Inside Xinjiang Space, Place and Power in China's Muslim Far Northwest

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is China’s largest province, shares borders with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and Mongolia, and possesses a variety of natural resources, including oil. The tensions between ethnic Muslim Uyghurs and the growing number of Han Chinese in Xinjiang have recently increased, occasionally breaking out into violence. At the same time as being a potential troublespot for China, the province is of increasing strategic significance as China’s gateway to Central Asia whose natural resources are of increasing importance to China. This book focuses in particular on what life is like in Xinjiang for the diverse population that lives there. It offers important insights into the social, economic and political terrains of Xinjiang, concentrating especially on how current trends in Xinjiang are likely to develop in the future. In doing so it provides a broader understanding of the region and its peoples.

1. Introduction: Inside Xinjiang Michael Clarke and Anna Hayes Part 1: Identity formation and sense of belonging 2. The burden of the past: Uyghur peasants remember collectivisation in southern Xinjiang Ildikó Bellér-Hann 3. ‘If there is harmony in the house there will be order in the nation’: An exploration of the Han Chinese as Political Actors in Xinjiang David O’Brien 4. Space, Place and Ethnic Identity in the Xinjiang Regional Museum Anna Hayes Part 2: Inter-ethnic relations in Xinjiang 5. Whose Xinjiang? Space, Place and Power in the Rock Fusion of Xin Xinjiangren, Dao Lang Joanne Smith Finley 6. From Uncle Kurban to Brother Alim: The Politics of Uyghur Representations in Chinese State Media Yangbin Chen 7. Segregated Diversity: Uyghur Residential Patterns in Xinjiang, China James Leibold and Danielle Xiaodan Deng Part 3: Government policies in the region and beyond 8. Socio-economic disparities and development gap in Xinjiang: the cases of Kashgar and Shihezi Alessandra Cappelletti 9. Health in Xinjiang: Uyghur Adolescents’ Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS Hankiz Ekpar 10. Protested Homecomings: Xinjiang Class Graduates and Reacclimating to life in Xinjiang Timothy Grose 11. Xinjiang from the ‘Outside-in’ and the ‘Inside-out’: Exploring the Imagined Geopolitics of a Contested Region Michael Clarke

Anna Hayes is a Senior Lecturerat the James Cook University, Australia. Michael Clarke is an Associate Professor at The Australian National University (ANU), Australia.