Xinjiang: China's Muslim Far Northwest

by Michael Dillon

Xinjiang, the nominally autonomous region in China's far northwest, is of increasing international strategic and economic importance. With a population which is mainly non-Chinese and Muslim, there are powerful forces for autonomy, and independence, in Xinjiang. This book provides a comprehensive overview of Xinjiang. It introduces Xinjiang's history, economy and society, and above all outlines the political and religious opposition by the Uyghur and other Turkic peoples of Xinjiang to Chinese Communist rule.

Genres: China

232 pages, Hardcover

First published October 23, 2003

About the author

Michael Dillon is a China specialist with expertise in teaching the history, politics and society of the Chinese world and the Chinese language. He was founding Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Durham, where he taught courses on modern China in the Department of East Asian Studies. He has a BA and PhD in Chinese Studies from Leeds University and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society. He is a peer reviewer for academic publishers and journals including China Quarterly, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Inner Asia and is guest editor for a forthcoming special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies focussing on Chinese ethnicity. He is a frequent commentator on Chinese and Asian affairs for the BBC and other international broadcasters, contributes to the Times Literary Supplement and was a consultant for China, a four-part television documentary directed by Jonathan Lewis for BBC2, Granada and PBS (USA).

He reads Chinese fluently, speaks Putonghua (Mandarin) and some Cantonese and has a working knowledge of the Uyghur language of Xinjiang.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

East Turkestan

Very good book on the history of East Turkestan.

Definitely worth a read, as I find it a very particularly important and timely subject to read about. One of the few current examples of actual neocolonialism and genocide going on as we speak...

Good information and well-researched.

4.2/5

[Casper Gasper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very dry academic treatise. If you're writing a PhD on China's ethnic tensions this is likely to be fascinating, for the casual reader interested in the area it's tough-going but is authoritative and interesting. If you're going "Where's Xinjiang?" you should give this book a miss :-)