Dislocating China: Muslims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects Hardcover - 2004 - 1st Edition

First line

Taking as its inspiration Homi Bhabha's call to locate culture not in any essential core qualities, but on the margins or boundaries of assumed authenticities - in the nexus of power, class, and social difference - this book seeks not to locate China and Chinese culture in any essential 'Chineseness' that is unchanging, continuous, and predetermined.

From the rear cover

Until quite recently, Western scholars have tended to accept the Chinese representation of non-Han groups as marginalized minorities. Dru C. Gladney challenges this simplistic view, arguing instead that the very oppositions of majority and minority, primitive and modern, are historically constructed and are belied by examination of such disenfranchised groups as Muslims, minorities, or gendered others.

Gladney locates China and Chinese culture not in some unchanging, essential "Chinese-ness," but in the context of historical and contemporary multicultural complexity. He investigates how this complexity plays out among a variety of places and groups, examining representations of minorities and majorities in art, movies, and theme parks; the invention of folklore and creation myths; the role of pilgrimages in constructing local identities; and the impact of globalization and economic reforms on non-Han groups such as the Muslim Hui. In the end, Gladney argues that just as peoples in the West have defined themselves against ethnic others, so too have the Chinese defined themselves against marginalized groups in their own society.

Media reviews

Citations

• Choice, 01/01/2005, Page 910