This Article was originally published on 24 September by openDemocracy under the title A Sea of Dissent: Nonviolent Waves in China. — In 2010, Chinese sociologist, Sun Linping, estimated that the number of mass incidents across China had surpassed 180,000 that year, more than doubling from 2006. This indicates growing discontent in the world’s most … More Surveying Nonviolence in China
This is the final section in a three part essay on violence and the politics of representation. Click here for Part I and Part II. Framing: Violence by Definition It is important to first acknowledge that not all processes of framing are violent. Obviously they are not; most are benign. It is only those which … More Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part III
This is part two in the discussion. To visit part one, see Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part I — Identities and Boundaries: A Constructivist and Discursive Approach Group formation is the product of a social process, made and remade using historical context, cultural and mythological structures (Brubaker, 2004; Wimmers, 2008). These myriad ingredients are part … More Violence: A Discourse Analysis, Part II
This is the third entry in a series on semiotic analysis, Uyghurs, and public space in China. For earlier entries please see, Deconstructing ‘Minzu’, and Museumized Signification, China and Representational Violence. Or visit my index at the top of the page for all previous articles dealing with Symbolic Power, the politics of representation, China, Xinjiang, Uyghurs, and … More Perusing Walls in China: Posters and Symbolic Power
This is the second post in a brief series on symbolic power and minority representation in China. Although the ethnic group under specific discussion is the Uyghurs, the deconstruction of representations and symbolic power is apropos of other subaltern groups. The previous post dealt with briefly just with the notion of controlling the taxonomy of … More Museumized Signification, China and Representational Violence
In a number of posts to follow I will identify three places where symbolic power operates, that is, how the Chinese State has exerted its monopoly of symbolic power to instill a signification of Uyghurs as an undeveloped singing, dancing subaltern subject. Indeed, this colonialist objectification: the predominant representation of Uyghurs, and other minzu (ethnic … More Deconstructing ‘Minzu’
This piece was republished by the World Uyghur Congress. It is also available on their website. At 6pm on Tuesday, the 28th of February violence erupted in the desert town of Kargilik, between Kashgar and Hotan, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. Armed with knives or axes (depending on the report), whether desperate … More The Politics of Representing ‘Uyghur,’ a socio-historical sketch
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