Abstract: During the period of the Republic of China, some researchers with academic training in western anthropology, ethnology, and sociology realized that the migration of Han Chinese from the interior to periphery regions made the geographical concept of "border" richer in its cultural and political meaning. Various scholars saw the role and mission of these Han Chinese in a different light:Wu Wenzao, Tao Yunkui and others followed Robert Parker's "marginal man" theory to present helpfully the Han migrants as "pivotal men" contributing to the building of frontiers; in contrast, ethnographers, such as Li Anzhai, Liang Zhaotao and Fei Xiaotong, used their field observations to show that the image of "central people" and "key players" did not capture the whole picture of the Han Chinese in border regions. Instead, in their view, the self-interest motive and behavior of the Hans could sometimes be a "problem" for border areas. The two contradictory images expressed by these scholars are both, nevertheless, in direct and indirect conversations with Parker's "marginal man" theory and reflect the difference among the Chinese intellectuals about the ways of social change in border regions. No matter of the differences, both camps represented the concerns and hopes of the Chinese intellectual elites over the development of frontier areas and the reality of the complexity of the matter over the centuries of people integration between center and periphery. For the Han Chinese in border regions, a group with diverse origin and culture, any single image will be undeniably partial.

Key words: Han Chinese in border areas, image construction, hub man, bounded group, borderland