NATION-BUILDING AND ETHNIC BOUNDARIES IN CHINA’S NORTHWEST A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the Faculty of Humanities 2013 David Tobin SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES /Department of Politics Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... 5 List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... 6 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 7 Declaration and Copyright ........................................................................................................... 8 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... 9 Dedication .................................................................................................................................. 11 The Author ................................................................................................................................. 12 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 13 Who is ‘China’ and who is this ‘we’, which ‘we’ want to secure? .......................................... 15 Power and Resistance in Textual Ethnography ...................................................................... 18 Research Questions:............................................................................................................... 22 Thesis Outline: Nation-Building and Ethnic Boundaries ......................................................... 23 Chapter 1: Securing the Nation in a Multi-Ethnic “Frontier” ...................................................... 27 Section 1: Security and Identity in International Relations Theory ........................................ 28 1.1: De-centring Security Studies ....................................................................................... 28 1.2: Performativity and the Production of Boundaries....................................................... 30 Section 2: Nationalism and Nation-Building ........................................................................... 33 2.1 Nationalisms and Nation-ness ...................................................................................... 34 2.2: Nation-Building in and of ‘China’ ................................................................................. 38 Section 3: Ethnicising Boundaries from Above and Below ..................................................... 49 3.1: Top-Down Approaches: Ethnicity as Ascription ........................................................... 51 3.2: Bottom-Up Approaches: Ethnicity as Self-Identification ............................................. 55 Section 4: Methodological Challenges From Above and Below ............................................. 58 4.1: A Textual approach: Discourse and the Social Production of Reality .......................... 59 4.2: An Ethnographic Approach: Addressing the Question of Discourse’s Address............ 61 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................ 65 Chapter 2: Writing the Nation: Performing a Timeless Self/Other ............................................. 67 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 67 2.1: Unifying Minzu in the Party-State’s History of Xinjiang, China, and the World ........... 70 2.2: Producing Minzu-ness, Producing Han-ness ................................................................ 79 2.3: Overcoming Minzu with Han-ness ............................................................................... 84 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................ 94 2 Chapter 3: East Turkestan and the Production of the Internal/External Boundaries of Chinese- ness ............................................................................................................................................ 97 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 97 3.1: East Turkestan and the Securitisation of Internal/External Boundaries .......................... 99 3.2: “The Three Evils” and the Production of Resistance ..................................................... 108 3.3: The Securitisation of Modernisation: Boundaries within Boundaries within Boundaries ............................................................................................................................................. 119 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 127 Chapter 4: Performing the Securitisation of Uyghur Ethnicity ................................................. 129 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 129 4.1: Producing Meanings of Violence: Securitisation and the Internal/External Security Dilemma ............................................................................................................................... 130 4.2: Producing Meanings of Violence: Nation-Building and the Securitisation of Minzu Boundaries ........................................................................................................................... 138 4.3: The City After “7-5”: (In)Securitisation and the Ethnic Threat ...................................... 150 4.3.1: Syringe Assaults and Everyday (In)Security ............................................................ 152 4.3.2: Han Nationalism and Popular Protest .................................................................... 158 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 163 Chapter 5: Performing Uyghur Inclusion, Objectivising Han-ness ............................................ 166 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 166 5.1: Hierarchical Inclusion/Exclusion and the Struggle for Minzu Tuanjie ............................ 167 5.2: Ethnic Festivals and National Festivals: Marginalising Minzu, Objectivising Han-ness .. 178 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 188 Chapter 6: (Re)Performing the Inclusion/Exclusion of Uyghur-ness, (Re)Performing China .... 191 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 191 6.1: (Re)Performing Han-ness, (Re)Performing Inclusion / Exclusion ................................... 193 6.1.1: Lineage and Self-identification Amongst Han in Ürümchi ...................................... 194 6.1.2: Religion and Food as Boundaries ........................................................................... 200 6.1.3: Making Friends, Making Tuanjie............................................................................. 202 6.2: (Re)Performing Uyghur-ness, (Re)Performing Inclusion / Exclusion ............................. 204 6.2.1: Discourses of Space and Identity Amongst Uyghurs in Ürümchi ............................ 205 6.2.2: Kashgar as the Centre of Uyghur-ness.................................................................... 207 6.2.3: Ana Til: Language and Uyghur Self-identification ................................................... 208 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 213 Chapter 7: (Re)Securitising Ethnicity, (Re)Performing the Nation ............................................ 217 3 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 217 7.1: Securitising Han-ness, (Re)Performing China ................................................................ 218 7.1.1: Securitising and Ethnicising Space Amongst Han in Ürümchi ................................. 219 7.1.2: Han Ethnicisations of Violence in Ürümchi ............................................................. 220 7.1.3: Saving the Nation: Ethnic Nationalism in Ürümchi ................................................. 224 7.2: Counter-Securitising Uyghur-ness, (Re)Performing China ............................................. 227 7.2.1: The Uyghur Masculinisation of Ethnicity ................................................................ 227 7.2.2: Space and Security Amongst Uyghurs in Ürümchi .................................................. 229 7.2.3: Minzu Tuanjie and Security Amongst Uyghurs in Ürümchi..................................... 230 7.2.4: Language as Boundary Between Uyghurs in Ürümchi ............................................ 235 Conclusions .........................................................................................................................