****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I would echo other readers in the viewpoint that while providing information to the outside world on Han-Uigher relations, the book doesn't go far enough in getting to the truth of the matter. The author doesn't do a great job of describing his methodology. Particularly for a book that is supposed to be a thesis, one would expect that the technical aspect of his research would be more clearly spelled-out.While the anecdotal aspects of the book are fascinating, the authors conclusions are limited. He made obvious choices in conducting his research that probably contribute to a sense by some that he has a bias, but I actually found myself interpreting it more as bad planning. Speaking only to Mandarin speaking Uigher will inevitably create a false image of Han-Uigher relations. It's not so much that I take issue with that direction if it was the only option available to the author since he didn't speak Uigher, but he should have been much clearer that his conclusions were limited by that, and accounted for how they were limited.The author's choice of locations also leaves something to be desired. For whatever reason he chose to focus on Uigher minorities in Han Chinese cities, and didn't travel to the Uigher dominated areas to do research.I took a critical position on the book, and in the end don't think I trust it to give a very complete picture of Han-Uigher relations in China. In the absence of other writing readily available to the general public, however, it does provide a clear indication of the broad (and predictable) confrontations between minority and majority ethnic populations with a lot of differences.
