Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900-1949

In Struggle by the Pen, Ondřej Klimes explores the emergence of national consciousness and nationalist ideology of Uyghurs in Xinjiang from c. 1900-1949. Drawing from texts written by modern Uyghur intellectuals, politicians and propagandists throughout this period, he identifies diverse types of Uyghur discourse on the nation and national interest, and traces the emergence and construction of modern Uyghur national identity.

The author also demonstrates that the modern Uyghur intelligentsia regarded political emancipation and social modernization as the two most important interests of their nation, and that they envisaged Uyghurs as citizens of a modern republican state founded on the principles of representative government. This book thus presents a new perspective on Uyghur intellectual history and on Republican Xinjiang.

Ondřej Klimes, Ph.D. (2012) is a research fellow at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences.