ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the concept of a diasporic minzu accounts for an emerging Uyghur identity in Australia. The concept of minzu has forged Uyghur identity by elite entrepreneurs in Australia’s small and medium enterprises, even more so given the current social transformations in Xinjiang. In the early 2010s, anxieties about maintaining their minzu identity in China have become one of the main motivations for Uyghur elite entrepreneurs to move to Australia. For them, a sense of minzu can be preserved in Australia, even if business opportunities are much more limited compared to the growing market in China. For most Uyghur elite migrants, doing business is a way of integrating into Australian society and creating new meanings for their identity. Diasporic minzu identity demonstrates the continuities between Uyghur Australians and their families back in in Xinjiang. This diasporic minzu identity also emphases localization and the establishment of a new Uyghur identity and the way of becoming Australian.
