Muslim Uyghur Students in a Dislocated Chinese Boarding School: Bonding Social Capital as a Response to Ethnic Integration

In order to enhance national unity, the Chinese government has established “dislocated” boarding schools in Chinese cities. These schools are for students from the far western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang; the latter enroll Muslim Uyghur and other ethnic minority students from Xinjiang. This paper delineates the school living experience of the Uyghur students. The empirical data was collected from a four-month qualitative field study in one such boarding school; it argues that the students have developed a bonding form of social capital as a response to the school’s goal of ethnic integration. This bonding social capital manifests itself in typical ethnic norms of daily life, such as language usage, food, greeting rituals, and dressing customs.