Tobin, D. (2021) Genocidal processes : social death in Xinjiang. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45 (16). pp. 93-121. ISSN 0141-9870
Abstract
Genocide is a series of long-term processes emerging from “states of emergency” to convert targeted groups and secure the nation. This paper builds on Critical Genocide Studies literature to historically contextualize China’s “fusion” policy, a narrative of emergency officially explaining extra-legal internment camps and inter-generational separation in Xinjiang. Although China’s policymakers traditionally frame “one-nation-one-state thinking” as Western colonialism, critical approaches to Chinese politics show the party-state frames ethnic identities through colonial binaries of backward/modern and savagery/civilization. How does the party-state’s “historic mission” to overcome colonial “humiliation” promote colonialism? The paper analyses how routine, dehumanizing official narratives of identity and danger enable genocides, conceptualized as planned processes of social death by attrition. It argues that contemporary “fusion” policy interweaves cultural superiority and ethnocentric developmentalism, seeking to resolve China’s “ethnic problem” and decolonize Xinjiang through social death of Turkic Muslims.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
Keywords: | Ethnicity; genocide; China; Xinjiang; Uyghurs; security |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of East Asian Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 24 Nov 2021 07:57 |
Last Modified: | 16 Mar 2022 08:34 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/01419870.2021.2001556 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:180817 |
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