This book brings together historical and ethnographic research from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Xinjiang, in order to explore how individuals and communities work to create and maintain forms of ‘culture’ in contexts of ideological repression and erasure. Across Inner Central Asia, in both China and the Soviet Union, while ethnic culture was on one hand lauded and promoted, it was simultaneously folklorized in the face of broader projects of socialist modernity. How do local intellectuals, cultural organizers, and performers work to negotiate their own forms and understandings of cultural meaning within the institutions and frameworks of a long twentieth century? How does scholarly attention to cultural production, tradition, and performance help to inform our understanding of (ethnic) nations not as given, but as coming into being?
Author(s): Ananda Breed, Eva Marie Dubuisson, Ali F. Igmen
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 157
City: Cham
Contents
Notes on Contributors
1 Introduction: Making Culture in (Post) Socialist Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Xinjiang
References
2 ‘The Kara Kirghiz Must Develop Separately’: Ishenaaly Arabaev (1881–1933) and His Project of the Kyrgyz Nation
Ishenaaly Arabaev: Early Life and Intellectual Pursuits
Recovery Efforts After the Revolt of 1916
The Alash Party Experience
From Alash Orda to the Kyrgyz Mountain Oblast
‘The Kara Kyrgyz Must Develop Separately’: The Meeting on National Delimitation
Conclusion
3 Liminal States: Personal Dreams and Performance in Kyrgyzstan During and After the Soviet Era
Soviet Power Meets Artistic Expression in Mid-Twentieth Century Kyrgyzstan
4 Epic Performances in Central Asia
Introduction: The Manas Epic as a Cultural Form
Soviet Cultural Reform
The Cultural Form of Manas
Performance as a Cultural Form
Kyrgyz National Theatre
Osh Uzbek Theatre
Conclusion: Manas as an Interweaving Text
References
5 Poets of the People: Learning to Make Culture in Kazakhstan
Poets’ Coming-Into-Being
Language and Ideology
Poetry for the People
Regional Schools and Offices of Cultural Affairs
(Post) Colonial Audience: Aitys Goes to Moscow
Conclusion
References
6 Lament in an Affluent Era: Cultural Politics of Kazakh Life Cycle Songs in Xinjiang
Introduction
Weddings as a Cultural Economy
Politics of Nostalgia in the Wedding Space
Gender of Memory, Trauma of Revolution
Memory, Place, and Elegy under Chinese Development
Conclusion
References
7 Conclusion: Interweaving Texts
References
Index
