Xian Aubin Wang, "Islam and Maoism in Southern Yunnan: State Violence and Resistance, 1949–2024" (Cornell UP, 2026)

The history of Southern Yunnan’s Muslim communities under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reveals a complex trajectory of state violence, religious identity, and local resistance from 1949 to 2024. Historian Xian Aubin Wang examines the 1975 Shadian massacre, where the People's Liberation Army razed villages and killed over 1,600 people, as a defining moment of state-led suppression during the Cultural Revolution. Beyond this tragedy, the narrative highlights how Muslim villagers navigated shifting political landscapes, transitioning from initial support for Maoist ideology to persistent, often clandestine, resistance against the eradication of their faith. By utilizing oral histories, the research uncovers the role of local "religious traitors"—leaders forced to collaborate with the state—and the ongoing struggle for religious autonomy, challenging top-down statecraft narratives that often obscure the agency of those living on China’s southwestern periphery.