of minimizing a nomadic nation's history. 

Beside political claims, i agree with some of your opinions on  the cultural and ethnic formation of these people or nations. 
Though number of nomadic groups also sinicized within Chinese society. 
Xianbei tried to learn from the Chinese during the 3 kingdoms of China, the prince of Xianbei studied in Wei kingdom, he was heavily influenced by Chinese culture, he became fluent in confucian classics, and dressed like a Chinese. But when he got back to the steppe, the chieftains fear he could destroy their own tradition, had him executed. But XianBei as a group nevertheless destined to became part  of Chinese culture in later time. When the WestJin dynasty collapsed, thus began the "era of division", many nomads were previously subjects of the Jin, but now they grab whats left of Jin in Northern China, and established various Chinese-style dynasties, and fought each others for power. The Xianbei had already set up several dynasty previously, but it was the Northern Wei dynasty which was ruled by Tuoba-clan that was the most successful one. After militarily consolidating the empire in its early period, the 7th emperor YuanHong put more his focus on civil matters, in which he moved the Capital from border-area to "heart-land of Chinese culture"-LuoYang(capital of former Chinese dynasties). He immediately began  series of reforms, politically he copied the style of government from his counter-part, the southern Chinese dynasty, he did this so well, that there were many examples  of Han Chinese from south are willing to serve the Northern Wei dynasty. Culturally, he urge all Xianbei from nobility to commoner  wear Chinese dress,and he personally monitored how good this is carried out, once upon seeing a Xianbei woman still wearing Xianbei traditional dress, the emperor was angry, and reprimanded the offical in charge of the matter. He also encouraged inter-marriages between Xianbei and Han ppl, he personally married with several daughters of Han officials, while at the same time married his own daughters to Han-Chinese nobles as well. And it became common practice between the 2 ppls. His determination was so strong he even ordered that when a Xianbei dies, the body will remain buried outside of LuoYang than carry it back to the "old place"(which at the time many Xianbei considered their real Homeplace)  , so there was a saying"  born, you are a LuoYang citizen, die, you will be buried beside it". Although at the time there were many discontents about his reforms among the Xianbei nobilities,nevertheless, later, the majority of the Xianbei assimilated into the "Chinese"ppl, (in the case of LuoYang city of Northern Wei , during YuanHong's reign, there were about a milion Xianbei became sinicized,later they became indistinguishable from Han-Chinese). And its no wonder, both the founders of Sui and Tang dynasty had some "Xianbei" blood, while both the empress's names were derived from Xianbei nobilities, also, Sui emperor can trace their family line to a Han-Chinese nobility of the Han-jin dynasties, while Tang emperors can trace their line to the Han-general LiGuang, who's famous in battles against the XiongNu.Twisted as it seems, the "era of division" is often considered an age of great ethnic and cultural fusion in Chinese history. 
For the steppe history which also concerning China, there were 3 largest and most powerful nomadic nations appearred on the steppe during the long history, from first the XiongNu, to the Turks, then came the Mongols, but just in a way like that of China at it's begining stage of development, actually many different factions contributed to the forming of the nation. 
These 3 largest nomadic groups were all not single tribes or specific ethnic group, they were a confederation which has been united under the most powerful tribe's banner througn military or other means. But ultimately included many of the steppe tribes or groups.
While the previous 2, the XiongNus and the Turks didnt manage to maintain their grasp on the vast empire to later period in history, due to either internal rivalry or/and external pressures. Whereas the Mongols has achieved more success than their 2 predecessors and also survived till these days as an independent nation.
the Mongols were sub-faction of the ShiWei, just before the rise of Genghiskhan, Mongolia was a land occupied by various nomadic tribes or groups, some had some relations, while others are quite different. The tribe Genghis came from is called Qiyan, and there tribes that related or allied with his were the Kelie,Hongjila(both the brides[He elun, Boertie] of Genghis's father Yesugai and his are from this tribe as it is said girls of Hongjila are the most beautiful of the grasslands, culturally, its probably 1 of nomadic tribes which was mostly infulenced by the "Chinese")Techiyiu, Zhadalan, Zhuerqi,etc whereas the Mieerqi and Tartars were the enemy.Naiman is considered by the Mongols a "big country" west of them.
The political situation in  continental East Asia then was, that the Jurchens first overthrew their Khitan Liao overlords, established their own Chinese-style dynasty the Jin, then it further projected its military power into the central plain of China, end the rule of Northern Song dynasty of China, it inherited almost all of the former Song's northern territory border just the Yangtz river. Song Chinese survived in the south as Southern Song dynasty, they unavoidably resisted several assaults of  Jin dynasty's attempted complete conquest of China, which somewhat maintained  their sphere of influence afterwards.
The Jin also made the Tangut's WestXia dynasty to became its subject(though in essence they were more like rivals). The Jurchens also influenced the steppe(later Manchus would just had done the same but with much more measures and success) nomads, they played "Nomads against nomads" ,  tribes like Mierqi and Tartar were  sometimes under service of the Jin court, even Genghis himself once served(though Genghis had his own strategical calculations) for the Jurchens(as Genghis's power has not yet been strong enough). But some of the harsh treatments of the Jin, not only angered the Chinese and  Khitans under their rule. The Mongols too suffered, because they were talented archers and skilled horsemen, which makes the Jin worry about that 1 day same story could be retold on themselves like that of what they had done to their formal overlords the Khitan-Liao dynasty. So there was a practice by the Jurchens, in which they would send military force to "depopulate" the steppe nomads for every 3 years or so. 
One of the the Qiyan's previous  chief(Genghis's ancester) was said to have been cruelly executed by the Jin dynasty. So in the light of revenge, Genghis began his life-long military actions, first to conquered the rival tribes of the steppe and unite them under Mongol banner, then attack the Jin, which was as Genghis himself said "my biggest goal". Though he never complete the conquest of Jin, since he "fell from his horse, later died" just after he finished  a negotiation(demandingly) with the Tanguts of WestXia dynasty.
All those 3 strongest nomadic confederations,  had more or less influenced China, and arguably vice versa. It was the  contest between hard and soft aspects of culture, while inevitably contributed to the shape and reshape of the land.

Exactly, The so called east Turkestan was "the west regions" during the Han dynasty, there were many oasis kingdoms in the region,  not to mention the same area was under Tang dynasty's control, the Uyghurs were but late comers

"officially Chinese"? perhaps, but refute me if anything said in this is wrong.

Edited by Beijingguy