China’s Area of Darkness - Book Review

A New York Review of Books review of Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang by James A. Millward, Columbia University Press, 440 pp.

“In Xinjiang today, as in the rest of China no matter how far from the capital, all clocks are set to Beijing time, as if the emperor was still in charge of chronological matters. I recall making appointments with several Uyghurs, Xinjiang’s largest ethnic group that is not Han—ethnic Chinese people. They would give me a sly look after pointing at their watches and holding up two fingers, indicating, as an act of defiance against Chinese chauvinism, that we would meet two hours earlier.”

Millward, a professor of history at Georgetown University, relates such stories and vignettes with pointed eloquence in his excellent book. It is the first comprehensive study of Xinjiang, including its geography and prehistory, in English. This vast region in Eurasia has long been the setting for thousands of armed men, some Chinese, most others not, trying and failing to dominate a culturally mixed region the size of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Spain combined.

Looking at Millward’s bibliography and notes, I can see why Nicolas Becquelin, himself a formidable expert on the region, calls him “Mr. Xinjiang.” His book is remarkable, however, not just because of his scholarship, impressive though it is, but because no other book I know of tackles so many huge questions about China, its self-image over the millennia, its relations with its neighbors, and the Chinese attitude toward what it calls “minority peoples.” Most Han Chinese disdain them as not quite civilized or not civilized at all, although since 1949 Beijing has insisted they are held in equal regard.

Read the full review here. James Millward’s book is available for purchase here.