Securing China's Northwest Frontier
Identity and Insecurity in Xinjiang

David Tobin analyses how Chinese nation-building shapes identity and security dynamics between Han and Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

David Tobin (Author)

9781108726313, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 October 2022

296 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.403 kg

'In one of the first ethnographic works on the post-2009 policy shift towards ethnic 'fusion', Tobin eloquently illustrates how boundaries in Xinjiang have hardened to produce a tripartite 'ethno-hierarchy of insecurities'. Most compelling is his argument that the multi-ethnic, Han-centric Zhonghua minzu is fatally flawed because it entails the competing logics of an imperial civilisation (which excludes Uyghurs as 'barbarians') and a modern nation-state (which seeks to violently transform and include them). Essential reading within and beyond Xinjiang studies.' Jo Smith Finley, Newcastle University

In the first study to incorporate majority Han and minority Uyghur perspectives on ethnic relations in Xinjiang following mass violence during July 2009, David Tobin analyses how official policy shapes identity and security dynamics on China's northwest frontier. He explores how the 2009 violence unfolded and how the party-state responded to ask how official identity narratives and security policies shape practices on the ground. Combining ethnographic methodology with discourse analysis and participant-observation with in-depth interviews, Tobin examines how Han and Uyghurs interpret and reinterpret Chinese nation-building. He concludes that by treating Chinese identity as a security matter, the party-state exacerbates cycles of violence between Han and Uyghurs who increasingly understand each other as threats.

Introduction
1. Securing China on the multi-ethnic frontier
2. Mass education as an identity-security practice
3. 'East Turkestan' in China's identity and security narratives
4. Identity and insecurity after “7–5”
5. Performing inclusion of the Uyghur other
6. Han and Uyghur narratives on ethnic and national identity
7. Han and Uyghur narratives on identity and insecurity
Conclusion: Identity and insecurity in Xinjiang
Appendix 1. Cast of characters
Appendix 2. Lyrics to “one family” – original Mandarin and English translation
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Asian history [HBJF]