Books by Gunnar Jarring
“Gunnar Jarring…had experience in Xinjiang and the surrounding area from 1929 onwards. He was an internationally respected Swedish diplomat who held ambassadorial posts all around the world…However, at the same time he carried on with his scholarship in what we would today call Uyghur studies, although the word Uyghur was not used very much in those days. His book, Return to Kashgar, is not particularly well-known but it is interesting because it contrasts a visit he made in 1978 with his time in the region in the 1920s and it gives some idea of both the continuity and change in Kashgar society. Kashgar is the town in the southwest of Xinjiang which is in many ways the most important centre of Uyghur culture and religion. It has a Muslim history which goes back certainly to the 15th and 16th century and probably further back than that. So Gunnar Jarring’s studies of that area are very important. What struck me about the book is that, although he was trying to emphasise the changes that had taken place between the 1920s and 1970s, many things actually seemed to be surprisingly similar.” Read more...
The best books on Uyghur Nationalism
Michael Dillon, Historian
Interviews where books by Gunnar Jarring were recommended
The best books on Uyghur Nationalism, recommended by Michael Dillon
It’s hard to understand what’s going on in the Xinjiang region of China and the nationalism of the Uyghurs who live there without reading some history. Here Professor Michael Dillon, a historian at King’s College London, suggests books to read on the Uyghurs, focusing in particular on scholars and diplomats whose work gives insight into the period before the Chinese Communist takeover in 1949.
