Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

Uyghur Women Between Community and State: Islamic Revival, Coercive Secularisation, Honour and Shame

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jo Smith Finley

Downloads


Licence

This is the authors' accepted manuscript of a book chapter that has been published in its final definitive form by Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) Press, 2022.

For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.


Abstract

In the context of PRC state-sanctioned violence committed against Uyghur women since 2016 in the name of 'de-extremification', I present case studies of five Uyghur hostess girls from Han-dominated Ürümchi, urban capital of Xinjiang, who made their living in the 2000s by ‘accompanying’ Han Chinese male clients in the city’s karaoke bars. Through detailed analysis of ethnographic interviews conducted with the girls as well as individuals from the broader Uyghur community, I explore the ethno-politicisation of the act of hostessing by Uyghur observers – particularly men - as they strove to protect (male) national honour by condemning (female) national shame. Ethnicity (group loyalty) and Islam (gender norms; morality) figured large in community judgments of hostesses’ actions, while hostesses themselves employed the same frameworks to assess - and ultimately justify - their choice to engage in this example of ‘undesirable entrepreneurship.’ Unlike previous studies on the hostess industry in China, which focused on urban-rural inequalities or gender hierarchies in majority Han areas, this chapter considers ethnic and religious aspects of hostess culture on the north-western periphery, where ongoing Han in-migration clashes awkwardly with the socio-cultural practices – influenced by various strains of Islam – of the local Uyghur people. Here, Han male consumption of Uyghur female company is construed as a deliberate, ethno-political act, expressed in terms of Han domination and Uyghur slavery, and condemned by the Uyghur (male) community as a betrayal of both Islam and the Uyghur nation.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Smith Finley J

Editor(s): Aysima Mirsultan, Eric Schluessel, Eset Sulayman

Publication type: Book Chapter

Publication status: Published

Book Title: Community Still Matters: Uyghur Culture and Society in the Central Asian Context

Year: 2022

Pages: 188-202

Print publication date: 01/07/2022

Acceptance date: 02/04/2018

Publisher: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) Press

Place Published: Copenhagen

Notes: Festschrift for Ildiko Beller-Hann

Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item

ISBN: 9788776943158


Share