This book began as a dissertation, and I owe a great debt to the members of my committee. My chair, Vivienne Shue, deserves gratitude beyond measure. She guided me patiently in the study of Chinese politics, volleyed ideas with me over an unusually protracted research and writing process, and pushed me to think more deeply and clearly from the moment of my arrival at Cornell. Ben Anderson challenged me to get beneath the facade of the “unitary” Chinese nation and to interrogate sources with care and humor. Valerie Bunce labored for years to make me into a comparativist; I began to see the light during a marathon series of meetings one spring. To Jonathan Lipman I owe thanks for advice not only here at home but also in an impromptu meeting over a steaming bowl of cöcürä in Ürümci on a frigid winter night. Other Cornell faculty gave generously of their time, counsel, and expertise. Peter Katzenstein supervised me in the world’s longest-running seminar, conducted regularly after matches in a nearly ten-year squash rivalry; he and Mary helped me hone my ideas in the later stages of writing. Isaac Kramnick passed on to me information about time zone irregularities in New Mexico and also helped me secure support from Cornell’s government department for a conference I organized with Barry Sautman in Boston, where I was able to exchange ideas with many experts on Xinjiang and Uyghurs. Other Cornell faculty who provided valuable advice on my writing include Tom Christensen, Sherm Cochran, Brett de Bary, Ed Gunn, and Keith Taylor. The late Knight Biggerstaff made a generous gift of books from his library. Members of the Cornell staff without whom I could not have completed my program include the government department’s amazingly competent trio of Laurie Coon, Kim Shults, and Michael Busch; Laurie Damiani of the East Asia program; and librarian Charles D’Orban, who gleefully helped me with numerous bibliographic questions.
I have great debts to fellow graduate students and friends at Cornell, including Ken Forsberg, Rob Culp, Rich Calichman, Mao-Mao Zhong Yumei, Lee Haiyan, Jee-Sun Lee, Paul Festa, John Gibson, Smita Lahiri, Thamora Fishel, Erick White, John Norvell, and Leda Martins. Rawi Abdelal and Adam Segal I thank for advice, critical comments, and squash. Lee Haiyan and Eric Karchmer helped me locate key texts in China.
My research was supported by generous fellowships or grants from the National Science Foundation, Cornell’s peace studies and Asian studies programs, Cornell’s government department, and the Mellon Foundation.
The staff and faculty of Xinjiang University provided me a home, a community of scholars, and excellent resources. I am especially grateful to Fu Chunlei of the Foreign Affairs Office, the library staff, and Li shifu and Xu dajie, who capably managed the wild-west dormitory where I lived for two years, and to their children, who brought cheer on the darkest winter days.
My research in Xinjiang would simply not have been possible without the help of the brilliant teacher and linguist Muhäbbät Qasim and her family. She taught me Uyghur in my second year, introduced me to the pleasures of literature and the intricacies of linguistics, fed me many a fine meal, and boosted my spirits with scholarly conversation and good cheer during the long winter months. I owe a great deal to other teachers and friends, including Abdošükür, Ablikim, Ablimit, Abdurišit, Bahargul, Mirsultan, Li Yun, Han Junkui, Niu Ruji, and Mämätjan; a special thanks to Talhat for mountain bike rides and horse sausage. I thank deeply many other friends who unfortunately cannot be named here. Among the “foreign crew” at Xinjiang University, I thank Eric and Ellen Peters, Mike and Victoria Welch. Bill Clark helped me at every turn, providing intellectual exchange, innumerable introductions, and advice on fieldwork. I will always be grateful to the entire Clark family for friendship, field trips, and delicious meals.
Several families provided support through the long years of my graduate career. My grandmother, Isabelle Paterson, generously funded my first trips to Asia while I was an undergraduate and unknowingly launched me on this path. Betsy Judson, Margaret Bovingdon, and Peter Bovingdon have stood by me for so many years, as did my father George Bovingdon; I dearly wish he had lived to see this day. My mother and Henry Judson have taken me in during my dizzying trips back and forth, never complaining about how seldom they see me. Bill and Ellin Friedman and the extended Friedman-Weiner family embraced me as one of their own. The same is true of our Ithaca “parents,” Barbara and Jerry Nosanchuk, who became ideal fictive kin, treating us as well as any child has a right to expect; better, in fact.
At Indiana I have been fortunate to find a community of scholars offering expertise, counsel, and camaraderie. I cannot imagine a more congenial academic home than the Department of Central Eurasian Studies for someone trying simultaneously to research Xinjiang and to leaven that tight geographical focus with insights into its broader regions of Central Asia and China, as well as the disciplines of political science, sociology, history, literary criticism, and legal studies. I thank especially Chris Atwood, Erdem Cipa, Bob Eno, Bill Fierman, Ray Hedin, Jeff Isaac, Scott Kennedy, Ed Lazzerini, Josh Malitsky, Ethan Michelson, Scott O’Bryan, Toivo Raun, Jean Robinson, Mark Roseman, Heidi Ross, Nazif Shahrani, Elliot Sperling, Sue Tuohy, Jeff Wasserstrom, and Tim Waters. My writers’ group at Indiana University, Konstantin Dierks, Lauren Morris-Maclean, and Marissa Moorman, helped me reshape the book manuscript and prune the wildly overgrown introduction into a more readable form. My graduate students have inspired, challenged, and taught me more than they can know. It is a special pleasure to see so many focusing on Xinjiang and preparing to shape the field. April Younger and Karen Niggle, CEUS’s superbly capable administrators, helped me in too many ways to count.
The Institute of Ethnology and the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica gave me the time and space to research and revise parts of the book. I am grateful to Huang Shu-min and Yu-shan Wu for extending the invitations. In Taiwan I was fortunate to come to know, and learn from, Liu Shao-Hua, Fred Chiu, Chou Hui-min, Allen Chun, Lin Kai-shi, and Chih-yu Shih.
The field of “Xinjiang studies,” once small enough to fit in a broom closet, can now boast a community of excellent scholars. At various times I have benefited from the insights and bibliographic assistance of Kara Abramson, Nicolas Becquelin, Ildiko Beller-Hann, Linda Benson, David Brophy, Cristina Cesaro, Bill Clark, Jay Dautcher, Rahilä Dawut, Michael Dillon, Arienne Dwyer, Mark Elliott, Joanne Smith Finley, Dru Gladney, Rachel Harris, Jun Sugawara, Ablet Kamalov, Nathan Light, Jonathan Lipman, Colin Mackerras, Jim Millward, Laura Newby, Kurban Niyaz, Abliz Orkhun, Peter Perdue, Sean Roberts, Justin Rudelson, Yitzhak Shichor, Jim Seymour, Äsäd Suläyman, Konstantin Syroezhkin, Stan Toops, Näbijan Tursun, Edmund Waite, Calla Wiemer, and Yang Shengmin. To Nathan Light I owe special thanks not only for discussions about research and his great Central Asia Web site, but also for providing me with a crucial text. I am deeply grateful to Näbijan Tursun for countless hours of stimulating discussions, instruction, and materials of incomparable value.
Other scholars who have advised or commented on work that found its way into the book include Marc Abramson, Arun Agrawal, Muthiah Alagappa, Steve Averill, Sara Davis, June Teufel Dreyer, Prasenjit Duara, Valerie Hansen, Steve Harrell, Kate Kaup, Scott Kennedy, Morris Rossabi, Barry Sautman, Jim Scott, Mark Selden, Fred Starr, Stefan Tanaka, Sue Tuohy, and Jeff Wasserstrom. Naturally, none of these scholars is responsible for the content of the book. Remaining errors of fact or judgment are mine alone.
Many of the ideas and findings in the book were first presented as talks at Academia Sinica, Berkeley, Cornell, Harvard, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University, Oxford, University of Washington, Xinjiang University, and Yale. I learned a great deal from the discussions that followed.
Three friends have played especially important roles in my academic career. Elizabeth Remick, one of my oldest friends, helped me choose China and Cornell, and convinced me to persevere at many difficult moments. I met Jay Dautcher in 1995 after three fruitless trips to his digs in Ürümci. I had all but given up on him. It’s fortunate I didn’t, as he has been a constant friend and mentor since the day we met. Jim Millward has helped enormously over the years, with guidance, criticism, helpful nudges, and musical inspiration. His ode to Iparkhan, to the tune of “The Girl from Ipanema,” is not to be missed.
I now understand why so many authors thank editors for a mixture of support and forbearance. Anne Routon has been marvelous at every point, supporting the book from the first, enduring my ponderous pace with good grace, and giving vital encouragement at just the right moments. With a sensitive eye and a restrained pen, Margaret B. Yamashita improved the manuscript in many places. Vin Dangdid a wonderful job with the tables, charts, and maps.
I cannot say that Maddie’s arrival made my writing any easier or that she pretended to understand my long disappearances into my office, but she has brought me more joy than I imagined possible. Words cannot express my gratitude to Sara, who has enriched my life beyond description. She has read nearly every word I have written and tested and improved all my ill-formed notions. I like to think that the compatibility of our ideas about cultural politics is testament to the way our lives have grown together. I dedicate this book to her and Maddie.