Paper abstract:

What was Soviet about Central Asian ways of getting married? Oral history interviews with two generations in Dungan communities in Kyrgyzstan focused on how marriages came about, differentiating late Soviet expectations and patterns from post-Soviet trends. We, the interviewers, expected signficant differences regarding individual ability to choose a spouse, and in the size of wedding feasts. What we learned about instead were Soviet-period practices of parent-controlled marriage that seemed almost entirely unaffected by Soviet “Red Wedding” norms, and that respondents strongly associated with Dunganness, as well as the ways that social media and growing wealth modified those practices while reinforcing Dungan community connections.