ABSTRACT
This chapter continues to investigate the transformation of the notion of minzu in multicultural Australia, with a focus on Uyghur catering businesses. This chapter returns to the story (introduced in Chapter 3) of Kaiser, an Uyghur migrant, and discusses his journey to Australia during the early 2000s. By exploring Kaiser’s experiences in Australia, I argue that the minzu concept is strategically applied and negotiated in multiple fields in Uyghur migrants’ everyday lives, including among restaurant staff members, customers of different ethnic backgrounds, the Chinese embassy, and the local Uyghur diasporic communities. The concept of minzu is present in most of these situations, and it is carefully negotiated to gain access to various social relationships, resources, and rights in Australia while having continuous connections to China.
