Contemporary Xinjiang Research Articles

The smart camp as classroom: Control, education, and agency in Muslim internment in Northwest China

This article considers how technology and the Chinese models of camp governance affect camp detainee agency in contemporary Xinjiang, China. It shows how the models of camp governance used to control Uyghurs and other Muslim peoples emerge from the history of the Maoist education system in China. It also considers how this education model of governance is met by a new control model of automated surveillance. Drawing on repeated and ongoing interviews with former detainees as well as police documents, this article examines how detainees themselves are ranked in the order of the cell, and the digital, aural, and textual content of camp instruction. Ultimately, the article argues that a camp governance model of coercive education does offer detainees some partial forms of autonomy. Paradoxically, in part because of the contradiction between the two governance models, human agency is not fully lost in the midst of intense forms of detainee trauma.

Fisher-foragers Amidst the Reeds: Loptuq Perception of Waterscapes in the Lower Tarim Area

Toponyms and hydronyms encode important information about human perceptions of the environment in a specific context. This article discusses the Loptuq, a group of Turkic-speakers, who until the 1950s lived as fishers-foragers at the Lower Tarim River, Eastern Turkestan (contemporary Xinjiang, China), and their use of common reed (Phragmites australis) as an example for the close connection between language, culture, social relations, economic activities, and human perceptions about the surrounding environment. Operating in lakes and swamps for their economic activities (fishing, hunting, foraging, and occasional transport), exploring and observing vegetation and animal life, the Loptuq developed and transmitted information through naming their habitat. Today both their habitat and the earlier knowledge have disappeared, but the perceptions and uses of resources can at least partly be reconstructed through foreign explorers’ narratives and field notes.

Особенности сюжетологии в синьцзян-ойратской эпической традиции

Studies of epic plots constitute an urgent issue of present-day folklore poetics. The paper considers plots of the Jangar epic as living narratives in all their structural complexity, relevance of motifs, and eventfulness on the content level. Goals. The study aims to provide an insight how the tradition organizes and presents epic plots, reveal semantic and structural ties, relations between characters, discover some hidden expositions, contaminations, novelties, plot transformations, and modifications. The research objects are Xinjiang Oirat Jangar epic plots dealing with the hero’s matchmaking. Results. The analysis of the mentioned plots in the context of the contemporary Xinjiang Oirat national tradition reveals some typical plot formation features. In the Xinjiang Oirat tradition, the universal Turko-Mongolic epic theme of the hero’s matchmaking is characterized by diversity mirroring various matchmaking forms inherent to the fabulous-and-epic antiquity, as well as consecutive changes in marriage patterns and family relations, vestiges of matriarchy and patriarchal trends, marriage by abduction, cradle marriage, traditional marriage, etc. The study reveals that the Xinjiang Oirat tradition contains all types of plots: archaic plots rich in motifs, traditional and classical ones. The discovered polystadial patterns include ― to a greater or lesser extent ― impacts of archaic and classical types of the epos. It should be noted that some traditional motifs have experienced transformations within classical plots, and their content, event background, functions of characters come close to historical reality. Plots of the late ‘living’ epic Xinjiang Oirat tradition illustrate processes of introducing taletelling novelties and contaminations. The latter can be manifested in episodes determined by contextual interrelations of plots within the tradition and community, as well as in borrowings from the Kalmyk version (‘About Uzyung Aldar Khan’s Marriage’, ‘About How the Glorious Noyon Bogdo Jangar Married Aga Shavdal’, ‘About Khoshun’s Marriage’). The paper traces plots with double contaminations, e.g., the plot ‘about an imaginary bridegroom’ (‘About Khan Siyr’), the plot ‘about the imaginary bride’ (‘About Khongor’s Marriage’), the plot ‘about a prohibition and its violation’ (‘About Uzyung Aldar Khan’s Marriage’). The commonality of epic plots is traced on the contensive level of epic situations and collisions, functions of characters, movement of narratives.

Securitization, insecurity and conflict in contemporary Xinjiang: has PRC counter-terrorism evolved into state terror?

ABSTRACTIn the Introduction to this special issue, I first provide an overview of the programme of 'de-extremification' and mass internment in Xinjiang since early 2017. I then situate this development against the ‘ideological turn’ in Chinese Communist Party policy under President Xi Jinping, highlighting the new emphasis on stability maintenance and ideational governance. Next, I explore experiences of (in)security in Uyghur communities in- and outside of Xinjiang in the era of internment to consider how far PRC counter-terrorism initiatives have now evolved into state terror. In doing so, I apply Ruth Blakeley's (2012) definition of state terror as a deliberate act of violence against civilians, or threat of violence where a climate of fear is already established by earlier acts of violence; as perpetrated by actors on behalf of or in conjunction with the state; as intended to induce extreme fear in target observers who identify with the victim; and as forcing the target audience to consider changing its behaviour. Finally, I discuss the six contributions to the special issue.

Islam by smartphone: reading the Uyghur Islamic revival on WeChat

ABSTRACTThe official Chinese view of the Uyghur Islamic revival is overwhelmingly dominant. Because of the extraordinary measures taken to shield from international view the actual developments in the region and to silence Uyghur voices, we lack a clear sense of what it is to be a Muslim in contemporary Xinjiang. This article explores debates within Uyghur society about faith, politics and identity as they are revealed through the social media platform WeChat. It aims to disrupt the dominant narratives and enable new understandings of the changing patterns of religiosity and violence in the region. It focuses on the use of social media to access affective experiences of religion, projects of self-fashioning, and the new geographies of knowledge and experience formed as Uyghurs turned to the readily available scripts circulating in the wider Islamic world and adapted them to a very local sense of crisis.

The Art of Symbolic Resistance: Uyghur Identities and Uyghur–Han Relations in Contemporary Xinjiang, by Joanne Smith Finley. Leiden: Brill, 2013. xxx + 453 pp. €149.00/US$194.00 (hardcover).

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsThe Art of Symbolic Resistance: Uyghur Identities and Uyghur–Han Relations in Contemporary Xinjiang, by Joanne Smith Finley. Leiden: Brill, 2013. xxx + 453 pp. €149.00/US$194.00 (hardcover).Justin Jon Ben-Adam RudelsonJustin Jon Ben-Adam RudelsonSouthern Methodist University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 73January 2015 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/679184 Views: 281Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 2015 by The Australian National University. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Adrian Zenz ‘End the dominance of the Uyghur ethnic group’: an analysis of Beijing’s population optimization strategy in southern Xinjiang, Central Asian Survey 40, no.33 (Aug 2021): 291–312.https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2021.1946483

The foreign policy of Russia: changing systems, enduring interests

Eastern Turkestan, now known as Xinjiang or the New Territory, makes up a sixth of China's land mass. Absorbed by the Qing in the 1880s and reconquered by Mao in 1949, this Turkic-Muslim region of China's remote northwest borders on formerly Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Mongolia, and Tibet, Will Xinjiang participate in twenty-first century ascendancy, or will nascent Islamic radicalism in Xinjiang expand the orbit of instability in a dangerous part of the world? This comprehensive survey of contemporary Xinjiang is the result of a major collaborative research project begun in 1998. The authors have combined their fieldwork experience, linguistic skills, and disciplinary expertise to assemble the first multifaceted introduction to Xinjiang. The volume surveys the region's geography its history of military and political subjugation to China economic, social, and commercial conditions demography, public health, and ecology and patterns of adaption, resistance, opposition, and evolving identities.

Quality, Development Discourse, and Minority Subjectivity in Contemporary Xinjiang

The government discourse that describes poverty in a minority nationality county in northern Xinjiang follows specific patterns. The term “quality” ( suzhi) is used to attribute the roots of poverty to residents themselves as well as to legitimate official poverty-alleviation and market-development strategies. This official use of suzhi discourse attempts to constitute a particular kind of subjectivity within China’s market economy but obscures local forms of exclusion and adaptation to market reform. Indeed, suzhi discourse often refers to adaptations that, rather than holding back local residents from development, are survival strategies. Thus, local agency can be seen in counter-discourses that attribute poverty not simply to their suzhi but to their lack of wage-paying employment.

Boundaries, Discrimination, and Interethnic Conflict in Xinjiang, China

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region has been afflicted by Uighur political activism and ethnic violence for the past few decades. Interethnic relations between the Uighurs and Han Chinese have been extremely tense. Why is Xinjiang so vulnerable to interethnic violence? Why are intergroup dynamics between the Uighurs and Han Chinese so volatile? This paper examines Uighur–Han Chinese relations in contemporary Xinjiang and probes conditions that facilitate interethnic violence. Utilizing Fredrik Barth’s approach to ethnicity that emphasizes boundaries, this paper examines in detail how the rigid interethnic boundary between the Uighurs and Han Chinese has been constructed and strengthened in Xinjiang. Perceived differences have generated mutual distrust and discrimination between the two groups that make intergroup communication and understanding difficult and therefore very limited. In situations such as that in Xinjiang, where a rigid intergroup boundary is in place and civic engagements across groups are lacking, intergroup conflict is extremely hard to avoid.

Locally modern, globally Uyghur: geography, identity and consumer culture in contemporary Xinjiang

Much scholarship and commentary has raised concerns about the fate of traditional Uyghur culture in the context of development and globalization in the twenty-first century, some even predicting its disappearance through assimilation to mainstream majority Han culture. However, by exploring the modern Uyghur culture of consumption – in foodstuffs, entertainment and real estate – this paper shows an opposite phenomenon: the transformation of the traditional Uyghur culture to a distinct cultural, religious and linguistic popular contemporary Uyghur culture that thrives and expands with the aid of globalization and development.

From Resistance to Adaptation: Uyghur Popular Music and Changing Attitudes among Uyghur Youth

Previous articleNext article No AccessFrom Resistance to Adaptation: Uyghur Popular Music and Changing Attitudes among Uyghur YouthNimrod BaranovitchNimrod Baranovitch Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 58Jul., 2007 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/tcj.58.20066307 Views: 128Total views on this site Citations: 7Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright The China JournalPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Michal Zelcer-Lavid “Green-Colored Uyghur Poet”: Religion, Nostalgia, and Identity in Contemporary Uyghur Poetry, Modern China 48, no.44 (Dec 2021): 846–877.https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004211064987K. H. Tung Redefining the Uyghur Identity While Living Under the Chinese State, (Jul 2021): 117–139.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72606-5_6Nimrod Baranovitch The Impact of Environmental Pollution on Ethnic Unrest in Xinjiang: A Uyghur Perspective, Modern China 45, no.55 (Dec 2018): 504–536.https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700418819090Amy Anderson, Darren Byler “Eating Hanness”: Uyghur Musical Tradition in a Time of Re-education, China Perspectives 2019, no.33 (Sep 2019): 1726.https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.9358Nimrod Baranovitch Ecological Degradation and Endangered Ethnicities: China's Minority Environmental Discourses as Manifested in Popular Songs, The Journal of Asian Studies 75, no.11 (Dec 2015): 181–205.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911815001576Chunmei Du Manufacturing Naxi’s original ecological culture in contemporary China, Asian Ethnicity 16, no.44 (Jul 2015): 549–567.https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2015.1028025Adila Erkin Locally modern, globally Uyghur: geography, identity and consumer culture in contemporary Xinjiang, Central Asian Survey 28, no.44 (Mar 2010): 417–428.https://doi.org/10.1080/02634930903577169

From Holy Man to National Villain: Popular Historical Narratives About Apaq Khoja amongst Uyghurs in Contemporary Xinjiang

AbstractThis paper explores contrasting attitudes of contemporary Uyghurs towards Apaq Khoja, a Naqshbandi Sufi leader who gained political control over much of present-day Xinjiang (Eastern Turkestan) towards the end of the seventeenth century. In seeking to account for these widely diverging approaches, the paper analyses the key role of historical narratives about Sufism in the shaping of contemporary Uyghur ethnic identities.

Consuming Identities: Food and Resistance among the Uyghur in Contemporary Xinjiang

AbstractThis paper focuses on social and cultural aspects of food, given its centrality in identity processes and boundary setting. Such processes often are ambiguous and problematic. In particular, Uyghurs in Xinjiang draw on Muslim dietary prescriptions in order to reinforce boundaries between them and the Han Chinese, while at the same time an ongoing exchange between the two groups is also displayed in the food domain (food items, vocabulary, meal patterns, etc.).Uyghur attitudes to and beliefs about food need to be analysed within the broader context of ethnic relations in contemporary Xinjiang.

Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Xinjiang

AbstractThis paper reflects on historical precedents to some of the issues raised by other papers in this symposium. Particular problems discussed include the population and demographic distribution of Han, Uyghur and other groups in Xinjiang; fiscal subventions from Beijing to Xinjiang; Qing dynasty agricultural reclamation as precursor of the bingtuan; Xinjiang’s environment; and ethnic relations.

Index to Inner Asia Volume 2, 2000

275 Index to Inner Asia Volume 2, 2000 Cesaro, M. Cristina Consuming Identities: Food and Resistance among the Uyghur in Contemporary Xinjiang 225 Dreyer, June Teufel Ethnicity and Economic Development in Xinjiang 137 Dyatlov, V.I. Anti-Immigrant Attitudes in the Socio-Political Life of a Siberian City: The Example of Irkutsk 13 Futaki, Hiroshi A Re-examination of the Establishment of the Mongolian People’s Party, Centring on Dogsom’s Memoir 37 Gladney, Dru C. New Perspectives on the ‘New Region’ of China: Reconsidering Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 119 Humphrey, Caroline Urgunge Onon: An Appreciation 11 Hürelbaatar, A. An Introduction to the History and Religion

Wealth, Power, and Poverty in the Transition to Market Economies: The Process of Socio-Economic Differentiation in Rural China and Northern Vietnam

Previous articleNext article No AccessWealth, Power, and Poverty in the Transition to Market Economies: The Process of Socio-Economic Differentiation in Rural China and Northern VietnamHy Van Luong and Jonathan UngerHy Van Luong Search for more articles by this author and Jonathan Unger Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 40Jul., 1998Special Issue: Transforming Asian Socialism. China and Vietnam Compared Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2667454 Views: 117Total views on this site Citations: 28Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright The China JournalPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Yuanzhi Guo, Yang Zhou, Yansui Liu Targeted poverty alleviation and its practices in rural China: A case study of Fuping county, Hebei Province, Journal of Rural Studies 93 (Jul 2022): 430–440.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.01.007Hue Le Socialism, Cooperatives, and Mangrove Management in Giao Lạc (1954–1985), (Aug 2021): 57–88.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2109-5_3Hue Le Introduction: Mangrove Systems Facing Enclosures, Markets, and Social Inequality, (Aug 2021): 1–24.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2109-5_1Hue Le Social Differentiation Under Đổi Mới Reforms, (Aug 2021): 119–141.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2109-5_5Raymond Aabeyir, Wilson Agyei Agyare Woodland access arrangement for charcoal production and its influence on woodland degradation in Kintampo Municipality, Ghana, Scientific African 10 (Nov 2020): e00572.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00572Minh Chau Lam Neither survival nor accumulation: Marketisation and rural livelihood diversification in northern Vietnam, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 51, no.33 (Nov 2020): 435–456.https://doi.org/10.1017/S002246342000051XFraser Sugden Agrarian Transformations, (Jan 2020): 83–89.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10448-2LAM MINH CHAU , Modern Asian Studies 53, no.0606 ( 2019): 1701.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X17000993Konstantinos Retsikas, Marina Marouda The neglected side of philanthropy, South East Asia Research 25, no.33 (Oct 2018): 251–267.https://doi.org/10.1177/0967828X17709548Nabo Chen Conclusions and Implications, (Jan 2015): 159–174.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45046-8_7Fraser Sugden, Samantha Punch Capitalist Expansion and the Decline of Common Property Ecosystems in China, Vietnam and India, Development and Change 45, no.44 (Jun 2014): 656–684.https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12103Susie Jacobs Agrarian reforms, Current Sociology 61, no.5-65-6 (Sep 2013): 862–885.https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392113486660Samantha Punch, Fraser Sugden Work, education and out-migration among children and youth in upland Asia: changing patterns of labour and ecological knowledge in an era of globalisation, Local Environment 18, no.33 (Mar 2013): 255–270.https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2012.716410Michael L. Zukosky Quality, Development Discourse, and Minority Subjectivity in Contemporary Xinjiang, Modern China 38, no.22 (Mar 2012): 233–264.https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700411410530Sango Mahanty, Trung Dinh Dang, Phung Gianghai Crafting Sustainability: Managing Water Pollution in Viet Nam’s Craft Villages, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2012).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2094814Ben Belton, David C. Little, Le Xuan Sinh The social relations of catfish production in Vietnam, Geoforum 42, no.55 (Sep 2011): 567–577.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.02.008Tran Thi Thu Trang Social differentiation revisited: A study of rural changes and peasant strategies in Vietnam, Asia Pacific Viewpoint 51, no.11 (Apr 2010): 17–35.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8373.2010.01411.xClaire Tugault-Lafleur, Sarah Turner The price of spice: Ethnic minority livelihoods and cardamom commodity chains in upland northern Vietnam, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 30, no.33 (Nov 2009): 388–403.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9493.2009.00376.xJill Robinson, Douglas D. Perkins Social development needs assessment in China: lessons from an international collaborative field school in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, China Journal of Social Work 2, no.11 (Apr 2009): 34–51.https://doi.org/10.1080/17525090802692120VICTOR T. KING, PHUONG AN NGUYEN, NGUYEN HUU MINH Professional Middle Class Youth in Post-Reform Vietnam: Identity, Continuity and Change, Modern Asian Studies 42, no.44 (Jul 2008): 783–813.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X06002551DIMITRIOS KONSTADAKOPULOS Environmental and Resource Degradation Associated with Small-Scale Enterprise Clusters in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam, Geographical Research 46, no.11 (Mar 2008): 51–61.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00491.xJ. D. Rigg Forests, marketization, livelihoods and the poor in the Lao PDR, Land Degradation & Development 17, no.22 (Jan 2006): 123–133.https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.719Jonathan Rigg Land, farming, livelihoods, and poverty: Rethinking the links in the Rural South, World Development 34, no.11 (Jan 2006): 180–202.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.07.015 Tamara Perkins “Entrepreneurial Fiends and Honest Farmers”: Explaining Intravillage Inequality in a Rural Chinese Township Tamara Perkins, Economic Development and Cultural Change 51, no.33 (Jul 2015): 719–751.https://doi.org/10.1086/368059Dwayne Benjamin, Loren Brandt, Paul Glewwe, Guo Li Markets, Human Capital and Inequality: Evidence from Rural China, (Jan 2002): 87–127.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-09971-6_5W. Neil Adger, P. Mick Kelly, Alexandra Winkels, Luong Quang Huy, Catherine Locke Migration, Remittances, Livelihood Trajectories, and Social Resilience, AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 31, no.44 (Jan 2002): 358.https://doi.org/10.1639/0044-7447(2002)031[0358:MRLTAS]2.0.CO;2W.Neil Adger Evolution of economy and environment: an application to land use in lowland Vietnam, Ecological Economics 31, no.33 (Dec 1999): 365–379.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(99)00056-7Dwayne Benjamin, Loren Brandt Markets and Inequality in Rural China: Parallels with the Past, American Economic Review 89, no.22 (May 1999): 292–295.https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.89.2.292