Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the interaction of Kazakh traders across China-Kazakhstan border and the great transformation that trade brought to the life of Chinese Kazakhs.

Paper long abstract:

Since the 1990s, China's Xinjiang region has witnessed an increase in the trade conducted across the border with the Central Asian republics. An important aspect of this trade has been based on shared ethnic heritages. A great number of Kazakh traders from Xinjiang are involved in commercial activities in China's border towns, most notably Khorgos, as well as in Urumqi and in connected inland cities. They work as translators, and provide other commerce-related services. Due to a rapidly changing political and economic context in global markets, however, trade in Urumqi has declined dramatically in recent years. Hence, the Kazakh population who worked for decades in these trading sectors has decreased exponentially. In this paper, I will examine the emergence of the cross-border trading activities of Kazakhs in Urumqi from their periods of prosperity to those of recent decline - a process that my informants refer to as "revolution" (tonkeris). Furthermore, I will analyse the emergence of new forms of economic activity and ambitious of new generations within the Chinese context of rapidly growing E-commerce and the rise of Belt and Road Initiatives. Although there is an increasing body of scholarship focusing on the importance of language and ethnic relatedness for cross-border Sino-Kazakh trade (e.g. Laruelle & Peyrouse 2009, Karrar 2013; Alff 2014, 2016), less has been done concerning the analysis of Kazakh traders within China.

Based on eight months of fieldwork conducted in Urumqi, Yiwu (in Zhejiang Province) and Khorgos (in 2016,2017), and through the analysis of these traders' life trajectories, I ask: what are the transformations that trade has brought to the life of Xinjiang's Kazakhs who were/are involved in trade? How do they perceive these transformations? I argue that although the specific patterns of trade experienced from the 1990s were short lived, they nevertheless brought about great transformations in the lives of Xinjiang Kazakhs - for example, the stimulation of rural-urban migration and the acceleration of the urbanization and modernization of Kazakh society, as well as the incorporation of important number of Kazakhs into China's internal and international businesses. Meanwhile, this transformation contributes to cultural exchange and ongoing learning processes not just through the interaction with traders from Kazakhstan but also with Chinese partners including Han, Hui and Uyghur. Despite the changing socio-economic and political circumstance, ethnic heritage will continue to play a key role in Sino-Kazakhstan trade in the new era.