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Centering the Periphery in National History: Historical Narrative, Chinese Muslims, and Regional Development in China

Sat, November 12, 8:15 to 9:30am, Omni Parker, Floor: Mezzanine, Brandeis

Abstract

This paper analyzes the use of narratives of Chinese national history to promote regional development in a peripheral and predominantly Muslim region of China. It examines efforts by government and business elites in the Ningxia Hui (Muslim) Autonomous Region to deploy a strategic historical narrative, aimed at attracting international investment, that imagines this peripheral region and its marginalized inhabitants as central protagonists in China’s growth story. This historical narrative and its associated projects frame Ningxia as “center” in China’s commercial and diplomatic engagement with the Muslim world, emphasizing cultural connections between the region's Muslim inhabitants and the global umma. This development narrative is elaborated through a variety of media and installations: government documents, speeches, real estate advertisements, trade fairs, theme parks, museums, news stories, WeChat posts, and so on. It draws on mainstream narratives of China’s historical development even as it counters their Han-centric assumptions. Initially this project enjoyed central government support. More recently, however, it has been thwarted by stochastic crises, Islamophobic antagonists, and the anti-Muslim policies of Xi Jinping.

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