Project

Peripheral Sentiments: Uyghur Music and Minority Nationalism in Northwest China

Program

American Research in the Humanities in China

Department

Music

Abstract

This study involves ethnographic and biographical research on a legendary musician of the Uyghur ethnic minority in northwest China. The Uyghur are Turkic-speaking Muslims who number about nine million and reside in the far-flung Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China. The project is conceptualized, in the first place, as a thorough investigation and critical examination of the relationship between music and minority nationalism in northwest China, focusing on the Uyghur, the dominant non-Chinese group in the region. This research on Uyghur music extends beyond the terrain of traditional music to focus on popular and transnational musical genres.