Meshrep: Difference between revisions
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A '''meshrep''' ({{lang-ug|مەشرەپ|pin=mäxräp}}; {{zh|c=麦西热甫|p=màixīrèfŭ}}, lit. "harvest festival") is a traditional male [[Uyghur people|Uyghur]] gathering that typically includes "poetry, music, dance, and conversation within a structural context".<ref name="Thwaites"/> Meshreps typically include music of the [[Muqam]] variety and ad-hoc [[tribunal]]s on moral questions. "Meshrep" may also refer to the the Islamic youth groups that became a political force in [[Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture|Ili]], [[Xinjiang]] in the 1990s. The voluntary societies used extralegal means such as [[boycott]]s to enforce what they saw as Islamic mores against gambling, alcohol and drug abuse among young Uyghur men. Amid continuing political campaigns and antigovernment protests launched by these meshrep, the Xinjiang government cracked down on key religious leaders, including meshrep leaders, leading to [[Ghulja Incident|urban violence in 1997]] and the flight of meshrep leaders to [[Kazakhstan]]. In November 2010, China successfully petitioned [[UNESCO]] to list the traditional meshrep in its [[List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding]]. |
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{{Refimprove|date=July 2009}} |
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A '''''meshrep''''' ({{lang-ug|مەشرەپ}}) is a traditional [[Uyghur people|Uyghur]] and [[Central Asian]] social group, connected to the celebration of the autumn harvest festival.<ref>[http://www.meshrep.com What is a Meshrep?]</ref> Traditionally formed of men, these groups traditionally formed part of the informal governance structure of Uyghur communities, and still serve this function outside of China.<ref name="Roberts204">{{harvnb|Roberts|2007|p=204}}</ref> |
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==Traditional structure== |
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The banning of the traditional ''meshrep'' by Chinese authorities in 1997, which had only been allowed since 1994, was one of the main causes of the [[Ghulja Incident]].<ref name="Amnesty International"> {{cite web |
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The practice of meshrep is diverse among Uyghur communities, but there are some commonalities. Meshrep are usually held in the courtyard of one of the members' family home. Traditionally, meshrep were only held on the [[harvest]], and on [[wedding]]s, [[circumcision]]s, and girls' [[coming of age|comings of age]].<ref name="Harris">{{Cite book|title=The Making of a Musical Canon in Chinese Central Asia: The Uyghur Twelve Muqam|author=Harris, Rachel A.|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]|year=2008|pages=24-25, 104-106}}</ref> Each meshrep consists of a leader (''yigit bashi'', an older man), a disciplinarian (''passip begi''), and 30 younger men (''ottuz oghul''), who sit on a carpet according to seniority.<ref name="Thwaites">{{Cite journal|author=Thwaites, Dilber Kahraman|title=An Uyghur Meshrep Dichotomy|journal=Central Eurasian Studies Review|volume=4|number=2|date=Summer 2005|pages=22-25}}</ref> As the meshreps were primarily [[male bonding]] events,<ref name="Thwaites"/> the women and children of the host's family were to stay inside the house and only interact with the men to bring them food or to otherwise serve them.<ref name="Harris"/> Music is an essential component of the meshrep, and during the meshrep, men play progressively faster [[muqam]] melodies on the [[dutar]] while others compete to see who could perform whirling circle dances for the longest period of time. Some meshrep also feature songs, skits, and lectures from religious leaders.<ref name="Harris"/> Aside from the entertainment value of the meshrep, these groups also formed part of the informal governance structure of Uyghur communities, and still do outside of China.<ref name="Roberts204">{{citation|chapter='The Dawn of the East': A Portrait of a Uyghur Community Between China and Kazakhstan|last=Roberts|first=Sean R.|title=Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia|editor-first=Ildikó|editor-last=Bellér-Hann|year=2007|series=Anthropology and cultural history in Asia and the Indo-Pacific|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|isbn=9780754670414|page=204}}</ref> Inside the meshrep, the moral transgressions of the men, such as [[polygamy]], are publicly scolded and the men humiliated by slapping<ref name="Harris"/> or [[caning]].<ref name="Wayne"/> There is no limit on the length or attendance of the meshrep, and the [[Dolan people|Dolan Uyghurs]] were famed for hosting meshrep "attended by hundreds of people, and often last[ing] the whole night".<ref name="Harris"/> |
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| url=http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA17/002/2007/en/84ab9a6c-d3b6-11dd-a329-2f46302a8cc6/asa170022007en.html |
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| title=China: Remember the Gulja massacre? China's crackdown on peaceful protesters |
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| publisher=[[Amnesty International]] |
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}} </ref> |
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==Ili Youth Meshrep== |
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[[Uyghurs in Kazakhstan|Uyghur migrants to Kazakhstan]] began reviving the ''meshrep'' as early as the 1970s.<ref name="Roberts204"/> |
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The meshrep is attested to in modern Chinese literature as early as 1942, in the [[Socialist realism|socialist realist]] play ''Gulnissa'', where the meshrep is portrayed as a secular, [[coeducational]] [[youth culture]].<ref name="Thwaites"/> During that time, the meshrep in [[Yining City|Yining]] (Ghulja) consisted of musical performances and "informal court hearings" for community dissidents.<ref name="Harris"/> [[Uyghurs in Kazakhstan]] began practicing the meshrep as early as the 1970s.<ref name="Roberts204"/> After China's [[Economic history of the People's Republic of China|economic reforms]] in the 1980s, a middle class began to develop in China, and ordinary Chinese had more leisure time and discretionary income.<ref name="Starr"/> At the same time, political and religious controls were loosening, and Chinese officials encouraged the building of [[mosque]]s and the [[Hijab|veiling of women]].<ref name="Thwaites"/> Contemporary developments in the region, including the global [[Islamic revival]] and the independence of the [[Soviet Central Asia]]n states in 1992, inspired [[Uyghur independence]] feeling and the establishment of militant groups like the [[East Turkestan Islamic Movement]] (ETIM).<ref name="Bulard">{{Cite journal|url=http://mondediplo.com/2009/08/02china|title=China's wild west|first=Martine|last=Bulard|year=2009|month=August|publisher=[[Le Monde diplomatique]]}}</ref> Still, in the 1990s, the social and political life in the city of [[Yining City|Yining]] (Ghulja) was predominantly secular. In Yining, young Uyghur men would informally gather, usually once a week, to drink [[baijiu]], perform poetry and music, and otherwise socialize. These gatherings, called ''olturax'', grew to perform important political and economic functions in Yining life.<ref name="Starr"/> |
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Islamic<ref name="Wayne"/> youth groups organized in the evenings grew in opposition to and eventually eclipsed the olturax, also serving "the foci for Uyghur resistance to Chinese rule".<ref name="Bulard"/><ref name="Starr"/> Calling themselves "meshreps", the clubs criticized the secular nature of the olturax<ref name="Tyler"/> and the alcohol consumption within [[Islam and alcohol|as un-Islamic]].<ref name="Starr"/> These meshreps, which have been compared to the Catholic [[Knights of Columbus]],<ref name="ETIM">{{Cite book|title=The ETIM: China's Islamic Militants and the Global Terrorist Threat|author=Reed, J. Todd|coauthors=Raschke, Diana|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|year=2010|page=23}}</ref> were more formal than the olturax: tasked with providing "moral guidance", they kept strict membership lists and organized regular meetings, wherein members would read passages from the [[Quran]].<ref name="Thwaites"/> Meshrep practitioners were held to a strict code of Islamic conduct in their daily lives, including abstinence from alcohol and [[hashish]]. Initiation into the meshrep involved [[hazing]] rituals,<ref name="Wayne"/> and once admitted, men who did not continue to meet the group's standards of Muslim piety were given [[corporal punishment]], such as [[caning]],<ref name="Wayne"/> or petty fines by the group.<ref name="Starr"/> These practices diverged significantly from the meshrep's secular tradition,<ref name="Thwaites"/> and thus revived the meshrep in Yining with "new religious and nationalist meanings".<ref name="Harris"/> |
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Initially, both social reformers and the local government supported the meshreps, as they provided an outlet for young Uyghur men in an environment rife with unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse, and gambling.<ref name="Tyler"/><ref name="Thwaites"/> But as the popularity of meshrep grew, meshrep groups became more assertive in their opposition to the government's goals.<ref name="Thwaites"/> In the spring and summer of 1995, meshreps started a campaign of boycotts and intimidation against shops that sold [[liquor]] in Yining and the surrounding villages.<ref name="Wayne">{{Cite book|title=China's War on Terrorism: Counter-insurgency, politics, and internal security|author=Wayne, Martin I.|publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|year=2008}}</ref> Fearing the meshrep's political potential, Xinjiang authorities banned the gatherings in July 1995.<ref name="ETIM"/> However, most meshrep groups continued to operate in secret, or delegated their morals enforcement duties to legal [[neighborhood watch]] groups.<ref name="Starr"/> When a [[association football|football game]] organized by underground meshrep teams was canceled by authorities, the meshrep mobilized several hundred Uyghur men to march across government offices and to gather in Yining's main plaza, although there was no violence and the crowd dispersed after a few days. Authorities then drew a distinction between "healthy, traditional" meshrep and an "illicit" political and religious meshrep, encouraging the former but cracking down on the latter.<ref name="Starr">{{Cite book|title=Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland|author=Starr, S. Frederick|publisher=[[M. E. Sharpe]]|year=2004|pages=109, 282, 284-287}}</ref> In 1997, a national anticrime campaign resulted in the arrests of meshrep leaders and [[talib]]s in Yining, leading to mass riots called the [[Ghulja Incident]].<ref name="Tyler">{{Cite book|title=Wild West China: The Taming of Xinjiang|first=Christian|last=Tyler|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|year=2004|page=168, 171}}</ref> |
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==References== |
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*{{citation|chapter='The Dawn of the East': A Portrait of a Uyghur Community Between China and Kazakhstan|last=Roberts|first=Sean R.|title=Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia|editor-first=Ildikó|editor-last=Bellér-Hann|year=2007|series=Anthropology and cultural history in Asia and the Indo-Pacific|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|isbn=9780754670414}} |
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==Modern meshrep== |
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After the Ghulja Incident, local antigovernment Uyghurs migrated to [[Almaty]] in Kazakhstan, where they continued to practice the meshrep as they had in Ili.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Central Asia and the Caucasus: Transnationalism and Diaspora|first=Touraj|last=Atabaki|first2=Sanjyot|last2=Mehendale|publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|year=2005|pages=159, 161}}</ref> In November 2010, [[UNESCO]] approved China' nomination of the meshrep to the [[List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-11/15/c_13608055.htm|title=China's three nominations inscribed on List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding|date=2010-11-15|accessdate=2011-07-30|publisher=[[Xinhua]]}}</ref> |
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[[Category:Islam in China]] |
[[Category:Islam in China]] |
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[[Category:Muslim communities]] |
[[Category:Muslim communities of China]] |
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[[Category:Protests in the People's Republic of China]] |
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[[Category:Uyghur culture]] |
[[Category:Uyghur culture]] |
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[[ru:Мэшрэп]] |
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Revision as of 16:46, 30 July 2011
A meshrep (Uyghur: مەشرەپ; Chinese: 麦西热甫; pinyin: màixīrèfŭ, lit. "harvest festival") is a traditional male Uyghur gathering that typically includes "poetry, music, dance, and conversation within a structural context".[1] Meshreps typically include music of the Muqam variety and ad-hoc tribunals on moral questions. "Meshrep" may also refer to the the Islamic youth groups that became a political force in Ili, Xinjiang in the 1990s. The voluntary societies used extralegal means such as boycotts to enforce what they saw as Islamic mores against gambling, alcohol and drug abuse among young Uyghur men. Amid continuing political campaigns and antigovernment protests launched by these meshrep, the Xinjiang government cracked down on key religious leaders, including meshrep leaders, leading to urban violence in 1997 and the flight of meshrep leaders to Kazakhstan. In November 2010, China successfully petitioned UNESCO to list the traditional meshrep in its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
Traditional structure
The practice of meshrep is diverse among Uyghur communities, but there are some commonalities. Meshrep are usually held in the courtyard of one of the members' family home. Traditionally, meshrep were only held on the harvest, and on weddings, circumcisions, and girls' comings of age.[2] Each meshrep consists of a leader (yigit bashi, an older man), a disciplinarian (passip begi), and 30 younger men (ottuz oghul), who sit on a carpet according to seniority.[1] As the meshreps were primarily male bonding events,[1] the women and children of the host's family were to stay inside the house and only interact with the men to bring them food or to otherwise serve them.[2] Music is an essential component of the meshrep, and during the meshrep, men play progressively faster muqam melodies on the dutar while others compete to see who could perform whirling circle dances for the longest period of time. Some meshrep also feature songs, skits, and lectures from religious leaders.[2] Aside from the entertainment value of the meshrep, these groups also formed part of the informal governance structure of Uyghur communities, and still do outside of China.[3] Inside the meshrep, the moral transgressions of the men, such as polygamy, are publicly scolded and the men humiliated by slapping[2] or caning.[4] There is no limit on the length or attendance of the meshrep, and the Dolan Uyghurs were famed for hosting meshrep "attended by hundreds of people, and often last[ing] the whole night".[2]
Ili Youth Meshrep
The meshrep is attested to in modern Chinese literature as early as 1942, in the socialist realist play Gulnissa, where the meshrep is portrayed as a secular, coeducational youth culture.[1] During that time, the meshrep in Yining (Ghulja) consisted of musical performances and "informal court hearings" for community dissidents.[2] Uyghurs in Kazakhstan began practicing the meshrep as early as the 1970s.[3] After China's economic reforms in the 1980s, a middle class began to develop in China, and ordinary Chinese had more leisure time and discretionary income.[5] At the same time, political and religious controls were loosening, and Chinese officials encouraged the building of mosques and the veiling of women.[1] Contemporary developments in the region, including the global Islamic revival and the independence of the Soviet Central Asian states in 1992, inspired Uyghur independence feeling and the establishment of militant groups like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).[6] Still, in the 1990s, the social and political life in the city of Yining (Ghulja) was predominantly secular. In Yining, young Uyghur men would informally gather, usually once a week, to drink baijiu, perform poetry and music, and otherwise socialize. These gatherings, called olturax, grew to perform important political and economic functions in Yining life.[5]
Islamic[4] youth groups organized in the evenings grew in opposition to and eventually eclipsed the olturax, also serving "the foci for Uyghur resistance to Chinese rule".[6][5] Calling themselves "meshreps", the clubs criticized the secular nature of the olturax[7] and the alcohol consumption within as un-Islamic.[5] These meshreps, which have been compared to the Catholic Knights of Columbus,[8] were more formal than the olturax: tasked with providing "moral guidance", they kept strict membership lists and organized regular meetings, wherein members would read passages from the Quran.[1] Meshrep practitioners were held to a strict code of Islamic conduct in their daily lives, including abstinence from alcohol and hashish. Initiation into the meshrep involved hazing rituals,[4] and once admitted, men who did not continue to meet the group's standards of Muslim piety were given corporal punishment, such as caning,[4] or petty fines by the group.[5] These practices diverged significantly from the meshrep's secular tradition,[1] and thus revived the meshrep in Yining with "new religious and nationalist meanings".[2]
Initially, both social reformers and the local government supported the meshreps, as they provided an outlet for young Uyghur men in an environment rife with unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse, and gambling.[7][1] But as the popularity of meshrep grew, meshrep groups became more assertive in their opposition to the government's goals.[1] In the spring and summer of 1995, meshreps started a campaign of boycotts and intimidation against shops that sold liquor in Yining and the surrounding villages.[4] Fearing the meshrep's political potential, Xinjiang authorities banned the gatherings in July 1995.[8] However, most meshrep groups continued to operate in secret, or delegated their morals enforcement duties to legal neighborhood watch groups.[5] When a football game organized by underground meshrep teams was canceled by authorities, the meshrep mobilized several hundred Uyghur men to march across government offices and to gather in Yining's main plaza, although there was no violence and the crowd dispersed after a few days. Authorities then drew a distinction between "healthy, traditional" meshrep and an "illicit" political and religious meshrep, encouraging the former but cracking down on the latter.[5] In 1997, a national anticrime campaign resulted in the arrests of meshrep leaders and talibs in Yining, leading to mass riots called the Ghulja Incident.[7]
Modern meshrep
After the Ghulja Incident, local antigovernment Uyghurs migrated to Almaty in Kazakhstan, where they continued to practice the meshrep as they had in Ili.[9] In November 2010, UNESCO approved China' nomination of the meshrep to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.[10]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Thwaites, Dilber Kahraman (Summer 2005). "An Uyghur Meshrep Dichotomy". Central Eurasian Studies Review. 4 (2): 22–25.
- ^ a b c d e f g Harris, Rachel A. (2008). The Making of a Musical Canon in Chinese Central Asia: The Uyghur Twelve Muqam. Ashgate Publishing. pp. 24–25, 104–106.
- ^ a b Roberts, Sean R. (2007), "'The Dawn of the East': A Portrait of a Uyghur Community Between China and Kazakhstan", in Bellér-Hann, Ildikó (ed.), Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia, Anthropology and cultural history in Asia and the Indo-Pacific, Ashgate Publishing, p. 204, ISBN 9780754670414
- ^ a b c d e Wayne, Martin I. (2008). China's War on Terrorism: Counter-insurgency, politics, and internal security. Psychology Press.
- ^ a b c d e f g Starr, S. Frederick (2004). Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland. M. E. Sharpe. pp. 109, 282, 284–287.
- ^ a b Bulard, Martine (2009). "China's wild west". Le Monde diplomatique.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ a b c Tyler, Christian (2004). Wild West China: The Taming of Xinjiang. Rutgers University Press. p. 168, 171.
- ^ a b Reed, J. Todd (2010). The ETIM: China's Islamic Militants and the Global Terrorist Threat. ABC-CLIO. p. 23.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Atabaki, Touraj; Mehendale, Sanjyot (2005). Central Asia and the Caucasus: Transnationalism and Diaspora. Psychology Press. pp. 159, 161.
- ^ "China's three nominations inscribed on List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding". Xinhua. 2010-11-15. Retrieved 2011-07-30.