Spirit Breaking: Uyghur Dispossession, Culture Work and Terror
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Spirit Breaking: Uyghur Dispossession, Culture Work and Terror Capitalism in a Chinese Global City Darren T. Byler A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2018 Reading Committee: Sasha Su-Ling Welland, Chair Ann Anagnost Stevan Harrell Danny Hoffman Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Anthropology ProQuest Number:10931877 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ProQuest 10931877 Published by ProQuest LLC ( 2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 ©Copyright 2018 Darren T. Byler University of Washington Abstract Spirit Breaking: Uyghur Dispossession, Culture Work and Terror Capitalism in a Chinese Global City Darren T. Byler Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Sasha Su-Ling Welland, Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies This study argues that Uyghurs, a Turkic-Muslim group in contemporary Northwest China, and the city of Ürümchi have become the object of what the study names “terror capitalism.” This argument is supported by evidence of both the way state-directed economic investment and security infrastructures (pass-book systems, webs of technological surveillance, urban cleansing processes and mass internment camps) have shaped self-representation among Uyghur migrants and Han settlers in the city. It analyzes these human engineering and urban planning projects and the way their effects are contested in new media, film, television, photography and literature. It finds that this form of capitalist production utilizes the discourse of terror to justify state investment in a wide array of policing and social engineering systems that employs millions of state security workers. The project also presents a theoretical model for understanding how Uyghurs use cultural production to both build and refuse the development of this new economic formation and accompanying forms of gendered, ethno-racial violence. It argues that the violence of state-directed capitalist dispossession is shown to break the spirit and vitality of Uyghur sociality while linking Han life paths to this new form of domination and exploitation. Table of Contents List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................4 Note on Language ............................................................................................................................6 Note on Pseudonyms........................................................................................................................7 Introduction: Spirit Breaking ...........................................................................................................9 Part 1: Desiring the City Chapter 1. New Silk Road Artworlds ............................................................................................82 Chapter 2. Dispossession, Aesthetics and Self-Fashioning .........................................................120 Part 2: Living the City Chapter 3. Figuring Out the City .................................................................................................156 Chapter 4. Witnessing Uyghur Migrant Dispossession ...............................................................194 Part 3: Cleansing the City Chapter 5. Relational Autonomy and Uyghur Islamic Piety .......................................................236 Chapter 6. Trajectories of Quality ...............................................................................................278 Epilogue. Life Subtracted ............................................................................................................315 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................339 1 List of Figures Figure 0.1 “Rats Crossing the Street” ..............................................................................................9 Figure 0.2 Men Washing the Feet of Women ...............................................................................15 Figure 0.3 Map of Infrastructure Development .............................................................................21 Figure 0.4 Comparison of Propaganda Images ..............................................................................31 Figure 0.5 Ban on Beards and Burkas ...........................................................................................43 Figure 0.6 Uyghur Child Kisses the Image of Her Father .............................................................56 Figure 0.7 Funding for Terror Capitalism......................................................................................60 Figure 1.1 Housing Prices in Ürümchi ..........................................................................................97 Figure 1.2 “Naan” by Ali K. ........................................................................................................105 Figure 1.3 “Untitled” by Tian Lin................................................................................................111 Figure 1.4 “Bus #1” by Zeng Qunkai ..........................................................................................113 Figure 2.1 Mahmud’s father Sits Next to the TV ........................................................................120 Figure 2.2 Forced TV Watching Mural .......................................................................................125 Figure 2.3 Wear Ethnic Costumes Mural ....................................................................................142 Figure 2.4 Fight the Three Forces Mural .....................................................................................147 Figure 2.5 Restrictions on Audio and Video Mural .....................................................................152 Figure 4.1 Image of Yamalike by Tian Lin .................................................................................194 2 Figure 4.2 Film Still of Tian Lin’s Practice .................................................................................216 Figure 4.3 Image of Great Leaders Faces Turned Sideways by Tian Lin ...................................224 Figure 4.4 Poster for Tian Lin’s Photo Exhibition ......................................................................228 Figure 5.1 The Rubble of Black Shell Mountain by Nicola Zolin...............................................236 Figure 5.2 Emir and Bahar’s home in 2015 by Nicola Zolin.......................................................248 Figure 5.3 Satellite Images of Black Shell Mountain ..................................................................259 Figure 5.4 Piety on Social Media .................................................................................................264 Figure 7.1 Caricatured Elderly Uyghur Men by Dan Xiumei ......................................................315 Figure 7.2 A New “Convenience” Police Station ........................................................................317 Figure 7.3-4 Walls Corral Uyghurs in Black Shell Mountain .....................................................322 Figure 7.5 Empty shelves in the Uyghur language section of the Xinhua Bookstore .................331 3 Acknowledgments Ideas cannot be broken by suppression, writes Ursula K. Le Guin in The Dispossessed, “You can only crush them by ignoring them. By refusing to think, refusing to change.” The people who taught me to think beyond the spirit breaking effects of the Chinese state were my Uyghur and Han friends. This dissertation is dedicated to them and the characters they became in this project: Alim, Zeng Qunkai, Mahmud, Aziz, Ablikim, Batur, Tian Lin, Emir, Hasan and Yusup. These men taught me how to think and how to refuse conditions of dispossession. They also showed me how gendered, ethno-racial violence can affect all aspects of social life. They welcomed me into relationships of friendship and a minor politics of care even when doing so made their everyday lives even more difficult. I am honored that they shared their lives and stories with me. In the Pacific Northwest, I am honored to be surrounded by a community of Uyghur, Kazakh and Han scholars from Ürümchi. This chosen family in Seattle—those whose names I cannot mention in this text—have affected this project and my life in profound ways. My mentors, Sasha Su-Ling Welland, Stevan Harrell, Ann Anagnost, Daniel Hoffman and Yomi Braester have engaged deeply with this text and shown me how to honor the stories I heard. Other scholars in the University of Washington community—Sareeta Amrute, Luke Bergmann, Jean Dennison, Radhika Govindrajan, Jenna Grant, Michael Perez and Chandan Reddy—all taught me to think in new ways in seminars and workshops. My work was given an institutional home on campus through