Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Recent reports suggest that over a million, and perhaps close to two million people, mostly Uighur, have disappeared in western China. Many of them sent to internment camps and forcefully committed to re-education training in order to erase their culture, religion, and ethnic identity. Such measures of “sinification,” the authorities believe, are necessary since in their minds, ethnic and religious identity, specifically of Muslims, conflicts with loyalty to the State. This perceived conflict and the policies that are currently enacted in Xinjiang to remedy it, however, are in direct opposition to People Republic of China’s (PRC) constitution and they diverge from past practices. Even before their current plight, Uighur cultural, ethnic, and religious practices were carefully monitored by the authorities who encouraged and financially supported them. Therefore, a careful examination of their artistic production is needed since it can help us question Uighur self-representation, the politics of cultural and religious expression, and who is allowed to participate in such activities. In this study, I examine Uighur art productions (painting, dance, and cultural gatherings) in order to illustrate the power of the State to re-define and control Uighur cultural representation, and suggest that at times, these productions could have been used to justify State policies in support of loyalty to the state.