“I Don’t Dare to Buy Your Nut Cake!”: Uyghur’s Image in China’s Media in the Post-2009 Era

The Uyghur people are one of the fifty-five ethnic groups in China and one of the ten Islamic ethnic groups in Xinjiang, China, where they are dramatically visible and live in a concentrated region in Northwest China. The July 2009 Urumqi Riots marked the first Xinjiangrelated large-scale riots in the 21st century, and coverage of these riots provided the first exposure to audiences in China proper about the riots. Yet China’s media subsequent reporting on this riot generated a series of problems related to the identity issue, public opinion of the Uyghur, and a rising sense of fear. The rioters were depicted in the newspaper as “Xinjiang people” (Xinjiang resident, 新疆人), “Uyghur people” (Weiwu’er ren, 维吾尔人or Weizu ren 维族人), and Han-Chinese Xinjiang residents (Hanzu resident in Xinjiang，新疆汉族人). This paper presents several typical case studies in China’s media regarding reports of Uyghur-related news to answer the following research questions: How did China’s media forge and subsequently navigate the identity-orientation concepts? How did they change the semiotic of the Uyghur people” in China’s media reports, such as “Kabab seller” and “Xinjiang nut cake dealer,” which represented the Uyghur people, from a neutral semiotic to a negative connotation. Finally, how was Uyghur-phobia created from an actual scene, generating a perceived threat?