From Yunnan to Xinjiang: Yang Zengxin and his Dungan generals

Journal article

This paper examines in detail one story illustrative of the many historical connections between the provinces of China’s western borderlands that were forged by Chinese-speaking Muslims, the ethno-religious community known in Turkic dialects as the ‘Dungan’ and in Mandarin Chinese as the ‘Huizu’ or ‘Huihui’. This is the story of the Dungan troops utilised to great effect by Yang Zengxin 杨增新 (zi Dingchen 鼎臣), governor of Xinjiang province during the two decades after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912. Yang Zengxin and the two Dungan generals who served consecutively under his authority in Kashgar, were all from Yunnan province, and their respective families had connections dating back to the time of the great Muslim rebellion of the mid-nineteenth century.

This essay sketches the career paths that brought these three people from Yunnan to positions of high authority in Xinjiang. An attempt is made to understand the relationship between Yang Zengxin and the Dungan troops that served loyally under him from both Chinese provincial and Dungan communal perspectives.

Authors: Garnaut, A

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: Brill
• Journal: Etudes orientales
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 25
• Pages: 93–125
• Publication date: 2008-01-01
• Language: English