ABSTRACT
Uyghur muqam song and music are contested cultural assemblages linked to transnational Muslim performance genres that have circulated and been recreated over the past millennium in Central and Western Asia. Under the cultural policies of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), many different actors have become involved in standardizing a Uyghur muqam canon and imposing new understandings of them as autochthonous Uyghur culture arising in the Xinjiang region with a long history of interaction with Chinese musical culture. This reflects official PRC dogmas about the deep historical and geographic continuity and integrity of the Chinese state, and state-supported projects to remake cultural heritage into ideologically disciplined collective property that are managed as symbols of minority cultures and their enduring harmonious participation in the Chinese state. However, in practice, Uyghur muqam forms and meanings are contested among officials, scholars and performers with differing values and strategies for producing canonical versions authorized for publication and performance. Tensions within canonization processes appear in public discourses, formalized representations and flexible practices. Despite dogmas and the use of print and recordings to fix muqam forms, inevitably performers and other participants vary their significance in social and political settings.
