Roundtable and Book Launch:  Xinjiang and the Chinese Dream of a Harmounious Society

Roundtable and Book Launch: Xinjiang and the Chinese Dream of a Harmounious Society

12/10/2015 Tana Dluhosova Events, News

The round table first presents a new book by the Oriental Institute’s Research Fellow Ondřej Klimeš Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c. 1900-1949 (Brill, 2015), which explores the emergence of national consciousness and nationalist ideology of Uyghurs in Xinjiang from c. 1900-1949. Drawing from texts written by modern Uyghur intellectuals, politicians and propagandists throughout this period, the book identifies diverse types of Uyghur discourse on the nation and national interest, and traces the emergence and construction of modern Uyghur national identity. It also demonstrates that the modern Uyghur intelligentsia regarded political emancipation and social modernization as the two most important interests of their nation, and that they envisaged Uyghurs as citizens of a modern republican state founded on the principles of representative government. The book thus presents a new perspective on Uyghur intellectual history and on Republican Xinjiang.

The roundtable further seeks to underline developments in Uyghur intellectual history in the Republican era particularly relevant for situation in today’s Xinjiang. The speakers will then discuss the impact of current policy on Uyghur society, and asses the position of Xinjiang in current political and social development in the People’s Republic of China

Speakers:
Ildikó Bellér-Hann (University of Copenhagen)
Olga Lomová (Charles University in Prague)
Ondřej Klimeš (Oriental Institute)

Venue:
October 12, 2015
Academy of Sciences, Národní 3, room 206


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