Between Official and Vernacular Memory: Exploring Han Migration to Xinjiang

Schedule

Wed Feb 08 2023 at 12:30 pm to 02:00 pm

Location

Manchester China Institute | Manchester, EN

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In this in-person ECR Workshop, Dr Jin Dai explores photography as a means of mediating memories of Han migration to Xinjiang, China.
About this Event

This presentation is based on my recently completed PhD project, entitled Between Official and Vernacular Memory: Mediated Remembering of Han Migration to Xinjiang. The project focuses on photography as a means of mediating memories of Han migration to Xinjiang, China, and examines two different social contexts of remembering, namely the family and the museum. The Han Chinese who reside in Xinjiang are largely descendants of internal migrants who came to Xinjiang from the inland provinces after 1949, and who now constitute simultaneously a national majority and a regional minority (alongside the Uyghurs, who constitute the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang). In contrast to much of the existing scholarly and popular discourse, which presents the Han Chinese in Xinjiang in terms of their role as ‘frontier constructors’ in Chinese nation-building, my project seeks to uncover a more complex mnemonic landscape, rooted in diverse social identities and experiences of the Han Chinese in Xinjiang. Through quantitative content analysis and qualitative semiotic analysis of photographic representations of Han migrants across 564 family-owned photographs and 551 photographs displayed in Xinjiang Agricultural Reclamation and Military Museum, and qualitative semi-structured interviews with 15 multigenerational Han families organized around the discussion of these two types of photographs, this project investigates the role photography plays in the formation and circulation of vernacular and official memories of Han migration, as well as the role ethnic politics plays in influencing the photographic mediation of memory.


About the Speaker

Dr Jin Dai is currently a visiting scholar at Manchester China Institute. She completed her PhD in Cultural and Media Analysis from Loughborough University in January 2023. Her PhD project, Between Official and Vernacular Memory: Mediated Remembrance of Han Migration to Xinjiang, is a timely and politically interesting PhD project on Han representation through memory and museums and self-representation through family memories in China’s borderland Xinjiang. Her research focuses on media and memory studies, vernacular culture, and visual anthropology, with a particular regional interest in Xinjiang, China.


Event Photos

Notes

MCI’s ECR Workshops are lunchtime seminars held in person at the Manchester China Institute. They seek to bring together students, faculty, and staff who can best provide feedback as Early Career Researchers develop their ideas. Free lunch will be provided.

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Where is it happening?

Manchester China Institute, 178 Waterloo Place, Manchester, United Kingdom

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