And now we return to the topic of labelling. It is interesting how in previous readings, we looked at labelling other cultures based on geographic location. Then there is the musings of how the ancient Greek's labelled outsiders as barbarians, because the language of the outsiders consisted of many syllables such as "bar bar bar bar bar".
So we come to the Hinsch article, "Myth and the Construction of Foreign Ethnic Identity in Early and Medieval China" (2004), and how he remarks how the medieval Chinese people labelled outsiders in such a way that the labels both served as a derogatory means, as well as a means of distancing the Chinese, providing a more noble identity for themselves. Even deeper than labelling, we see how the mythology or tales of these outsiders serve to distance the Chinese from them, or relate to them. Take for example how Chinese farmers saw wolves as a negative force, and how the Chinese placed a negative label upon nomadic tribes that saw wolves as positive creatures in their mythology.