Thesis (doctoral)--University of Leeds, 1999.

Revised and enlarged version of the author's Thesis (Ph. D.)--İstanbul Üniversitesi, Turkey 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-64).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M.A.)--International School of Theology, 1993. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-84).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Linguistics, June 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Originally presented as the author's thesis, Marburg, 1977. / Bibliography: p. 292-327.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 366-395).

No description available.

The Uighur issue is of vital regional and global security importance to China. Although minority separatists are not well armed and seem to be largely disorganized, the violence poses a very real threat to China's ability to develop Xinjiang. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s behavior toward its Muslims has received renewed Western attention in the aftermath of 9/11. China's Uighurs have responded to CCP policies with violence and separatist activity, but the Hui (ethnic Chinese who are Muslim) have reacted with relatively high levels of accommodation. Some have blamed Uighur separatism on external influences (such as transnational terror) and Islam. However, the puzzle is, why do the Uighurs engage in separatism where the Hui do not? This study contributes to existing literature by directly comparing the Uighurs and Hui in order to determine the reasons behind Uighur separatism and Hui accommodation. This thesis argues that the Uighurs and Hui have faced different social and economic realities which have led to different perceptions of inequality and thus, different reactions to CCP policy. Also, unlike Uighur ethnic identity, Hui identity stems from and is compatible with the PRC and Chinese society. This study uses primary sources including interviews with Uighurs, Hui and Han Chinese conducted in western China during June and July of 2006.

This thesis is about education in Xinjiang, the choices available to students and parents, and the factors taken into account when making these choices. The subject of language tuition and use has increasingly assumed a central position in the resentment felt by much of the Uyghur population of Xinjiang towards the Chinese government and the Han population. The long-term, policy-driven increase in the use of Mandarin in schools in Xinjiang has accelerated in the last decade as those which have previously used the Uyghur language for the majority of teaching have steadily been converted into bilingual institutions. This change has significantly reduced the linguistic options for Uyghur parents, as ‘bilingual' schools are substantively similar to Chinese-language schools. Mandarin, as the primary language of government and trade in China, is widely recognised by Uyghur parents and students as essential to career success in contemporary Xinjiang and the Uyghur language is not existentially threatened. Nonetheless, this change is lamented by many, even those who chose bilingual or Chinese-language education for their own children. This ethnographic work, largely set in the regional capital of Urumqi, explores the disparity between materially self-interested choices and this sentiment. Contextualising the subject of education against the background of the Uyghur people's general interaction with the Chinese people and state, the thesis contends that there is a communally-maintained avoidance of all influences perceived to be Chinese, and that this avoidance is best understood in ethical terms. Utilising the work of Alasdair Macintyre (1981), it argues that the maintenance of difference from the Han, in the context of a narrative understanding of history which represents all Chinese influence as destructive or dangerous, has come to be understood amongst the Uyghur as virtuous in itself. With evidence drawn from 18 months of fieldwork in Xinjiang and interviews with parents, students and educators, it examines how attempts to maintain this virtue play out against other values and concerns in the choices they make about schooling.