ABSTRACT
Where are Ürümchi and Xinjiang? What is the ethnic composition of Xinjiang’s population? Who are Uyghurs? When did they become Muslims? How was fieldwork in Ürümchi conducted? For example, how were in-depth interviews organized? How was the sample of the 2007 Ürümchi Survey collected? What are the major socio-demographic characteristics of the Uyghur survey respondents? How religious are they? How well are they educated? What are their family patterns? What are the dependent and independent variables in data analyses in the following chapters? How are the key concepts such as social embeddedness, gender-role ideology, religiosity, and family processes measured? What are the main analytic techniques? This chapter addresses these questions, providing some background information about the Ürümchi study for readers.
