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Abstract
The Internet has potential as a tool for propagation of minority cultures and identities. As China is a multi-ethnic, multilingual society, people of varying cultural backgrounds and across the Chinese diaspora may be found participating in Chinese language sites. However, little attention has been paid to the separate online activity among any of China’s 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups, such as the Uyghurs, especially in their native languages. In this paper, we consider in what ways digital media such as interactive online community forums (UY: munbar) may be used by one ethnic group, Uyghurs, as a means of mobilizing their community to preserve their culture and support their community. As the majority ethnic group within a region of China noted as among China’s most politically sensitive, Uyghur use of computer-mediated communication provides a rich source of study.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable contribution of the research assistants; however, they requested that their names not be disclosed nor included as co-authors due to political sensitivities. The authors are also grateful for the funding from Drexel University’s Social Science Research Fund, which made this study possible.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. G. Yang, The Power of the Internet, 24–43.
2. Some exceptions include, Brinkerhoff, “Digital Diasporas,” 77–95; Clothey et al., “A Voice for the Voiceless,” 1–17; Harris and Isa, “Invitation to a Mourning Ceremony,” 27–49; Kanat, “Ethnic Media,” 1–5; Kehoe, “I Am Tibetan,” 314–33; NurMuhammed et al., “Uyghur Transnational Identity,” 1–19; Vergani and Zuev, “Analysis of YouTube Videos,” 205–29; and Zhang, “Displaying Culture,” 175–90.
3. e.g., Bernal, Nation as Network, Chapter1; Danet and Herring, The Multilingual Internet, 3–40; Sheyholislami, “Linguistic Minorities on the Internet,” 235–50; and F. Yang, “Rethinking China’s Internet Censorship,” 1–8.
4. Bovingdon, The Uyghurs, 159–66.
5. Appadurai, Modernity at Large, 1–35; Bernal, Nation as Network, Chapter 1; Diamandaki, “Virtual Ethnicity,” 1–14; Karim, Media of Diaspora, 1–30; Mitra, “Marginal Voices in Cyberspace,” 29–48; and Zhang, “Displaying Culture,” 175–90.
6. e.g., Bamman, O’Connor, and Smith, “Censorship and Deletion,” 1–21; Hachigian, “The Internet and Power,” 41–58; Howard, Digital Origins, 157–79; MacKinnon, Consent of the Networked, 31–50; and F. Yang, “Rethinking China’s Internet Censorship,” 1–8.
7. Some exceptions include, e.g., Clothey et al., “A Voice for the Voiceless,” 1–17, or Zhang, “Displaying Culture,” 175–90.
8. Welch and Yang, “A Pearl on the Silk Road?” 67.
9. Bovingdon, The Uyghurs, 3.
10. Bovingdon, The Uyghurs, 1–22.
11. Smith Finley, Symbolic Resistance, 23–54.
12. Buckley, “Violence Erupts Anew,” A9.
13. Simayi, “Ethnic Policy,” 131–60.
14. Liu, Xinjiang Weiwu’er, 1–21; and Tsung, “Trilingual Education,” 161–86.
15. Dwyer, Xinjiang Conflict, 34–40; MacPherson and Becket, “Hidden Curriculum,” 103–22; Strawbridge, Challenges of Bilingual Education, 1–6; Liebold and Chen, Minority Education, 1–24; and Tsung, “Trilingual Education,” 161–86.
16. Dwyer, The Xinjiang Conflict, 34–40; MacPherson and Becket, “Hidden Curriculum,” 103–22; Strawbridge, Challenges of Bilingual Education, 1–6; Simayi, “The Practice of Ethnic Policy,” 148; and Tsung, “Trilingual Education,” 161–86.
17. Clothey, “China’s Policies,” 389–409; and May, Language and Minority Rights, 128–37.
18. Dwyer, The Xinjiang Conflict, 34–40; Postiglione, “Education and Cultural Diversity,” 27–43; and Strawbridge, Challenges of Bilingual Education, 1–6.
19. Grose, “The Xinjiang Class,” 97–109; Zhao and Postiglione, “Representations,” 319–34; and Zhang and Chen, “Multicultural Curriculum,” 400–16.
20. Grose, “(Re)embracing Islam,” 101–18; and Hu, “Cultural Endangerment and Education,” 169–94.
21. Grose, “(Re)embracing Islam,” 101–18; and HRW, Devastating Blows, 58.
22. Levin, “Veils Emerge,” A4; and Martina, “China Bans Beards,” 1.
23. Poh, “Uyghur Terrorism,” 1; HRW, Draft Counterterrorism Law, 1–8; and UAA, “Legitimizing Repression,” 2–5.
24. UAA, “Legitimizing Repression,” 2–5.
25. For more on Chinese Internet censorship, see for example, Bamman, O’Connor, and Smith, “Censorship and Deletion,” 1–21; Gong, “Government Monitoring,” 155–72; Hachigian, “The Internet and Power,” 41–58; King, Pan, and Roberts, “How Censorship in China,” 326–43; MacKinnon, Consent of the Networked, 31–50; F. Yang, “Rethinking China’s Internet Censorship,” 1–8; and G. Yang, The Power of the Internet, 44–63.
26. Gong, “Government Monitoring,” 155–72; MacKinnon, Consent of the Networked, 31–50; and F. Yang, “Rethinking China’s Internet Censorship,” 1–8.
27. Olesen, “Welcome to the Uighur Web,” para. 10.
28. UAA, “Trapped in a Virtual Cage,” 61–83.
29. Bamman, O’Connor, and Smith, “Censorship and Deletion,” 1–21.
30. Olesen, “Welcome to the Uighur Web,” para. 5.
31. Time, “China Jails 32 People,” 1.
32. See note 30 above.
33. Clothey et al., “A Voice for the Voiceless,” 1–17.
34. G. Yang, The Power of the Internet, 44–63.
35. Mitchell and Feagin, “America’s Racial-Ethnic Cultures,” 68.
36. Ibid., 65–86.
37. Johnston and Klandermans, Social Movements and Culture, 3–24.
38. Mansbridge, “The Making of Oppositional Consciousness,” 1–19.
39. Ibid., 5.
40. Castells, The Power of Identity, 54–62; and Johnston and Klandermans, Social Movements and Culture, 3–24.
41. van Laer and van Aelst, “Internet and Social Movement,” 1146–71.
42. Garrett, “Protest in an Information Society,” 202–24.
43. Diamandaki, “Virtual Ethnicity,” 1–14.
44. Clark, “Cyberspace and Ethnic Identities,” 383–98; Bernal, Nation as Network, Chapter 1; and Zhang, “Displaying Culture,” 175–90.
45. Clothey et al., “A Voice for the Voiceless,” 1–17.
46. Bovingdon, The Uyghurs, 80–104.
47. Scott, Domination and the Arts, 163–82.
48. Smith Finley, Symbolic Resistance, 173–91; and MacPherson and Beckett, “The Hidden Curriculum,” 103–22.
49. Scott, Domination and the Arts, 163–82; and Bovingdon, The Uyghurs, 1–22.
50. See note 41 above.
51. Fantasia and Hirsch, “Culture in Rebellion,” 144–62.
52. Mansbridge, “The Making of Oppositional Consciousness,” 1–19.
53. Scott, Domination and the Arts, 1–16; and Bovingdon, The Uyghurs, 1–22.
54. Bernal, Nation as Network, Chapter 1.
55. Bagdax is named after the town where the site originated.
56. Misranim is one of the given names of the site’s founder.
57. Bozqir means forest, mountain, or grassland.
58. Jones et al., “Whose Space is My Space?” 1–19.
59. Bernard and Ryan, Analyzing Qualitative Data, 75–106.
60. Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, Chapter 6; Glaser and Strauss, Discovery of Grounded Theory, Chapter 1; and Strauss and Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research, 268–82.
61. Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, Chapter 6.
62. Creswell, Research Design, 183–214.
63. Mansbridge, “The Making of Oppositional Consciousness,” 1–19.
64. Mitchell and Feagin, “America’s Racial-Ethnic Cultures,” 65–86; and Mansbridge, “The Making of Oppositional Consciousness,” 1–19.
65. Mitchell and Feagin, “America’s Racial-Ethnic Cultures”; and Mansbridge, “The Making of Oppositional Consciousness.”
66. Zhang, “Displaying Culture,” 180.
67. Mansbridge, “The Making of Oppositional Consciousness.”
68. Ibid., 1–19.
69. Harris and Isa, “Invitation to a Mourning Ceremony,” 27–49.
70. Mitchell and Feagin, “America’s Racial-Ethnic Cultures,” 65–86.
71. User names were omitted from the excerpts to protect identities.
72. Mansbridge, “The Making of Oppositional Consciousness,” 1–19.
73. Bovingdon, The Uyghurs, 85.
74. Scott, Domination and the Arts, 1–16.
75. Grose, “(Re)embracing Islam,” 101–18.
76. For a discussion on the more subtle ways that Uyghur netizens express political discontent online, see Clothey et al., “A Voice for the Voiceless,” 1–17.
77. As cited in Brinkerhoff, “Digital Diasporas,” 94.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rebecca A. Clothey
Rebecca A. Clothey is an assistant professor of Education at Drexel University, Philadelphia. Her research interests include issues of ethnicity, equity and access, online and community activism, and education policy. Prior to moving to Philadelphia, Dr. Clothey lived in China for five years where she was based at various higher education institutions throughout the country. She speaks Mandarin and has a working knowledge of Uyghur, a Turkic language spoken in China’s northwest region of Xinjiang where her most recent research has been focused. She was a visiting scholar at Xinjiang Normal University in 2013.
Author’s postal address: School of Education, Drexel University, 3001 Market St., Ste. 148, Philadelphia, PA 19148.
Emmanuel F. Koku
Emmanuel F. Koku is Associate Professor of Sociology at Drexel University, Philadelphia. He holds a B.A. (Hons) in Sociology from the University of Ghana, Legon; an M.A. in Sociology from Queen’s University, Canada; and a Ph.D in Sociology from the University of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Koku’s research interests are in the social networks, sexual health behaviors, new media use, and knowledge/learning networks. His current research examines socio-demographic determinants of HIV risk in Africa, the lived experiences of persons living with HIV in Africa and USA, as well as professional and informal networks of academic researchers and policy-makers. His publications have appeared in a number of peer-reviewed journals including American Behavioral Scientist, The Global South, Sociological Research Online, Journal of Community Health, and Sexual Health.
Author’s postal address: Department of Sociology, Drexel University, 3600 Market Street, Room 725, Philadelphia, PA 19104.