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- Convenor:
-
Eric Schluessel
(The George Washington University)
Send message to Convenor
- Format:
- Panel
- Theme:
- History
- Location:
- William Pitt Union (WPU): room 539
- Sessions:
- Friday 20 October, -
Time zone: America/New_York
Abstract:
New scholarship on East Turkestan/Xinjiang has increasingly decentered questions about ethnonational identity in favor of class analysis while also challenging the conception of Xinjiang as a coherent region by demonstrating its heterogeneous connections to other spaces. Our panel furthers that project through a series of multilingual, archive-driven, entangled histories-from-below from the late Qing (1636–1912). Where previous scholarship has demonstrated the premodern origins of ethnonational boundaries in networks of religious practice, the panel illuminates alternative spatialities generated through the movement and mobilization of people, goods, and ideas. Three of the papers emphasize economic change as a primary motivator for the reconfiguration of space and focus on laborers and merchants, both within and beyond the vast space of Xinjiang, while a fourth demonstrates the role of cultural identity in shaping politics over distances. We find that network-oriented analyses lead to interesting new questions about loyalty, identity, and economy.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 20 October, 2023, -Paper abstract:
After the Qing reconquest of Xinjiang in 1877, China-based, and particularly Tianjin-based, merchants increasing dominated the region’s agrarian economy. They did so by using close partnerships with Qing officials and access to long-distance credit markets to capture agricultural surplus through debt while also profiting from the overexploitation of farmland through zealous “land reclamation” projects. This paper explores how merchant dominance sparked off another wave of mobility as dispossessed and displaced farmers became migrant laborers seeking better wages in other parts of Xinjiang. It uses Turkic-, Chinese-, and foreign-language accounts to demonstrate how ecological degradation, settlement, and migration fed into to new patterns of settlement around the region and a shift in the production of foodstuffs, leading to a reconfiguration of Xinjiang’s economic and demographic centers.
Paper abstract:
This paper examines how forced labor mobilization in late Qing East Turkestan (1877-1911) shaped the relationship between Xiang Army colonial governance and Musulman (Turkic-speaking Muslim) communities across the region. Extensive materials from the Turpan Prefectural archive reveal that the conscription of Musulmans into various labor programs was necessary for the maintenance of Qing civil and military power in the Northwest. Throughout the late Qing period, local Xiang Army officials forged alliances with local Muslim elites to forcibly dispatch poor Musulmans to gather firewood and fodder, transport materials across long distances, and engage in dangerous mining work to provide the Xinjiang government with essential raw materials. These institutions turned many poor Musulmans into government wage laborers and facilitated the involuntary transfer of Musulman workers across East Turkestan. The scale of these programs was immense and constituted one of the primary ways through which Musulmans constructed their relationship with the new colonial government.
Paper abstract:
This study examines the Muslim uprisings in late imperial China, particularly during the Tongzhi period (1861–1875), by analyzing the interactions between Chinese-speaking Muslim leaders from “within the Pass” (kou li) and beyond (kou wai) and correspondence between uprising powers in Ghulja and Urumchi. Using primary sources such as letters from Chinese-speaking Muslim leaders, official records from the Qing regime, and indigenous Turkic accounts of the uprisings, the paper argues that the Khafiyya Sufi group, led by Tuo Delin, played a crucial role in establishing a central hub in the region of Urumchi and Manas for the military struggle of Chinese-speaking Muslims to gain political authority against the Qing regime and Turkic militants in Xinjiang. This study sheds light on the extent to which Muslim uprisings in late imperial China were united, contributing to the fields of Chinese and Islamic studies and emphasizing the significance of language and cultural identity in shaping social and political movements.
Paper abstract:
Previous scholarship has shown that merchants from Shaanxi and Gansu provinces established a significant presence in Xinjiang following Qianlong’s conquest of the region. By examining murder cases, scholars have unveiled how the poor made a living in this new territory, while studying jade enabled scholars to see how wealthy merchants connected the region to the rest of the empire. This study aims to show how these merchants formed their own networks and how they provided quintessential assistance to enhance Qing rule in Xinjiang. Evidence shows that Hui merchants were able to form close ties with the local begs and participated in the transportation of Muslim cloth from Altishahr to Ili and Tarbaghatai for sale. Han merchants, by accomplishing tasks outsourced by Qing officials, not only enhanced Qing rule in Xinjiang, but also made fortunes themselves. This study uses stele inscriptions in temples and Manchu memorials to reveal the networks of these merchants and their role Qing state-building.