| This dissertation draws on the memories and behaviors of Uyghur graduates of the Xinjiang Class, a four-year, national-level boarding school program aimed primarily at educating Uyghur students at the senior-secondary level. Informed by Althusser's concept of "interpellation" and based on nearly three years of field research conducted among sixty-one graduates of the Xinjiang class, this research evaluates the Xinjiang Class' efficiency in meeting its political objectives - to train a core of ethnic minority elite who are sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party and who can provide a stabilizing element to society in Xinjiang. This dissertation contends that the ethno-national identities of Uyghur students begin to crystallize during their four years at the boarding school and are strengthened by their experiences as university students. This strengthened sense of Uyghur identity, which is often constructed at odds with the corporate Chinese identity promoted by the Chinese Party-state, is expressed by an unwillingness to socialize with Han peers, a commitment to speak Uyghur in a Chinese-speaking environment, renewed efforts to practice Islam, and a refusal to participate in Chinese Party-state led development projects in Xinjiang. |
