Ordering the frontiers: purification projects as a territorializing strategy in southwestern China

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper offers a case study in frontier colonization, and the subsequent transformation of that colonization into heritage, in order to explore the peripheral processes and projects of state making in China. The paper approaches China’s frontiers as exceptional spaces that compel the state to perform projects of purification. Such projects aim to order frontier space through bordering and “civilizing” practices, yet tend to also have disordering effects. The paper argues that state territorialization of frontier space is achieved through ongoing efforts to order space through such purifying projects which, in turn, generate new disordered outcomes. This argument is developed through an analysis of historiography and heritage-making of “tunpu” (屯堡) culture in central Guizhou. The historiography of tunpu culture provides insight into the ways genealogical records, state minzu ethnic classifications, and contemporary efforts at heritage promotion can all be understood as purifying projects of bordering that in fact introduce outcomes which require more borders. Tunpu, in other words, provides a lens through which to appreciate the central role of the frontier bordering in Chinese statecraft.