State Policy and Local Responses in China's West

Conveners: Trine Brox, Assistant Professor, Tibetology, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, and Ildiko Beller-Hann, Associate Professor, Central Asian Studies, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies

The Western provinces of China, although certainly culturally diverse, are subjected to and shaped by the same political reality. With the “Open Up the West” campaign launched in 2000, the central government in Beijing sought to eliminate the development gap between the prosperous coastal areas and the Western provinces. The modernizing efforts of the state in these regions manifest themselves in large scale development projects and state transfers, intended ultimately to maintain and strengthen political stability. It is our contention that indigenous populations are not merely passive recipients of central policies, but active participants in these policies through negotiations, accommodations or resistance.

This interdisciplinary panel aims to generate ethnographic insights into the complex relationship between local society and the Chinese state. It also aims at developing an analytical and comparative framework for understanding the dynamics of local agency, given the highly variable ways in which state policy is implemented. We invite papers which explore these issues in China’s West (Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Gansu and Inner Mongolia). Young scholars are also welcome to submit abstracts.