A Nationalist Han Chinese Identity

This memoir of Ma Bo’s sent shock waves throughout China when it was published and was even first banned by the Communist Government. This passionate story paints a clear picture for what the Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was really like. Many Chinese living today can attest to similar if not identical ordeals as expressed in Ma Bo’s story. The toils of being a young Red Guard in inner China were experienced by many if not millions. The horrors and atrocities were wide spread throughout the country, not just in Inner Mongolia. The experiences illustrated in Blood Red Sunset uniquely belong to Ma Bo’s entire generation of mislead Chinese. As expressed in the books dedication the Cultural Revolution

In Jan Wong’s entrancing expose Red China Blues, she details her plight to take part in a system of “harmony and perfection” (12) that was Maoist China. Wong discloses her trials and tribulations over a course of three decades that sees her searching for her roots and her transformation of ideologies that span over two distinctive forms of Communist governments. This tale is so enticing in due part to the events the author encountered that radically changed her very existence and more importantly, her personal quest for self-discovery.

The most alarming similarity between Nazi Germany and Modern China is that they both featured/feature an overtly racist government policy towards its minorities, most notably Jews, in the case of Nazi Germany, and Uighurs, in the case of China. Uighurs are a non-Han (Chinese majority) indigenous population of the Xinjiang Province of China. Since coming under Communist rule in 1949, they have claimed autonomy from the Chinese government and distinction from its people. They are distantly related to the Turks and most practice Islam. In fact, Uighurs constitute half the entire Muslim population in China. They have their own Turkic based language, with the written portion based on Arabic letters. The word “Uighur” means “unity” or “alliance”

The CCBA suppressed voices by blacklisting suspected communist sympathizers, making it very difficult for them to find employment for example. The divisions in the Chinatowns reveal an interesting dynamic in the lives of Asian Americans during the 60s. The Asian American Movement was not a holistic movement of all Americans or immigrants of Asian descent. Clearly the idea of a multiethnic movement did not make its way to certain ethnic areas. The divisions between KMT and PRC supporters in Chinatowns illustrate that nationalist identities can just as divide as it can unite different

Throughout the last month of this class, we have had the privilege to read the book titled, Wild Swans by Jung Chang. To the extent of the required readings of the book, I have analyzed the context and have become aware that this piece of work was about much more than what life was like throughout China and Japan between 1909-1949. This book specifically, was about the lives of Yu-fang and Bao Qin. Both of these characters have been influenced by their culture and surroundings in some way. For the purpose of this essay, I will be discussing why Bao Qin, formally known as Wild Swan, preferred the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to the Kuomintang (KMT) based solely off of her experiences, while also comparing and contrasting her choice to her

Even since China’s rapid development of the 1990’s, to this day there is still a large degree of unrest encompassing all it’s minority groups. One such group is the Uyghur people, of whom reside in China’s northwest region of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, more commonly referred to as the Xinjiang province. This minority group face a definite number of cultural, social, political and economic deficiencies and as a result have been said to of overseen over ten savage attacks in the

France had been holding power in Southeast Asia, Indochina since the early 1900’s Within Indochina there was, as it is known today, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Constructivists take a different view because they don’t see security dilemma like realists frequently experience. Constructivist understand that for China, the survival of the Chinese people is crucial. The people represent all the values China is about: language, practice, faith, and these values are then manifested as Chinese nationalism. Confucianism is another aspect of Chinese identity that influences the government even today. The platform the CCP use to explain its foreign policy is based on establishing harmony and peace in the East Asian region and the world. This platform then gives the party legitimacy to rule, because to the Chinese people it’s the only entity that can maintain peace and order in China. The roots of this concept

The region of Xinjiang was under the rule of the Chinese government in the 18th century. An East Turkestan state was declared in 1949 but their independence was short-lived and became part of the Communist China. Xinjiang is a region is home of the ethnic Muslim minority called Uighurs who chafed under Chinese rule and protested the steady influx of ethnic Chinese into the region. There was tension between he Uighur population and Han Chinese ethnic western China that resulted in violence and terrorism. For many years, many Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang have agitated against China authoritarian government. The Uighurs protest to oppressive official policies, religious restrictions and widespread discrimination. At any rate, there are multitude of reasons for the conflict that exists between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese, such as conflicts over political religion and natural resources (mainly oil), as well as the struggle for regional

On September 23rd 2014, China found the prominent Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti guilty of “separatism” and sentenced him to life in prison. This ruling came as a shock to the international community, for he has been the foremost advocate of peacefully resolving Uyghur ethnic unrest in China. Ilham Tohti is an ethnically Uyghur economist, professor, writer, and public intellectual who has been spearheading the vanguard of cultivating mutual understanding and respect amongst Han and Uyghur Chinese. He has been steadfast on working within the system to finding a solution that will be mutually beneficial for the Communist Party and the Uyghur ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, home to many of China’s ethnic Turkic Muslims. Even in the face of adversity, he has been outspoken and quick to criticize the missteps of the Communist Party’s governance and policies towards Xinjiang province and its Muslim minorities. Due to that, the CCP views him as a threat, rather than a solution, to the extreme affairs of episodic ethnic and political unrest in Xinjiang. With the growing resentment from the Uyghur populous towards government’s policies, the tensions in the Xinjiang region between Muslim Uyghur minorities and Han Chinese have escalated to waves of “terrorist” attacks around China, with the recent stabbing in Kunming, being dubbed as “China’s 9/11”. In response, the CCP has imposed a more oppressive campaign to crackdown on the separatists and stabilize the region. In this plight,

The ebb and flow of political sentiment has left its mark on the structure and raison d’être of the XPCC. By the early 1970s, the organization had visibly suffered from its experience of the Cultural Revolution, the only time the organization has ever been directly overseen by the army. In 1979, however, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and the latent threat posed by the USSR became more active. Chinese leadership, newly recovered from the death of Mao, felt surrounded. Already in a heated hearts-and-minds propaganda competition with the Soviets for Xinjiang’s Muslim minority groups, the importance of Xinjiang to the geopolitics of an isolated PRC suddenly crystalized.

This project analyzes the views of the Uyghur people of XInjiang, China with regards to recent Uyghur terrorist activities. It examines the role of economic and social integration of Uyghur people into the greater China nation. It will focus on the perceived lack of control of the Uyghur people and their marginalization by the Chinese government, This project proposes that terrorist tactics become more present when no other form of expression is available to societies with less economic and social mobility.

The PRC has recurrently emphasized the importance of interethnic integration of the Uyghurs into a Han dominated society. Regardless, the Uyghurs see this as otherwise a way of being oppressed and undermined by the central government. Compared to the Muslims that are living in eastern and central China, the Uyghurs “face more restrictions on their religious expression and way of life” (Poh) such as praying in schools, women being criticized on wearing headscarves, and even studying the Qur’an in Arabic is controlled. Furthermore, since more Han Chinese have been moving into the Xinjiang area, economic contingencies as well as the dominant use of Han Chinese has been “gradually phased out in most educational institutions in Xinjiang” (Poh). While Beijing has incessantly asserted that the developments made to the area has significantly improved the Uyghur’s livelihood, the minority group cannot help but to still resonate the deep-seated bitterness stemmed from “decades’ worth of discrimination, perceived religious and cultural suppression, and economic disparities” (Poh). These increasing ethnic tensions have resulted in significant inter-ethnic violence in Xinjiang such as the 2009 riot in Urumqi where fights against the Uyghurs and the Han Chinese police force broke out all from protesting the equality for Uyghur working institution. Another deliberate event which the police have been criticizing it as a “terrorist” attack is the

After realizing that defeat was certain ‘the Communists hierarchy decided to take Agent Otte Braun’s advice, initiating “a full-scale retreat from Jiangxi with a push for a communist base in Hunan where the Chinese Communist’s Party Second Army was based. The retreat – which was to be called the Long March – started in October 1934”.

The Muslim minority groups thus felt themselves being marginalized and ill-treated because of their ethnicity. In addition, Han cadres often times couldn 't and didn 't want to collaborate with the Uygurs. They didn’t know or didn 't care to learn about the culture and language of the Uygurs, making the Uygurs feel helpless and estranged (15). Resultantly, the ethnic tensions grew strongly and quickly between them and the Han. Hence, another main reason for the upheavals against the Chinese is due to the rising feelings of ethnic identity and deep-rooted prejudice towards the Han.