Negotiating Identities in Cross-Cultural Contexts: A Case Study of Xinjiangban Students in China

ABSTRACT

Since its implementation in 2000, the inland Xinjiang senior secondary school class policy (Xinjiangban policy) has promoted and funded middle-school students, mostly ethnic minorities from Xinjiang, to attend boarding schools in predominantly Han-populated cities throughout eastern China. The purpose of this policy is to improve ethnic minority students’ political, economic, and cultural status, enhance ethnic unity, and promote Chinese nationalism. Existing literature on this policy has commonly focused on students’ experiences in school contexts, interpreting ethnic minority students’ identity from a dualist either/or perspective. Less is known about how this policy has influenced and impacted students’ self-perceptions in their everyday practices. This article draws on the work of Sedikides and Brewer, which defines identity at three different levels – individual, relational, and collective – to provide a multi-layered understanding of identity formation and change in Xinjiangban students. The findings show that these students experience feelings of uncertainty and alienation in their educational journey, and that their identity shifts according to contexts and expectations that derive from multiple sources including self, others, and community.

摘要

自 2000 年来, 内地新疆高中班政策(8简称新疆班政策)鼓励和资助大批来自新疆的少数民族中学生, 在中国中、东部城市就读。该政策意在提高少数民族学生的政治、经济、文化地位, 增进民族团结和弘扬中华民族主义。已有研究主要关注这些学生在学校环境中的学习体验, 并以一种非此即彼的二元论视角看待少数民族学生的身份认同。而关于这项政策如何影响学生在日常实践中的自我认知, 人们知之甚少。本文借鉴 Sedikides 和 Brewer 的身份认同理论, 将身份认同看作三个不同层次的自我认知, 即个体身份认同、关系身份认同和集体身份认同。并以此理论为基础, 加深对新疆班学生身份认同建构和变化的丰富内涵的理解。研究发现, 新疆班学生在受教育过程中会经历心理上的不确定性和疏离感, 他们的身份认同受环境影响不断变化, 且受到来自自我、他人和社群期望的影响。

KEYWORDS:

• China
• Xinjiang
• minority identity
• individual self
• relational self
• collective self
• Xinjiangban
• ethnic minority students

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants in this research project, and the anonymous reviewers and editor of this journal for their valuable comments and suggestions at different stages in the writing of this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the China Scholarship Council under Grant No. 201608330242 and Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship under Grant No. 2016309.