​2016 International Conference on
Sounds, Images, and Texts on China's Periphery

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Laikwan PANG (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Topic: Modernizing Xinjiang Culture: Below the Kezile Mountain as “Xinjiang’s” First Novel
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The Uyghur is a very musical people, and their most elaborate forms of cultural expression are music and poetry. This paper, however, is devoted to one of the most alienating mode of cultural production to the people: novel. I will examine closely the Chinese novel titled Below the Kezile Mountain 《克孜勒山下》 written by 柯尤慕．吐爾迪. It was published in 1974, and is widely claimed as the first book-length novel written by a Uyghur writer. It was first written in the Uyghur language, and professionally translated into Han Chinese. I will examine the “modernization” impulses in this novel by examining its emulation discourse: the Uyghur must learn from the Han Chinese to become a modern people. With the training provided by the CCP, the Uyghur would learn how to conduct their revolution, and they would also learn how to write a novel. It was assumed that only through a particular type of narrative emphasizing casual relationships can history be articulated, and a particular future became accessible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ming-wei PENG (National Chiao Tung University)
Topic: 我們要如何向台灣原住民族道歉？：一位外省漢人作家關曉榮介入原住民運動之路
(How to Make an Apology to Taiwanese Aboriginal People? A Non-Taiwanese Han Writer Guan Xiaorun’s engagement in Taiwanese Aboriginal Movement since 1980s)​

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當前臺灣官方劃定的四大族群裡，所謂的原住民族是臺灣社會中閩南、客家與外省族群之外的少數民族，目前有16個民族為官方認定，是早於漢人移民之前在臺灣定居活動的諸多民族。新就任蔡英文總統於今年（2016年）8月1日原住民日代表「中華民國」政府在總統府召見原住民各族的代表，宣讀正式道歉的文告，接連表達十次道歉，並與原住民代表尋求和解。這是首次由國家元首的身分向長久受壓迫的臺灣原住民族公開正式道歉，不過此舉也引發諸多的反省和批評的風波。本人認為此道歉文告雖表誠意，但主要問題與矛盾在於企圖以原住民史觀為台獨史觀背書，配合當前如火如荼的「去中國化」運動，卻無法深切反省漢人移民（閩南和客家族群）和日本殖民統治者的歷史罪行，全文迴避了對大福佬沙文主義和日本帝國主義的根本批判。道歉文中對於臺灣殖民歷史的無知或故意扭曲、迴避與遺忘，恰好彰顯了當前臺灣社會和漢人政權對於原住民問題的漠然心態。
 

面對原住民問題，這包含臺灣社會矛盾衝突最劇烈的問題，我想以1980年代推動臺灣原住民運動的先驅關曉榮為例，與蔡英文總統所代表的一般臺灣社會的觀點做為對照。報導攝影作家關曉榮（1949-）是1949年在國共內戰中從海南島遷移到臺灣的外省漢人，從1980年代起關注原住民在臺灣社會底層的艱難處境，以報導攝影記錄的手法記錄批判漢人沙文主義和全球資本主義對原住民的雙重壓迫。他離開主流媒體，先後在基隆港邊的都市原住民八尺門聚落和臺東蘭嶼達悟族部落長期蹲點記錄，在陳映真主編的具有鮮明左翼的人道主義立場的《人間》雜誌發表關於八尺門和蘭嶼原住民的報導攝影文學，1990年代之後出版《八尺門手札》、《國境邊陲：尊嚴與屈辱》兩部報導攝影集都是具有洞察原住民問題、穿透臺灣社會結構性暴力的深刻佳作，尤其是《國境邊陲：尊嚴與屈辱》出版迄今仍是臺灣當代報導文學的經典之作。關曉榮從中心走向邊緣，從旁觀的攝影記錄者轉變為主動介入參與蘭嶼原住民反對核廢料儲存場的抗爭運動，成為1980年代中期興起的原住民運動的先驅。他身為漢人的左翼知識分子對於自身在臺灣社會的邊緣而孤獨的角色，與原住民在臺灣社會的受壓迫結構問題有深切的反省。誠如魯迅所言的「掘心自食」的自我批評，是何其慘痛酷烈，需要何等的勇氣與智慧。我們要怎樣向台灣原住民道歉？應該要從如何真誠坦然地面對漫長的殖民歷史開始。
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niccolo PIANCIOLA (Lingnan University)
Topic: Making Sense of the Cultural Revolution in Xinjiang: Cross-Border Narratives

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On the basis of research in Kazakhstan and Russian state archives and of life story interviews of Qazaq and Uyghur migrants to Kazakhstan, the paper delves on memories of the Cultural Revolution in Xinjiang by Qazaq and Uyghur participants. The paper explores the creation of narratives of the violent events in Northern Xinjiang between 1966 and 1970, and the attempt made by former participants in framing them into the longer history of cross-border political, social, and cultural interactions between Xinjiang and Soviet Central Asia from the period of the Eastern Turkestan Republic, though the Great Leap Forward, to the closure of the formerly porous border between China and the USSR as a consequence of the Sino-Soviet split. The paper will argue that cross-border imaginaries fed by both previous continuous connection and recent sudden rupture in the Turkestan/Xinjiang borderland, in the context of the global decolonization drive, framed the hopes of the younger generation of Qazaq and Uyghur students who were at the forefront of the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution in Urumqi and in the Yili region.