Ningxia, a comparatively small and underdeveloped autonomous region for China's Muslim Hui minori... more Ningxia, a comparatively small and underdeveloped autonomous region for China's Muslim Hui minority in the country's northwest, has increasingly received attention as the home of Chinese grape wine in both domestic and international media. This image of Ningxia as a home of wine is comparatively recent, and significant in several regards: first, wine fills a void in Ningxia's local image-building strategy for tourism and trade, which had emerged from the abrupt abandoning of an earlier strategy of stressing Ningxia's identity as a Muslim region. Second, wine is an agricultural product that is highly compatible with an urban, modern, and middle-class lifestyle as conceptualized by the dominant party-state discourse. Third, this framing lays claim to a new self-confidence in China's domestic wine market, which is expected to be able to compete internationally in terms of both quantity and quality. Ningxia wines have been winning a number of international awards in recent years, and the region at the eastern foot of the Helan Mountains, belonging to its capital Yinchuan, is aspiring to become an equivalent to France's Bordeaux, while also building up a distinct Chinese wine identity. As such, Ningxia wine is linked to Chinese nationalism: wine serves as both a global marker of taste and prosperity and source of local identity. Building on theories of nationalism and globalization, this paper traces the discourses surrounding Ningxia wine via ethnographic observations and several interviews conducted during a six-month field stay in Yinchuan in 2019, as well as through analysis of academic discussions, news items, and social media posts.
In the Western world China stands accused of severe human rights violations regarding its treatme... more In the Western world China stands accused of severe human rights violations regarding its treatment of the Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in its northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This is the first article to systematically analyze the response of China's international state media to these allegations. By studying the YouTube channels of two leading Chinese state media, China Global Television Network (CGTN) and New China TV (operated by Xinhua News Agency), it presents an indepth understanding of how China's foreign-facing propaganda works in a crucial case. The quantitative content analysis highlights how China reacted to increasing international (mostly United States) pressure regarding its Xinjiang policies by producing higher volumes of videos and putting out new counternarratives. The qualitative analysis that follows provides in-depth treatment of the most important discourses that Chinese media engage in to salvage the nation's international image, namely those on development, culture, nature, and terrorism. It finds several ways of countering criticism, ranging from presenting a positive image of China, in line with traditional propaganda guidelines and President Xi Jinping's assignment to state media
China has been experiencing an unprecedented urbanisation wave over the last few decades, which h... more China has been experiencing an unprecedented urbanisation wave over the last few decades, which has also led to so-called lower-tier cities in inland regions undergoing rapid development and competing for recognition. The city of Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in the country’s north-western periphery and home to the Hui people, a minority distinguishable from the Han majority only by their Islamic faith, had increasingly been developed as China’s ‘flagship Muslim city’ in recent years. Arabian-style architecture, road signs in Arabic script and a ‘Hui Culture Park’ were constructed to display state-sanctioned Islamic imagery, foster tourism and attract trade with Middle Eastern countries. Although considered much less politically sensitive than the far-western Xinjiang region with its Turkic Uyghur minority and close transnational links to Central Asia, in the context of China’s recent strategy to ‘sinicise religions’, Yinchuan’s conspicuous Islamic imagery has largely been removed from urban space. Drawing on observations from three field visits to the city in January 2017, October 2018 and March 2019, this article traces Yinchuan’s Islamic image-building strategy as well as its abrupt end, as reflected by transformations of urban space and changes in official narratives.
As urbanisation strategies have been adopted throughout China in recent years, it has become incr... more As urbanisation strategies have been adopted throughout China in recent years, it has become increasingly relevant to study their implementation processes in so-called lower-tier cities away from the well-known regions. Urbanisation has given rise to different types of settlements for landless peasants: planned resettlement neighbourhoods, as well as more or less accidentally grown urban villages. While resettlement is widely adopted and positively propagated, urban villages are usually only seen as soon-to-be demolished "non-places" and their residents are often stigmatised. This article focuses on a case in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Hui autonomous region. It analyses the demolition process of Yingnan village and its lead-up and finds that despite this general discursive framework, exposure on a local TV show and low scores on a national "civilised cities" ranking pres-sured the local government to not ignore Yingnan village as merely a "non-place" but to invest in better sanitary conditions and speed up redevelopment.
Ningxia, a comparatively small and underdeveloped autonomous region for China's Muslim Hui minori... more Ningxia, a comparatively small and underdeveloped autonomous region for China's Muslim Hui minority in the country's northwest, has increasingly received attention as the home of Chinese grape wine in both domestic and international media. This image of Ningxia as a home of wine is comparatively recent, and significant in several regards: first, wine fills a void in Ningxia's local image-building strategy for tourism and trade, which had emerged from the abrupt abandoning of an earlier strategy of stressing Ningxia's identity as a Muslim region. Second, wine is an agricultural product that is highly compatible with an urban, modern, and middle-class lifestyle as conceptualized by the dominant party-state discourse. Third, this framing lays claim to a new self-confidence in China's domestic wine market, which is expected to be able to compete internationally in terms of both quantity and quality. Ningxia wines have been winning a number of international awards in recent years, and the region at the eastern foot of the Helan Mountains, belonging to its capital Yinchuan, is aspiring to become an equivalent to France's Bordeaux, while also building up a distinct Chinese wine identity. As such, Ningxia wine is linked to Chinese nationalism: wine serves as both a global marker of taste and prosperity and source of local identity. Building on theories of nationalism and globalization, this paper traces the discourses surrounding Ningxia wine via ethnographic observations and several interviews conducted during a six-month field stay in Yinchuan in 2019, as well as through analysis of academic discussions, news items, and social media posts.
In the Western world China stands accused of severe human rights violations regarding its treatme... more In the Western world China stands accused of severe human rights violations regarding its treatment of the Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in its northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This is the first article to systematically analyze the response of China's international state media to these allegations. By studying the YouTube channels of two leading Chinese state media, China Global Television Network (CGTN) and New China TV (operated by Xinhua News Agency), it presents an indepth understanding of how China's foreign-facing propaganda works in a crucial case. The quantitative content analysis highlights how China reacted to increasing international (mostly United States) pressure regarding its Xinjiang policies by producing higher volumes of videos and putting out new counternarratives. The qualitative analysis that follows provides in-depth treatment of the most important discourses that Chinese media engage in to salvage the nation's international image, namely those on development, culture, nature, and terrorism. It finds several ways of countering criticism, ranging from presenting a positive image of China, in line with traditional propaganda guidelines and President Xi Jinping's assignment to state media
China has been experiencing an unprecedented urbanisation wave over the last few decades, which h... more China has been experiencing an unprecedented urbanisation wave over the last few decades, which has also led to so-called lower-tier cities in inland regions undergoing rapid development and competing for recognition. The city of Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in the country’s north-western periphery and home to the Hui people, a minority distinguishable from the Han majority only by their Islamic faith, had increasingly been developed as China’s ‘flagship Muslim city’ in recent years. Arabian-style architecture, road signs in Arabic script and a ‘Hui Culture Park’ were constructed to display state-sanctioned Islamic imagery, foster tourism and attract trade with Middle Eastern countries. Although considered much less politically sensitive than the far-western Xinjiang region with its Turkic Uyghur minority and close transnational links to Central Asia, in the context of China’s recent strategy to ‘sinicise religions’, Yinchuan’s conspicuous Islamic imagery has largely been removed from urban space. Drawing on observations from three field visits to the city in January 2017, October 2018 and March 2019, this article traces Yinchuan’s Islamic image-building strategy as well as its abrupt end, as reflected by transformations of urban space and changes in official narratives.
As urbanisation strategies have been adopted throughout China in recent years, it has become incr... more As urbanisation strategies have been adopted throughout China in recent years, it has become increasingly relevant to study their implementation processes in so-called lower-tier cities away from the well-known regions. Urbanisation has given rise to different types of settlements for landless peasants: planned resettlement neighbourhoods, as well as more or less accidentally grown urban villages. While resettlement is widely adopted and positively propagated, urban villages are usually only seen as soon-to-be demolished "non-places" and their residents are often stigmatised. This article focuses on a case in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Hui autonomous region. It analyses the demolition process of Yingnan village and its lead-up and finds that despite this general discursive framework, exposure on a local TV show and low scores on a national "civilised cities" ranking pres-sured the local government to not ignore Yingnan village as merely a "non-place" but to invest in better sanitary conditions and speed up redevelopment.
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Papers by Michael Malzer