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Paper abstract:

In both international and Chinese academia, the so-called “ethnic issues” and “Xinjiang issues” are somewhat contentious and nebulous paradigms for discourse analysis. Some academics contend that the “Xinjiang issue” is identical to the ethnic and emphatically Uyghur issues, while others might question the existence of discourse analysis that can be titled as Xinjiang or ethnic issues. In this paper, I hope to provide my perspective from my years of fieldwork experiences in Xinjiang by highlighting some smaller issues within the larger discourse. I intend to dissolve the large framework of ethnic or Xinjiang issues, break up these “large issues,” and conduct discussions of some of the fragments.

This study will examine Xinjiang after the 1980s from the standpoint of social transitions and changes (represented as modernization brought about by the market economy), focusing particularly on the reform and opening up, the easing of the household registration policy, the implementation of the modern governance model, the impact of the market economy, social mobility, and the encounter between immigrants and local people. Discuss how the changes and encounters caused large-scale and frequent interactions amongst the population and how these changes and interactions brought about spatial and temporal changes in the lives of ethnic minorities, especially those in rural areas; and how the spatial and temporal changes impacted the minorities’ original lifestyles and values, and brought them unprecedented challenges, discomforts, and distresses.

I believe, as a province of China, Xinjiang does not have “exceptionalism” with regard to its social issues; it typically has the same or comparable issues as other regions of China. The causes of different social issues in Xinjiang are by no means linear, as their course reflects and responds to many historical, social, political, and religious issues and transitions in Xinjiang society. I hope this paper can provide readers with a more detailed and specific perspective on Xinjiang so that readers can better understand the current state of Xinjiang society and the challenges it encounters.