CERTAIN ASPECTS OF ETHNICITY OF THE KAZAKHS OF CHINA
Keywords:
Kazakhs, diaspora, migration, Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, Kazakhstan, ethnicity, identity, sociological studies, language, culture, religion, zhuz, clan, national politics.Abstract
There are about 5 million Kazakhs living all over the world outside the Republic of Kazakhstan, the largest part of them predictably found in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the PRC bordering on Kazakhstan.
There are two distinct groups of Chinese Kazakhs: the clans that migrated to China to avoid collectivization in the Soviet Union and the larger one of indigenous Kazakhs.
Today, the Kazakh diaspora, as all other diasporas for that matter, is facing the challenge of preserving its ethnic identity.
The author analyzes the main results of the sociological studies of the life of the Kazakhs she has been carrying out since 2010 by different means: polls, in-depth interviews, and observations and polls of experts.
The article contains certain results of sociological expeditions that studied four basic identities—linguistic, religious, zhuzclan, and cultural.
This combination of different methods helps to analyze the social processes going on in the Kazakh diaspora, identify the impact of individual factors and the degree to which the ethnicity has been preserved, as well as the current state of ethnic identities, and forecast further development.
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References
See: Xingjian Statistical Yearbook, Complied by Statistics of Xingjian Uygur Autonomous Region, 2013.
See: Ibid., pp. 106-107.
See: Xinjiang, the Land of the Chinese: Past and Present, ed. by Li Sheng, Xinjiang People’s Publishers, Xinjiang,2006, p. 6 (in Chinese).
According to the author’s field studies of 2010-2014 in compact settlements of the Kazakhs in the XUAR.
K.L. Syroezhkin, Kazakhstan-Kitay: ot prigranichnoy torgovli k strategicheskomu partnerstvu: monografia, in three books, Book 1, The Beginning, Kazakhstan Institute of Strategic Studies at the President of the RK, Almaty, 2010, p. 137.
See: A.M. Khazanov, Nomads and the Outside World, Second edition, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, p. 3.
See: A. Sadvokasova, B. Rakisheva, A. Majitova, Iazykovaia situatsia v srede ethnicheskikh kazakhov, prozhivaiush-chikh v Kitae (XUAR) (rezultaty kompleksnogo sotsiologicheskogo issledovania), Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana, 2007, 97 pp. (in Kazakh and Russian).
Zeti ata—names of seven fathers and the knowledge of the family history down to the seventh generation.
Ru (clan)—a certain group originating from one ancestor in the seventh generation or earlier.
Zhuz—communities of the Kazakhs formed in the distant past based on division along the paternal line into clans
(rus). There were three zhuzes—the Elder, Middle, and Younger zhuzes.
Shezhire—genealogy among the Kazakhs, a list of relatives along the paternal line.
Naymans and Kerei—two largest clans of the Middle Zhuz.
S. Akimbekov, Istoria stepey: fenomen gosudarstva Chinghizkhana v istorii Evrazii, Tsentr Azii Publishers, Almaty,
, p. 566.
According to the author’s field studies of 2005-2014 in Western Europe (Germany, France, Great Britain, Sweden,Norway, Denmark, and Austria).
N. Alimbay, “The Kazakh Shezhire as a Folklore Category of Historical Sources”, Kazakh almanagy, No. 2, 2009,p. 242 (in Kazakh).
According to field studies carried out by the author in Saudi Arabia (Jidda, Mecca, and Medina) in 2008.
According to field studies carried out by the author in the XUAR in 2010-2014 in the places of compact Kazakh settlement.
K. Esimova, “Pochemu kazakhi v Kitae sokhranili rodnoy kazakhskiy iazyk, no pochemu teriaiut ego segodnia,”Esquire, Kazakh journal in China, available at [http://esquire.kz/1737-kazahskiy_kitayskiy], 9 March, 2015.
E. Kapkyzy, “Kitay pytaetsia sokhranit iskusstvo kazakhskogo naroda,” available at [http://www.altyn-orda.kz/esen-gul-kapkyzy-kitaj-pytaetsya-soxranit-isskustvo-kazaxskogo-naroda/], 16 March, 2015.
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