The art of symbolic resistance : : Uyghur identities and Uyghur-Han relations in contemporary Xinjiang / / by Joanne Smith Finley.

• Superior document: Brill's inner Asian library, Volume 30
• Author: Smith Finley, Joanne.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2013.
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's Inner Asian library ; v. 30.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (484 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 9004256784
• ISSN: 1566-7162
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Joanne Smith Finley.

Against the background of the Ürümchi riots (July 2009), this book provides a longitudinal study of contemporary Uyghur identities and Uyghur-Han relations. Previous studies considered China’s Uyghurs from the perspective of the majority Han (state or people). Conversely, The Art of Symbolic Resistance considers Uyghur identities from a local perspective, based on interviews conducted with group members over nearly twenty years. Smith Finley rejects assertions that the Uyghur ethnic group is a ‘creation of the Chinese state’, suggesting that contemporary Uyghur identities involve a complex interplay between long-standing intra-group socio-cultural commonalities and a more recently evolved sense of common enmity towards the Han. This book advances the discipline in three senses: from a focus on sporadic violent opposition to one on everyday symbolic resistance; from state to ‘local’ representations; and from a conceptualisation of Uyghurs as ‘victim’ to one of ‘creative agent’.