음식문화를 통해 본 신장 위구르족과 한족의 문화접변 현상

A Study on the Acculturation of Xinjiang Uyghur and Han Chinese Based on Food Culture

The purpose of this study is to examine the phenomenon of cultural change through the analysis of the contact and relationship-building processes in regards to the food culture between the Han Chinese and the Uyghur people, a Turkish Muslim ethnic minority in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. This study focuses on daily diet patterns of the Uyghurs and Han Chinese living in Xinjiang. An invisible border zone has been created between the Uyghurs and the Han Chinese due to their different identities. Due to current research trends which are mainly focused on the "separationist movement" of the Uyghurs, the understanding of the cultural phenomenon between the Uyghurs and Han Chinese is limited and neglected. In this sense, this paper attempts to examine the awareness system surrounding food and then certain acculturation trends through anthropological field works at Xinjiang area. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China is located in the northwest region of China and has barren and dry climate. Until 1947, the native Uyghurs comprised 78% of the population in Xinjiang. However, under the Chinese government's development plan for the northwest region, Xinjiang has witnessed its Han Chinese population growing from less than 10% in the 1950s to its current 40%. Nevertheless, over 90% of the Uyghur ethnic minority population continues to reside now in the Xinjiang area. Contemporary Uyghur ethnic identity is based on the Islamization that spread throughout the Xinjiang region around the 10th century. Of course, the difference in religious background creates much cultural gap from the Han Chinese. In particular, in regards to food, two peoples have a significant difference. This is between Halal(permitted) and non-Halal(prohibited). The Uyghur people have maintained a diet based on Islamic tenets that are strange and unique in China. Therefore, both groups eat three meals per day, however, they share no other similarities in food culture each other. Now the diet of the native Uyghur people has been gradually changing through the steady rise in the Han Chinese population in the region, which had led to more frequent contact. In addition, the immigrant Han Chinese food culture has also been directly influenced by its consumption of Uyghur Halal food. The consumption of ethnic food and the change in food culture is creating a change in the awareness system between the two ethnic groups and has become a catalyst for new relationships between the two groups. By starting on the analysis that through the consumptive behavior of "eating," the individual or community's awareness system can be seen, this research will show that food culture change doesn't stop merely at "experiencing" new food. Though this, we can see how Xinjiang of China is overcoming cultural differences though the cultural acculturation and creation of new culture in the interactions between ethnic groups.