Download Uyghur Students in a Chinese Boarding School Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
This dissertation, "Uyghur Students in a Chinese Boarding School: Social Recapitalization as a Response to Ethnic Integration" by Yangbin, Chen, 陳暘斌, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled Uyghur Students in a Chinese Boarding School: Social Recapitalization as a Response to Ethnic Integration Submitted by Chen Yangbin For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in June 2006 The Chinese government actively promotes ethnic integration among China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in order to achieve 'plurality and unity within the configuration of the Chinese nation'. It does this through preferential ethnic minority education. One of the most controversial policies in minority education concerns the so-called inland ethnic minority schools or classes in Han inhabited areas in China. From 2000 onwards, the boarding Xinjiang Classes (neidi Xinjiang gaozhong ban) have been established in the eastern cities of China for high school students from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in order to educate young Uyghur and other ethnic minority students through the national curricula. Although the Xinjiang Classes are supposed to promote ethnic integration between the Muslim Uyghur minority and the Han majority, there often remains a gap between the stated policy goal and its actual implementation. To assess its effectiveness, an investigation of the response of Uyghur students to the Xinjiang Classes policy is indispensable. This study therefore examines how Uyghur students in the Xinjiang Classes respond to the school goal of ethnic integration. Guided by the theoretical framework of social capital analysis, the study considers how the aim of ethnic integration is operationalised in the boarding school culture, and the function of social capital-its identification, creation, and utilization-in the reaction of Uyghur students to this goal. i The study was an ethnographic oriented qualitative study, based mainly on interviews and observations, though it also made use of a socio-demographic profile questionnaire, documents and essays, as well as photos. It required a three-month field study in one boarding school for Uyghur students in eastern China. The study's findings suggest that the process of Uyghur students' response to the goal of ethnic integration can be positioned respectively within a series of analytical levels, including the history of the Uyghurs within China, the Xinjiang Classes as a formal organization, Uyghur students' social networks, communal norms and sanctions, and Uyghur students' advantageous individual actions in the Xinjiang Classes. The study finds that the Uyghur students are capable of creating 'bonding social capital' by practicing ethnic norms and sanctions, which draws an ethnic boundary and demonstrates resistance to the school goal of ethnic integration. They are also good at creating 'linking social capital' to enthusiastically tap into the resources of peers, as well as staff and teachers, to help their studies and to adapt to life in the boarding school. Nonetheless, they lack 'bridging social capital' which bridges themselves with students and teachers of other ethnic groups, which makes the goal of ethnic integration more difficult to achieve. This study makes recommendations for ways in which to increase the levels of bridging social capital. The study conceptualizes the process of Uyghur students' responses to the school goal of ethnic integration as social recapitalization. While their former social capital from families