article
Consuming identities: Food and resistance amoung Uyghur in contemporary Xinjiang
Inner Asia • 2 (2) • Published In 2000 • Pages: 225-238
By: Cesaro, M. Christina.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article is about how food and eating in Ürümqi is an identity marker for maintaining ethnic boundaries, especially between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. Following Muslim custom, Uyghurs only eat food that is “clean” or halal (for which Uyghurs use the Chinese word qingzhen). According to Islamic law, some food is forbidden, while other foods have to be prepared in a certain way. Chinese food is considered "unclean" and Uyghurs "don't eat Chinese." However, the same restrictions do not apply to either Western food or Chinese food served in Western restaurants. The author interprets this as a form of resistance to Han Chinese hegemony, and suggests that such ambiguity around food reflects the ambiguity of ethnic relations in the bustling capital city of Xinjiang.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Diet
- Food service industries
- Inter-ethnic relations
- Avoidance and taboo
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Uyghur
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2023
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard; 2014
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1996-1997
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1996-1997
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Ürümqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China
- NotesAdditional notes
- M. Christina Cesaro
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 236-237)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- sn 99033632
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Uighur (Turkic people)