Silence
Loading...
Date
2022
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nordic Institute of Asian Studies
Abstract
The place that connects the histories of the Uyghurs and the Sibe is known today as Xinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region. These two ethnic groups possess entirely different
characteristics regarding language, culture and religion. However, after the Chinese
Communist Party had assumed power, Xinjiang – the place itself – came to closely intertwine
all their struggles for preserving their ethnic identity. The stories of these struggles told to this
day are not suited to serve as reflective sources for gaining a full and authentic understanding
of the past, but their referential truth is not necessarily a key question. To understand events
unfolding in the present, it is perhaps more important to see how these stories, which serve as
the subject of remembering and put the past in a retrospective perspective while nurturing
identity-shaping local history narratives. The study focuses on the presentation of this process,
offering some help in understanding it through touching upon questions related to
categorization in historiography, aspirations of historiographers and their impact on society,
as well as to the losable nature of the present.