Table of Contents

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.

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

About the Author

Dr David Tobin is Hallsworth Research Fellow at the University of Manchester.

Reviews

'If you want to understand Xinjiang and Chinese policymaking, read David Tobin's book. Its critique of Beijing's nation-building policy looks to both the local politics of Han-Uyghur relations, and the global politics of identity, security, and postcolonial IR. Tobin's fieldwork with both Han Chinese and Uyghurs in Ürümchi makes this book particularly valuable.' William A. Callahan, London School of Economics and Political Science

'Tobin's timely treatise is of interest to specialists of the region, policy makers, development planners, social theorists, and comparative political scientists. His close analysis of the policies and events leading up to the watershed July 2009 riots, as well as his thoughtful sifting through the subsequent tidal shift in State policy toward the entire region, deftly explains the subsequent radical securitization of the region.' Dru C. Gladney, Pomona College

'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