Language, Education and Uyghur Identity in Urban Xinjiang

Joanne Smith Finley, Xiaowei Zang, Joanne Smith Finley, Xiaowei Zang

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138847729
• eBook ISBN: 9781317537359
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

As the regional lingua franca, the Uyghur language long underpinned Uyghur national identity in Xinjiang. However, since the 'bilingual education' policy was introduced in 2002, Chinese has been rapidly institutionalised as the sole medium of instruction in the region's institutes of education. As a result, studies of the bilingual and indeed multi-lingual Uyghur urban youth have emerged as a major new research trend.

This book explores the relationship between language, education and identity among the urban Uyghurs of contemporary Xinjiang. It considers ways in which Uyghur urban youth identities began to evolve in response to the state imposition of 'bilingual education'. Starting by defining the notion of ethnic identity, the book explores the processes involved in the formation and development of personal and group identities, considers why ethnic boundaries are constructed between groups, and questions how ethnic identity is expressed in social, cultural and religious practice. Against this background, contributors adopt a special focus on the relationship between language use, education and ethnic identity development.

As a study of ethnicity in China this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Chinese culture and society, Asian ethnicity, cultural anthropology, sociolinguistics and Asian education.

1 Language education and Uyghur identity

An introduction essay

Joanne Smith Finley and Xiaowei Zang

This book explores the relationship between language, education and identity among the urban Uyghurs of contemporary Xinjiang. We start by defining the notion of ethnic identity: what are the processes involved in the formation and development of personal and group identities? In what circumstances do ethnic identities (rather than other available identities) become salient? How and why are ethnic boundaries constructed between groups? When might ethnic identity markers be employed in the pursuit of interests? How is ethnic identity expressed in social, cultural and religious practice? And what is the relationship among language use, education (including language teaching and learning), and ethnic identity formation and expression? To address these questions, we review some key arguments in the field of ethnicity theory, and then consider research findings around identity development. Next, we provide a basic outline of Uyghur ethnohistory, and discuss self-representations among the Uyghurs of contemporary urban Xinjiang in the context of current language and education policies.

Ethnic identity

Primordialism, a concept put forward by early anthropologists, refers to the tendency of human beings to attribute power to certain shared 'givens', such as perceived (or actual) origins, language, territory or cultural characteristics (Shils 1957). Ethnicity is not of itself primordial; rather, humans perceive it as such because it is embedded in their common experience of the world (Geertz 1973). The concept has been criticised as 'essentialist' insofar as it posits that ethnic identity is fixed, 'natural' and unchanging (Green 2006; Bayar 2009). Primordialism is also a subjectivist position in defining an ethnic group to be a 'self-perceived group of people who hold in common a set of traditions not shared by the others with whom they are in contact' (De Vos 1975, 9). Group members select ethnic identity markers with which to structure their group from within (Eriksen 1993, 37), and thereby define how the group differentiates itself from others (De Vos 1975, 16). In this process of 'self-ascription', the features taken into account are not the sum total of 'objective' cultural differences relative to other groups, but only those which the actors themselves regard as significant (Barth 1969, 14, our emphasis). 'Criteria for cultural difference' may include – but are not limited to – racial uniqueness (a sense of genetically inherited differences), place of origin (territory), economic independence, religious beliefs and practices, aesthetic cultural forms (food, dress, music, dance), and language (De Vos 1975, 9). When ethnic identity is treated as 'primordial' by a group, that group's perception of irreconcilable cultural differences can make cultural assimilation difficult (Spencer 2006, 77), or provoke fear, conflict and violence between groups (Geertz 1973).

Advocates of the instrumentalist (also situationalist/circumstantialist or objectivist) school, frequently political scientists, hold that ethnic groups – and indeed nations – are the artificial constructs of modern political and cultural elites (Green 2006). These scholars emphasise the interest-oriented dimensions of ethnicity, such as a group's desire for political power or their articulation of demands for socio-economic equality (Keyes 1981). They hold that ethnicity becomes important 'only insofar as it serves to orient people in the pursuit of their interests vis-à-vis other people who are seen as holding contrastive ethnic identities' (Despres 1975, 199). Without the incentive of material advantage, some have argued, psychological boundary maintenance between ethnic groups would simply disappear (Despres 1975, 199). Others take the more nuanced view that in order to be viable ethnicity must involve both instrumentalist and primordialist elements, namely, it must simultaneously serve political ends and satisfy psychological needs for belongingness and meaning (Cohen 1974). Within this complex understanding of ethnic identity as an intermeshing of common origins and shared political or socio-economic interests vis-à-vis the 'others', the notion of 'homeland' may assume a prominent position:

The 'historic' land [. . .] where terrain and people have exerted mutual, and beneficial, influence over several generations. The homeland becomes a repository of historic memories and associations [. . .] The land's resources also become exclusive to the people; they are not for 'alien' use and exploitation.

(Anthony D. Smith 1991, 9)

While re-introducing primordialism into the equation, these scholars departed from the earlier notion of culture as fixed, eternal and insulated from outside influence. Fredrik Barth famously argued that all ethnic groups 'must include cultures in the past which would clearly be excluded in the present because of differences in form' (1969, 12). He also proposed that ethnicity is not isolated, but relative, writing extensively on the role of psychological boundary maintenance: 'Categorical ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of mobility, contact and information, but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation [. . .].' (Barth 1969, 9. cf. Eriksen 1993, 10). In other words, ethnicity can only develop if an ethnic group is in regular contact with another group or groups from whom it considers itself substantially different. Drawing on Sartrean theory to expand this position, Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1993) argued that both 'we-hood' and 'us-hood' are essential for an ethnic category to come into existence: not only must group members have historical and cultural experiences in common, they must also share a marked sense of feeling different from the 'others'. Ethnicity thus involves both commonalities (complementarisation) and differences (dichotomisation) between categories of people, and 'group identities must always be defined in relation to that which they are not' (Eriksen 1993, 35, 10). It is for this reason that the relevance of ethnic identity has sharply increased in the context of human migrations and globalising flows. Most scholars today agree that ethnic groups are fluid and endogenous to a set of social, economic and political processes (Bayar 2009). Individuals and groups may adopt a variety of identities in different contexts and at different times. Identities are by nature transient; they can lie dormant for a time, then be re-created in modified or modernised form in reaction to certain stimuli. This is how, for instance, group consciousness of a shared heritage of values led young Mongols to create an ancient Mongolian identity anew in the form of modern pop songs about Chingis Khan (Gross 1992, 15).

Given the consensus that ethnic identity is contingent on the society around us, it follows that identity formation involves an interplay between the psychological and the social. Albert Epstein, while contending that identity is 'fed by taproots from the unconscious', notes that it is cognitive in another of its aspects (1978, 101). Eriksen emphasises the interdependence of the inner and social organisation, describing identity formation as a process 'located in the core of the individual and yet also in the core of his communal culture' (cited in Epstein 1978, 7). The identities we assume as adults consist of 'identity fragments' (Eriksen 1993, 147), understood as unconscious identifications made during childhood, combined with pieces of identity we consciously gather from the social world, based on positive and negative experiences. In this way, ethnic identity is constructed and modified as young people become aware of their ethnicity within the larger socio-cultural setting (Phinney 2003, 63).

Ethnic identity formation, like other forms of identity construction, becomes especially salient during adolescence. During this fragile transition period, ethnic discrimination in society (for example, a language policy that disadvantages a particular group) can lead members of socially devalued groups to internalise negatively perceived traits, resulting in a decreased will to achieve, self-degradation, or a sense of inferiority. According to scholarship on three generations of ethnic change in the US, minority individuals from the younger generations became increasingly embedded in the 'American' way of life, and gradually became detached from the neighbourhoods of their parents and grandparents. Ethnic characteristics (e.g. cultural expressions of identity, religious affiliations, language use) became less stable over time, and, with each successive generation, rates of intermarriage rose. On the other hand, these studies show that ethnic prejudice in society in some cases fuelled group pride, leading to the ethnic incorporation of the devalued group. Thus, some groups worked to reinforce their ethnic identity, and resisted ethnic assimilation in all its forms, including exogamy (Horowitz 2013). It was common for later generations to develop novel and different ways of understanding and connecting to their ethnicity, a phenomenon some called 'symbolic ethnicity' (Gans 1996).

Ethnic identity development

We can gain further important insights into ethnic identity by looking at studies of identity development. Theories in this area are situated at the intersection of developmental and social psychology. Developmental psychologists built on Erikson's seminal work Identity: Youth and Crisis (1968), which explains how the 'identity crisis of adolescence' is resolved by reconciling identities imposed by family and society with the personal need for an identity that brings feelings of satisfaction and competence. Meanwhile, social psychologists centred on the sense of group belonging, and the negotiation of social identity in the context of the value placed on group membership by society (summarised in French, Seidman, Allen and Aber 2006). Findings showed that individuals belonging to highly valued groups in society need not modify their social identity, while those belonging to devalued groups usually resort to one of three strategies:

1. individual mobility if possible, the individual chooses to physically leave the group and change group membership; where not possible owing to gender, race or ethnicity, the individual chooses to psychologically leave the group by dis-identifying with it;
2. social creativity the group as a whole chooses to redefine the meaning of their group membership by comparing themselves with the out-group on a dimension on which they are superior, or by changing the values assigned to the attributes of the group from negative to positive; and
3. social competition the group as a whole fights the current system to change the hierarchy of group membership in society.

(Tajfel and Turner 1986)

It was further suggested that people who are high in collective self-esteem are more likely to seek to actively redefine ethnic group membership (strategy b) or to restore a threatened social identity (strategy c), while people low in collective self-esteem tend to opt for individual mobility (strategy a) (Crocker and Luhtanen 1990).

Studies show that older adolescents are more likely to be at higher stages of identity development than younger adolescents, suggesting that individuals progress linearly as they age, although it is also possible for individuals to regress to lower stages over time. French, Seidman, Allen and Aber (2000; 2006) conducted two studies to measure factors influencing changes in ethnic identity during early and middle adolescence. Using subscales of 'group-esteem' (how one feels about ethnic group membership) and 'identity exploration' (the extent to which an individual searches for meaning in ethnic group membership) in the second study (2006), they recruited 420 students in the grade prior to the transition to either junior high or senior high school. Their average age at the time of the pre-transition year assessment (Time 1) was 11.28 years for the early adolescents and 14.01 years for the middle adolescents. At Time 1, both the early and the middle adolescents attended schools which were predominantly homogeneous in ethnic terms. At Time 2 (the transition year), the early adolescents transitioned into similarly homogeneous junior high schools, but the middle adolescents generally transitioned into ethnically diverse senior high schools.

The results of this study are compelling: they indicate a significant increase over time in both group esteem and identity exploration, with higher increases occurring among the two minority groups (African American and Latino American) than among the majority group (European American). They also confirm a rise in identity exploration across the normative transition to ethnically mixed senior high schools. The authors explain this by noting that early adolescents live in racial and ethnic enclaves and thus may not interpret ethnicity as worthy of exploration. However, once adolescents leave the safety of the neighbourhood and are faced with persons who look and act differently, ethnicity becomes salient, and the process of exploration begins. At this point, negative 'encounters' with members of other ethnic groups may push individuals towards exploring the meaning of ethnic group membership. Despite this lack of exploration, however, early adolescents had already begun to develop positive group esteem. The authors suggest that this results from the positive social influence of parents, peers and popular media. When it came to the middle adolescents, the African American cohort reported low group esteem at Time 1. They appeared to hold a negative view of their group membership, and to be psychologically distancing themselves from their group. However, over the next two years, group esteem increased dramatically among this cohort, indicating a rejection of the standards by which their group is judged by the wider society. These findings, which indicate ethnic identity development towards higher levels with age, provide an important backdrop to the questions explored in this v...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• 1 Language, education and Uyghur identity: an introductory essay
• 2 Major determinants of Uyghur ethnic consciousness in Ürümchi
• 3 Between minkaohan and minkaomin: discourses on 'assimilation' amongst bilingual urban Uyghurs
• 4 The construction of Uyghur urban youth identity through language use
• 5 Second/third language learning and Uyghur identity: language in education for Uyghurs in urban Xinjiang
• 6 Representations of Uyghurs in Chinese history textbooks
• 7 Young Uyghurs' perceptions of Han Chinese: from Xinjiang to inland, from state to individual
• 8 Escaping 'inseparability': how Uyghur graduates of the 'Xinjiang Class' contest membership in the Zhonghua minzu
• 9 Education, religion and identity among Uyghur hostesses in Ürümchi
• 10 Conclusion: the importance of being Uyghur
• Index