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Abstract
Focusing on representations of the Muslim dynasty that exercised power locally under the Qing dynasty until 1930 in the oasis of Qumul in eastern Xinjiang, this article challenges the binary notions of ‘official’ versus ‘unofficial’ discourse by looking at the production of historical knowledge on the ground. Versions of local histories are communicated both in censored publications and in informally transmitted oral narratives, which are not independent realms but in constant dialogue with each other. Produced at the interface of the oral and the written, these representations are laden with contradictions and ambiguities, portraying the Muslim dynasty sometimes as feudal exploiters, at other times as models of good governance. It will be shown how historical knowledge is produced at the junctures of the oral and the written, and of official and unofficial discourses.
Notes
For examples from neighbouring Central Asia, see Winner Citation(1958) and Prior Citation(2000).
See the famous case of Turghun Almas (Millward Citation2007, p. 344) and Ablet Kamalov's article (2012), this volume.
For treating oral history as part of history production, see Cohen Citation(1994) and Portelli Citation(1991).
Fieldwork was carried out together with Chris Hann for a total of seven months in 2006–7 and 2009.
For a good historical summary of the early history of Xinjiang, see Millward (Citation2007, especially pp. 42–50).
Depending on their respective evaluations of the political situation in Xinjiang in the Republican era, some authors emphasize the firm rule of successive Chinese governors, while others stress their excesses and brutality, branding them ‘warlords’. For an elaboration on this, see Millward (Citation2007, p. 180).
In spite of this statement, the book contains no evidence of empirical work.
Some speak of 12 generations. This is one of the many small details in which local historical narratives disagree with each other. An elaboration of such details will follow in another publication.
This is fully supported by Chinese sources that deal with the history of the wang in Qumul before the twentieth century; see Imbault-Huart Citation(1892).
For an elaboration of the significance of these buildings in local heritage and development discourse; see Bellér-Hann, Citationforthcoming.
Only rarely did a respondent say that one needs to distinguish between different wangs in the course of their centuries-old history.
We have also conducted interviews with the descendants of the wang, whose parents were executed publicly in the early 1950s. They viewed the rule of their ancestors in a more balanced light than most others.
His brother had to find a bride in a mountain village.
Similar articles concerning local culture and history get published in literary journals such as Qumul ädäbiyati, where references are duly acknowledged.
A detailed analysis of these materials will follow in a later publication.
At the time of fieldwork no association or club for historians existed in Qumul, which explains the informal nature of exchange among local scholars. This situation is of course the result of the severe limitations on freedom of speech in this part of China.
This may have many causes, such as fear of political retribution or doubt in the reliability of the source.
A case in point is the risalä, codes of conduct composed for the practitioners of various crafts. These were popular even among largely illiterate farmers who, regardless of whether they could fluently read these texts or not, valued them highly and were aware of their contents. For the popularity of this genre in the Qumul region, see Imin (Citation2007, pp. 36–42). For more information about the genre popular in many parts of Central Asia, see Dağyeli (2010).