The Influence of the Cultural Revolution on the Transformation of the Ethno-Cultural Identity of the Indigenous Peoples of China (on the Example of the Uyghurs of the XUAR)

Abstract

Consideration of the prerequisites, process and results of the establishment of the communist regime in China is devoted to a fairly large number of scientific works created by both Chinese, Russian and Western scholars. Taking into account the multidimensional nature of this issue, this study analyzes such phenomenon in the recent history of China as the Cultural Revolution, which has spread throughout the state, including the areas inhabited by national minorities, which could not but affect the life of ethnic communities. The Cultural Revolution aimed at the abolition of obsolete traditions and the formation of a “Maoist man” free from the oppression of the obsolete, restraining progress of the Chinese society, which had embarked on the path of building communism, traditionalist culture. Therefore, in this context, the breakdown of previous foundations among national minorities had its consequences, affecting both the culture of the national minority itself and the further development of its relations with the official authorities of China. In the framework of this article, we consider the transformation of ethnocultural identity as one of the consequences of the Cultural Revolution unfolded in relation to the Uyghurs living in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the PRC. This found expression in the reorientation of the religious identity of the Uyghurs, which is the central element of their ethnocultural identity in more radical forms, as well as in the desire for conservatism, isolation, and the restriction of social contacts with representatives of a different ethnic group and religion.

Keywords

• cultural revolution
• uyghurs
• mao zedong
• xuar
• ethno-cultural identity