1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910791079503321

Autore

Yeh Emily T

Titolo

Taming Tibet : landscape transformation and the gift of Chinese development / / Emily T. Yeh

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, New York ; ; New York : , : Cornell University Press, , 2013

©2013

ISBN

0-8014-6977-5

1-322-52357-6

0-8014-6978-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (343 p.)

Collana

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Disciplina

951/.505

Soggetti

Economic development - China - Tibet Autonomous Region

Economic assistance, Chinese

Tibetans - Ethnic identity

Tibet Autonomous Region (China) Ethnic relations

China Ethnic relations

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- Preface -- Note on Transliterations and Place Names -- Abbreviations and Terms -- Introduction -- 1. State Space: Power, Fear, and the State of Exception -- Part I. Soil -- The Aftermath of 2008 (I) -- 2. Cultivating Control: Nature, Gender, and Memories of Labor in State Incorporation -- Part II. Plastic -- Lhasa Humor -- 3. Vectors of Development: Migrants and the Making of "Little Sichuan" -- 4. The Micropolitics of Marginalization -- 5. Indolence and the Cultural Politics of Development -- Part III. Concrete -- Michael Jackson as Lhasa -- 6. "Build a Civilized City": Making Lhasa Urban -- 7. Engineering Indebtedness and Image: Comfortable Housing and the New Socialist Countryside -- Conclusion -- Afterword: Fire -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

"The violent protests in Lhasa in 2008 against Chinese rule were met by disbelief and anger on the part of Chinese citizens and state authorities, perplexed by Tibetans' apparent ingratitude for the generous provision of development. In Taming Tibet, Emily T. Yeh



examines how Chinese development projects in Tibet served to consolidate state space and power. The master narrative of the PRC stresses generosity: the state and Han migrants selflessly provide development to the supposedly backward Tibetans, raising the living standards of the Han's "little brothers." Arguing that development is in this context a form of "indebtedness engineering," Yeh depicts development as a hegemonic project that simultaneously recruits Tibetans to participate in their own marginalization while entrapping them in gratitude to the Chinese state. The resulting transformations of the material landscape advance the project of state territorialization. Exploring the complexity of the Tibetan response to--and negotiations with--development, Taming Tibet focuses on three key aspects of China's modernization: agrarian change, Chinese migration, and urbanization"--