People, Place, Race, and Nation in Xinjiang, China: Territories of Identity

361 Pages·2022·8.773 MB·English

by  David O’Brien, Melissa Shani Brown

People, Place, Race,
and Nation in
Xinjiang, China
Territories of Identity
David O’Brien · Melissa Shani Brown
People, Place, Race, and Nation in Xinjiang, China
·
David O’Brien Melissa Shani Brown
People, Place, Race,
and Nation
in Xinjiang, China
Territories of Identity
David O’Brien Melissa Shani Brown
Ruhr University Bochum Ruhr University Bochum
Bochum, Germany Bochum, Germany
ISBN 978-981-19-3775-0 ISBN 978-981-19-3776-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3776-7
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Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to the people, both Han and Uyghur, who showed
us such kindness, warmth, generosity, and often great bravery, and who
in many cases have now disappeared from our lives.
And to our friend Martin.
v
Notes on Names and Terminology
There are always challenges inherent in using one language to refer to
another. In this book, we have to consider Mandarin terms and names, as
well as Uyghur ones.
The ethnonym ‘Uyghur’ has multiple spellings in English (e.g. also
‘Uighur’ or ‘Uygur’). We replicate spelling in direct quotations as is,
but use ‘Uyghur’ as consistently as possible in our own writing. Simi-
larly, we have favoured Ürümchi as a more accurate Anglicisation, rather
than the Pinyin ‘Urumqi’. When quoting texts, we leave spelling, termi-
nology, non-standard grammar, or the use of Chinese characters, as in
the original. Occasionally, when needed for clarity, we insert minor edits
in brackets.
All of our interviewees have been given pseudonyms.
In the case of pseudonyms for Han interviewees, common family
names such as Lu or Wang are used. The reason for this is that Chinese
family names are usually less complex than given names, which are more
likely to be individualised. The family names used are the most common
in China. For Uyghur interviewees, however, common personal names
such as Abdullah or Gulmira are used, because family names are usually
the given name of a person’s father. We thus use common given names as
pseudonyms.
Generally, but certainly not consistently, ‘Chinese’ here refers to the
contemporary nation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As within
wider scholarship, it also refers to ‘Chinese’ culture. However, in referring
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viii NOTESONNAMESANDTERMINOLOGY
predominantly to the history of the Han ethnic group this notion of ‘Chi-
nese’ is exclusive of many of the varied cultures, histories, and peoples,
within the territorial borders of what is now ‘China’—yet it also can
include the cultures of the varied ‘Chinese’ diasporas, as well as Taiwan.
‘Chinese’ also can be used to refer to the Mandarin language—one of
many languages spoken within contemporary, let alone historic, ‘China’,
even before we get to dialects, and the difference between ‘Sino-phone’
vs ‘Sino-graphic’ ways of understanding it historically. We try to use
‘Mandarin’ rather than ‘Chinese’ when we are referring to the language.
It is difficult if not impossible to use these terms consistently, particu-
larly when drawing on different scholars’ work, and quoting texts which
use the same terms in different ways—we therefore emphasise the ambi-
guity of these terms in order to draw readers’ attention to the need to
consider what is actually being referred to as ‘Chinese’ contextually, both
within this book, and more widely.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Being and Becoming Chinese: Nation, Ethnicity, Race
in Xinjiang 23
3 Killing the Weeds: The Re-education Camps,
Carcinogenic Culture, and Techniques
of Modernisation 71
4 Everyday Others: Ethnic Divides in Xinjiang 107
5 The Ethnicity of Time: Policing Identity Through
Practices 129
6 Ethnic Difference as a Mortal Threat: The Ürümchi
Riots 157
7 The Past as Envisioned for the Future: Sinicisation
through Historicisation 191
8 Eating the Other: Assimilation and Commodification
of Ethnic Difference 229
9 Becoming-Modern: Sinicisation, Existential Threats,
and Secular Time 277
10 Conclusion: Futures of the New Frontier 313
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x CONTENTS
Coda 315
Bibliography 317
Index 343
List of Figures
Fig. 2.1 Zhonghua Minzu: China’s ethnic groups as a family
of equal peoples. Propaganda poster. Hohhot Provincial
Museum, Inner Mongolia Photograph © David O’Brien
and Melissa Shani Brown 43
Fig. 2.2 Benefits brought to Tibet by Mao/CCP cadres:
education/literacy, medicine, veterinary science, etc.
Painting from late 1950s. Palace of the Nationalities,
Beijing. Photograph © David O’Brien and Melissa Shani
Brown 45
Fig. 2.3 Zhuang ethnic group. Touchscreen, Palace
of the Nationalities, Beijing. Compare with Fig. 2.4.
Photograph © David O’Brien and Melissa Shani Brown 46
Fig. 2.4 Han ethnic group. Touchscreen, Palace
of the Nationalities, Beijing. There are a series
of inter-related binaries here, besides the ‘modern’ vs
‘traditional’: “the Han are represented as techno-scientific
and male, minority groups as traditional-pastoral
and female” (Brown 2021: 7). Photograph © David
O’Brien and Melissa Shani Brown 47
xi