David Tobin

Decolonizing Uyghur visual art: Uyghur diasporic responses to China’s cultural engineering Visual art has become a prominent form of artistic expression in the Uyghur diasporic communities since the Chinese state has intensified its campaign of intrusive surveillance and mass internment ...

NEW PUBLICATION
*Just out!*
Vanessa Frangville and Sonya Imin explore visual art in the Uyghur diaspora and how artists respond to China's cultural engineering in the Uyghur region.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Amazing photo. Thanks for posting. You're not wrong about syncretic belief systems in general but there is a whole chapter (72) on the Jinn in the Qur'an.

A collage of five illustrated side-profile portraits of East Asian men labeled by Chinese regions: "Northwest," "Southwest," "Northeast," "Southeast (Greater Guang)," and "Xinjiang." Each portrait depicts subtle differences in facial features. Above the collage, a caption reads: “The Han’s reputation got ruined in the West because most of the earliest Chinese movements to the US and the west in general were Cantonese like the guy at the bottom right. Had whites initially interacted with northern Han, the opinions may have been drastically different.”

when you thought you'd seen the wildest racial discourse online and there's always something more. saw this on X and FB today.
so it's saying - racism depends on perceived attractiveness or lack thereof
- physiognomy of imaginary subgroups of Han Chinese,

Excited for the launch of @drdavidtobin.bsky.social’s International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS)! Now more than ever there’s a need for rigorous, reflective, critically-informed research on China. INCCS’s mission to avoid clunky, knee-jerk commentary is refreshing & desperately needed

New website launched for the International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS) The International Network for Critical China Studies (INCCS), led by Dr David Tobin, has launched its website, bringing together researchers from around the world to share critical, policy-relevant wo...

sheffield.ac.uk/las/news/new...

Contact me by email or DM if you have a proposal for a research publication or co-hosted events.

@billcallahan.bsky.social @timothyagrose.bsky.social @kasgarlikarluk.bsky.social @astridnordin.bsky.social @ericschluessel.bsky.social @davidstroup.bsky.social @htheaker.bsky.social

Who is INCCS? Who is INCCS? INCCS is an independent network of scholars who research and write about the politics, economy, and society of China, united by a commitment to academic freedom, truth-telling, and cri...

INCCS is an independent network of scholars, united by a commitment to critical analysis and academic freedom in the study of contemporary China.

sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

Events

INCCS provides a platform for knowledge exchange and impact by hosting research based workshop events.

sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

Policy Reports Policymakers and the media need to hear from independent voices who rigorously research and openly document the most pressing geopolitical and social issues of the 21st century. The International Netw...

INCCS publishes detailed policy reports on the politics, economy, and society of contemporary China by scholars with research track records of using up-to-date primary sources.

sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

Policymakers and the media need rigorous research by independently minded scholars to make sense of Chinese politics and society.

INCCS will tackle the big and difficult questions about "China's rise".

"On the other, there is an expectation that the cultures of other ethnic groups (often minorities), especially their languages, religions, and sense of identity, will fade away, saying they are all obstacles to development, and that can only be achieved by getting rid of them as soon as possible."

"The old development concept applied a double standard to diverse ethnic cultures: on the one hand, it advocated and promoted the cultural values of certain ethnic groups (developed Western countries), claiming that it was the inevitable path and destination for humanity."

张海洋 (2006) 简论中国化与和谐社会

Zhang Haiyang (2006) 'On Sinicisation and Harmonious Society'

但由于旧的发展观对多元民族文化采用双重标准：一方面提倡和推广个别民族（西方发达国家）的文化价值，说那是人类的必由之路和必然归宿；一方面又期待另一些民族（往往是国内少数民族）的文化（特别是其语言，宗教和认同意识）谈化或消亡，说那都是发展的拦路虎，绊脚石或紧箍咒，要尽早摆脱才能实现发展。

Preventing Transnational Repression: the case of the Uyghur diaspora Preventing Transnational Repression: the case of the Uyghur diaspora By David Tobin and Nyrola Elimä Open Access Download (August 2025) Abstract Transnational repression is increasingly used by aut...

sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

"We know you better than you know yourself": China's TNR of the Uyghur "We know you better than you know yourself": China’s transnational repression of the Uyghur diaspora By David Tobin and Nyrola Elimä Open Access Download (March 2023) Abstract Transnational repres...

sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

Protected No More The 51-page report, “Protected No More: Uyghurs in Türkiye,” finds that Uyghurs’ previous access to international protection status, and indeed preferential treatment under the Turkish immigration sys...

The status and rights of Uyghur communities in Turkiye are deeply precarious, and overlooked by researchers and civil society organisations since 2017. It's now being more fully documented.

www.hrw.org/report/2025/...

Joe Fewsmith RIP

For me, this was one of his most significant contributions:

Are nations ancient or modern?

"从80年代初开始，在中国古代文献中搜检“民族”一词的努力一直在进行..."

"Since the early 1980s, efforts to search for the term "nation" in ancient Chinese texts have been ongoing..."

Hao Shiyuan (2004) 中文“民族“一词源流考辨 ('An Examination of the Origin of the Chinese Term, minzu')

China spy case witness removed 'enemy' from evidence under Tories Security adviser Matthew Collins says the term

This is not a party political issue. No government has adequately addressed the intent or methods in play here.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"The Nose Knows" film poster shows a facial side-view with nose, on top of a collage about Chinese noses

Amazing news! "The Nose Knows: Foreignness and Fortune in China" was just selected by Little Venice Film Festival (London 22-28 October) via FilmFreeway.com!

Xi and Putin stand shoulder to shoulder as China casts itself as an alternative global leader | CNN Chinese leader Xi Jinping made a veiled swipe at the United States on Monday as he criticized “bullying practices” and cast his country as a new leader of world governance, at a time when President Do...

Shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I was asked to write an essay on Russia's relations with China. I did and I argued that this would happen. The essay was subsequently withdrawn by the publisher on the grounds that it was "off topic".

edition.cnn.com/2025/09/01/c...

Happy to recommend people who would likely be interested.

Chinese university students told to spy on classmates, report says Lecturers are also being harassed, the report finds, as ministers say threats will not be tolerated.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

China: Overseas students face harassment and surveillance in campaign of transnational repression Chinese and Hong Kong students studying abroad are living in fear of intimidation, harassment and surveillance as Chinese authorities seek to prevent them from engaging with ‘sensitive’ or political i...

www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...

Obviously British universities are underfunded but political interference by China's party-state is also very real.

www.scmp.com/opinion/worl...

Events

The report was discussed in detail at the Preventing Transnational Repression workshop and group recommendations are also available here:

sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

🚨 New research report 🚨

“Preventing Transnational Repression: the case of the Uyghur diaspora”

By David Tobin and @nyrolaelima.bsky.social

sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

21 years later and this reads almost like prophecy.

2004. "The dynamics of penetration and resistance between the centre and what still remains an indigenous periphery can be expected to generate at the same time both increased sinicization and increased ethno-national unrest."

www.jstor.org/stable/20192...

The problem is that there is no practical solidarity but there is a lot of hostility.