Dr. Shajidanmu Tuxun, 2011-2016

Sajide Tursun (S. Tuxun) received her Ph.D in anthropology from Utrecht University in 2016, and she is currently a postdoctoral fellow funded by CCK Foundation. Tracing the flow of Uyghur/Xinjiang food with the movement of Uyghur people in and out of China, Sajide’s postdoctoral research “The Taste of the Silk Road: A Research on Xinjiang Restaurants in China and Europe” will examine the intersection of ethnicity, religion, and migration in different socio-political settings. Uyghur cuisine is believed to be the combination of central Asian and Chinese cuisines, Uyghur food containing ethnic, regional (Xinjiang) and religious (halal) meanings. Xinjiang restaurant businesses have been thriving in the past decade, expanding from the eastern costal area to other regions of China. One also sees a growing number of Uyghur restaurants in Europe and the USA. China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, as the businesspeople in Xinjiang food industries believe, will bring more opportunities both in and out of China. Using food as a lens and restaurants as a main ethnographic focus, this research will locate Xinjiang/Uyghur restaurants in a boarder spectrum of Europe and China, and focus on exploring the impact of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative in different social-economic and political environments.

Sajide’s doctoral research “Making Sense of Uyghur Aspirations: Mobility, Ethnicity and Everyday Narratives in Shanghai” addressed the broader experiences of Uyghur migrants at different levels to revisit questions in Chinese studies concerning ethnicity, religion, urbanization, and the state in contemporary China. Her work sought to show the daily encounters between the dominant Han majority and ethnic minorities, of borderlands and centers, migrants and residents, laborers and consumers. In order to do so, her research analyzed ethnographic data on the intimate lives of Uyghur migrants through issues of hukou household registration status, new media practices, food, consumption, and gender perceptions. This research argued that Uyghur’s aspirations undergo a transformative process in which migrants negotiate competing state discourse, religious and cultural expectations, and individual possibilities for socio-economic mobility. This first-hand ethnography of Uyghur migrant experiences in contemporary China contributed a grounded and detailed perspective to both minority studies and migrant studies in China. It also contributed to gender studies through a grounded analysis of the experience of migrant Muslim women in urban settings.

Sajide’s research interests encompass mobility, migration, urbanization, globalization and religion with a focus on Chinese minorities, Islam, urban spaces, new media practices, gender and food.

Research projects:
Gender, ethnicity and religion: Making sense of Uyghur aspirations in Shanghai (completed)