Exiled by Definition:The Salar of Northwest China

Main Article Content

David SG Goodman

Abstract

The reform of state socialism came relatively late to Qinghai Province in the Northwest of the People’s Republic of China. One of Qinghai’s most dynamic groups in the social leadership of reform has been the Salar. The Salar were one of the officially recognized nationalities identified in the People’s Republic of China during the 1950s. A relatively small group of some 100,000 currently live along the upper reaches of the Yellow River, on the borders of Qinghai and Gansu Provinces. The Salar are characterised by their commitment to both Islam and China, and by their belief that they live in permanent exile, though there is considerable uncertainty about their origins. The evidence of recent research in Qinghai suggests the perspective of being Chinese citizens, yet a people in exile, significantly shapes recent Salar social and economic activism.

Article Details

Section
Special Issue Articles (Peer Reviewed)
Author Biography

David SG Goodman, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

David S G Goodman is Professor of International Studies, UTS. Recent publications include Social and Political Change in Revolutionary China (2000); China’s Communist Revolutions (with Werner Draguhn) (2002); and China’s Campaign to ‘Open Up the West’: National, provincial and local perspectives (2004.) He and Susette Cooke are currently writing Qinghai under the People’s Republic of China: A social history.