"Nevertheless, the CCP aims to reduce Uyghur culture to a shell of its current self, leaving only features that would not be capable of galvanising a successful separatist movement. This might see Uyghurs retain colourful exotic Turkic clothing (not Arab-style burqas) local cuisine and folk dances – in other words the same kind of cultural markers found throughout many of China’s ethnic minority populations.

This is consistent with the approach to Uyghur and other minority cultures taken by Chinese authorities since the late-19th Century which Fuller and Lipman have termed ‘Disneylandisation’ – were minority cultures are ‘...emasculated, folklorized, prettified, Hanified, and cast into a nationwide museum of safely packaged ethnicity that serve up exoticism and charm to tourists in China, but precludes any hint of opposition in the past or present.’ The authorities aim to do this through education policy which is intended to be the lead vehicle to allow the minorities to integrate with China and develop obedience to China."

Comprehensive Encirclement : The Chinese Communist
Party's Strategy in Xinjiang

Author: Fallon, Garth
Publication Date: 2018