AHC: A more ethnically diverse China

[Kushim]

China is very ethnically diverse. However, it also depends on what we define as "China" -- are you including Xinjiang/East Turkestan? Kyrgyzstan? Tibet? Outer Mongolia? Taiwan? Manchuria? Hong Kong? Macau? All of these have been part of China historically (some are part of China now), but have demographic identities of their own. Just goes to show you how diverse "China" has been historically, and still is.

Ah, should've specified, by China I'm thinking of Mainland China minus Tibet, Mogulistan, Manchuria, Yanbian Korea, and the island of formosa

 

[Zireael]

so a good first step is to butterfly away the pinyin eh? I'm no expert on the writing system but can you explain what about it made it uniquely universal, where the Mediterrenean abjads couldn't?

NOT pinyin (that's the system to transliterate it to Latin alphabet), the writing system itself.
What made it universal is the fact you can use the sign meaning e.g. "money" regardless of how your dialect pronounces it. Most if not all dialects being analytic (i.e. they don't inflect words), it means you can communicate in writing even though you say it differently

 

[Kushim]

NOT pinyin (that's the system to transliterate it to Latin alphabet), the writing system itself.
What made it universal is the fact you can use the sign meaning e.g. "money" regardless of how your dialect pronounces it. Most if not all dialects being analytic (i.e. they don't inflect words), it means you can communicate in writing even though you say it differently

Interesting, I should definitely study Chinese culture more, if I remember right most old ancient systems were logographic too but eventually became more phonetic over time, now it would be interesting to figure out what caused the Chinese writing system to retain its logographic nature

 

[Zireael]

Modern Chinese does have phonetic elements but AFAIU most people just treat the entire sign as a whole without paying attention to phonetic clues (Especially since AFAIU those clues are.... outdated by now, they're... think how English or French orthography reflects the language of hundreds of years ago)

 

[The_Persian_Cat]

Ah, should've specified, by China I'm thinking of Mainland China minus Tibet, Mogulistan, Manchuria, Yanbian Korea, and the island of formosa

Well, even then, China is not a monolith. Even the idea of "Han Chinese" is more complicated and varied than a lot of ethnic identities.

But of course, I haven't answered the question. So, one way to make China more diverse is to integrate it more with surrounding nations (including Tibet, Moghulistan, etc), possibly by having the Chinese state encourage trade and be more involved in building infrastructure along the Silk Road. This would encourage merchant-diasporas from further west to settle within China's periphery, and slowly become more Sinicised over time while retaining certain aspects of their original culture. For example, during the Tang era-- Parthians, Sogdians, or Persians (either Zoroastrians or Manichaeans fleeing persecution) might settle in the Tarim Basin; or early Muslims might form societies of merchant-missionaries. Both of these things happened historically, but more investment in these communities and more infrastructure built for them would encourage them to happen more.

The Mongols also moved people around a lot, and had a policy of promoting minorities in power. For example, in Persia, Christian and Chinese bureaucrats were favoured (at least until the Ilkhanate adopted Islam), while in Yuan China, Muslims were often promoted instead. A longer-lasting Mongol Empire would not only mean more Mongol influence over China, but also a greater presence of Muslim foreigners-- Persians, Turks, sometimes Arabs or Indians, etc.