| ID | 073383 |
| Title Proper | Maintaining margins |
| Other Title Information | the politics of ethnographic fieldwork in Chinese Central Asia |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Smith, Joanne N |
| Publication | 2006. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In contemporary China, conditions for doing fieldwork are increasingly dependent on locality. Access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has come under repeated threat as a series of domestic and international events (the pro-democracy campaign and Tian'anmen incident of 1989, the collapse of Marxist-Leninist parties in Eastern Europe in 1989, the Baren uprising of April 1990 in south Xinjiang, the formation of independent Central Asian states in 1991, the Ghulja riots of February 1997, and the events of 11 September 2001) in turn affected local conditions. Researchers and journalists have subsequently come under intense state scrutiny. Yet state politics are only one facet of the difficulties faced in Chinese Central Asia; this article also explores the personal "politics" of gender, culture, religion and values as these affect the negotiation of research roles. It is about operating within shifting margins: the margins of the state, gender margins, inter-cultural and religious margins. The discussion, drawing on a total of fifteen months' research conducted between 1995 and 2004, may prepare first-time ethnographers for the field experience in Xinjiang, while also allowing seasoned researchers to share methodologies, and may be relevant to other sensitive research settings as well. |
| `In' analytical Note | China Journal No. 56; Jul 2006: p131-147 |
| Journal Source | China Journal No 56 |
| Key Words | Chinese Central Asia ; Social Conflict ; Political Development |