This latest edited volume on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region adds to the impression that the region is experiencing a boom in scholarly attention. It also establishes Australia as an important node in this fast-growing academic network. The volume includes a diverse set of papers from various disciplinary perspectives, with contributions from anthropology, development, health and political science, though it is notable how many of the contributors are based in area studies departments.
The introduction by Anna Hayes and Michael Clarke and the concluding chapter by Clarke seem aimed squarely at informing policy debates by paying greater attention to academic studies of what is going on inside the region. The volume is divided into three loosely delineated sections, on identity formation, inter-ethnic relations and state policies, all with a focus on contemporary lived realities.
Several chapters concern representations of the region and its peoples (primarily the Uyghurs) in state media (Yangbin Chen), museums (Hayes) and in popular culture (Joanne Smith Finley). Other chapters draw on ethnographic research: Ildikó Bellér-Hann provides an elegant study of memories of communization, while Timothy Grose focuses on the uneasy homecomings of young Uyghurs educated in inner China. It is pleasing to find chapters on the experience of Han Chinese in Xinjiang alongside the focus on Uyghurs, such as in David O'Brien's chapter. These cultural and ethnographic approaches are productively juxtaposed with data-driven chapters on demographics, health and development: James Leibold and Danielle Xiaodan Deng focus on residential segregation, Alessandra Cappelletti provides a powerful indictment of the development gap and the role played by Uyghur elites, while Hankiz Ekpar contributes informed insights into the looming HIV epidemic.
I would have welcomed a greater sense of integration between the different chapters, and a more leisurely introduction which made the links between them, but this is a very useful addition to the literature, which does a great deal to deepen our understanding of what life is like inside Xinjiang.
