{"id":13,"date":"2016-09-01T14:50:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T14:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev-the-digital-silk-road.pantheonsite.io\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2018-10-26T13:50:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T13:50:32","slug":"team-sky","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/projects\/silkroad\/team-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Clouds
Cumulus Humilis Clouds, Toby Hudson, 2009<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Who\u2019s that Girl? \u00a0<\/strong>The Morphology of Body Aesthetics in Uyghur Communities<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Nathan Grannan, Elise Tangedal, Tieji Williams<\/p>\n

Silkworm: Sydney Brown<\/p>\n

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Ideals of beauty and body aesthetics are ingrained within every culture across the globe. \u00a0When thinking about physical expression of culture and beauty, we wonder if beauty is an objective construct, or if individuals subjectively dictate it. \u00a0Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Moreover, who gets to say what is beautiful and what is not? \u00a0As we examine the social constructs of beauty and body aesthetics, our inquiry takes a closer look into the historical Silk Road, and the ways beauty ideals were spread, used, rejected, and changed along these routes. \u00a0More specifically, we direct our attention to the Uyghur communities within the People\u2019s Republic of China.<\/span>
\nThe Uyghurs are an ethnic minority group of Turkic descent that live primarily in China\u2019s far west, in a region known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. \u00a0Outside of Xinjiang, a small but sizeable population of Uyghurs exist in China\u2019s Hunan Province, as well as assorted Central Asian nations ranging from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan all the way over to Turkey. \u00a0In China, there are conflicting reports on the number of Uyghur citizens within the nation; the 2010 Chinese census reports around 10 million, while other advocacy groups report that there are well over 15 million Uyghurs living in the PRC. \u00a0The Uyghurs are relatively unique in China, as they speak Uyghur instead of Mandarin and are predominantly Muslim.<\/span>
\nSilk and other beauty products were major commodities that were bargained for and traded along the Silk Road, leaving a long history of characteristics of desirability and beauty. \u00a0The history of beauty ideals along the Silk Road is key in uncovering the aesthetics of beauty and body images within contemporary cultures that were part of the ancient travel routes. \u00a0With ideals of beauty and body image comes discussion of gender expression and sexuality, especially with contemporary understandings of beauty and body. \u00a0On the other hand, we recognize\u00a0that our understanding\u00a0of gender and sexuality politics are largely defined from an American and European point of view. \u00a0We also recognize that the contemporary period is not static. \u00a0There are and have been many radical changes just within that past fifteen years of China\u2019s history. \u00a0It is important to note that we are not removing our project from the context of history, but we are investigating possible regional differences in China\u2019s Uyghur communities. \u00a0We seek to analyze the possible morphologies of the intersections of women, bodies and queer identity across Uyghur communities in contemporary China. <\/span><\/p>\n

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