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{{Short description|Uyghur people's cultural tradition}}
{{Infobox intangible heritage
| ICH         = Meshrep
| Country     = East Turkistan 
| ID          = 00304
| Region      = APA
| Year        = 2010
| Session     = 5th
| List        = Need of Urgent Safeguarding
}}

A '''meshrep''' ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: [[wikt:مەشرەپ|{{lang|ug|مەشرەپ|nocat=yes}}]], {{lang|ug|мәшрәп}} {{lang|ug-Latn|mäxräp}}; {{zh|c=[[wikt:麦西热甫|麦西热甫]]|p=màixīrèfǔ}}, lit. "harvest festival") is a traditional male [[Uyghur people|Uyghur]] gathering that typically includes "poetry, music, dance, and conversation within a structural context".<ref name="Thwaites"/> Meshreps typically include music of the [[muqam]] variety and ad-hoc [[tribunal]]s on moral questions. Meshrep are usually held in mosques, public gathering sites, the courtyard of one of the members' family home.

==Traditional structure==
The practice of meshrep is diverse among Uyghur communities, but there are some commonalities. Traditionally, meshrep were only held on the [[harvest]], and on [[wedding]]s, [[circumcision]]s, and girls' [[coming of age|comings of age]].<ref name="Harris">{{Cite book|title=The Making of a Musical Canon in Chinese Central Asia: The Uyghur Twelve Muqam|author=Harris, Rachel A.|publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]]|year=2008|pages=24–25, 104–106}}</ref> Each meshrep consists of a leader (''yigit bashi'', an older man), a disciplinarian (''passip begi''), and 30 younger men (''ottuz oghul''), who sit on a carpet according to seniority.<ref name="Thwaites">{{Cite journal|author=Thwaites, Dilber Kahraman|title=An Uyghur Meshrep Dichotomy|journal=Central Eurasian Studies Review|volume=4|number=2|date=Summer 2005|pages=22–25}}</ref> As the meshreps were primarily [[male bonding]] events,<ref name="Thwaites"/> the women and children of the host's family were to stay inside the house and only interact with the men to bring them food or to otherwise serve them.<ref name="Harris"/> Music is an essential component of the meshrep, and during the meshrep, men play progressively faster [[muqam]] melodies on the [[dutar]] while others compete to see who could perform whirling circle dances for the longest period of time. Some meshrep also feature songs, skits, and lectures from religious leaders.<ref name="Harris"/> Aside from the entertainment value of the meshrep, these groups also formed part of the informal governance structure of Uyghur communities, and still do outside of China.<ref name="Roberts204">{{citation|chapter='The Dawn of the East': A Portrait of a Uyghur Community Between China and Kazakhstan|last=Roberts|first=Sean R.|title=Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia|editor-first=Ildikó|editor-last=Bellér-Hann|year=2007|series=Anthropology and cultural history in Asia and the Indo-Pacific|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|isbn=978-0-7546-7041-4|page=204}}</ref> Inside the meshrep, the moral transgressions of the men, such as [[polygamy]], are publicly scolded and the men humiliated by slapping<ref name="Harris"/> or [[caning]].<ref name="Wayne"/> There is no limit on the length or attendance of the meshrep, and the [[Dolan people|Dolan Uyghurs]] were famed for hosting meshrep "attended by hundreds of people, and often last[ing] the whole night".<ref name="Harris"/>

==Ili Youth Meshrep==
The meshrep is attested to in modern Chinese literature as early as 1942, in the [[Socialist realism|socialist realist]] play ''Gulnissa'', where the meshrep is portrayed as a secular, [[coeducational]] [[youth culture]].<ref name="Thwaites"/> During that time, the meshrep in [[Yining City|Yining]] (Ghulja) consisted of musical performances and "informal court hearings" for community dissidents.<ref name="Harris"/> [[Uyghurs in Kazakhstan]] began practicing the meshrep as early as the 1970s.<ref name="Roberts204"/> After China's [[Economic history of the People's Republic of China|economic reforms]] in the 1980s, a middle class began to develop in China, and ordinary Chinese had more leisure time and discretionary income.<ref name="Starr"/> At the same time, political and religious controls were loosening, and Chinese officials encouraged the building of [[mosque]]s and the [[Hijab|veiling of women]].<ref name="Thwaites"/> Contemporary developments in the region, including the global [[Islamic revival]] and the independence of the [[Soviet Central Asia]]n states in 1992, inspired [[Uyghur independence]] feeling and the establishment of militant groups like the [[East Turkestan Islamic Movement]] (ETIM).<ref name="Bulard">{{Cite news|url=http://mondediplo.com/2009/08/02china|title=China's wild west|first=Martine|last=Bulard|date=August 2009|newspaper=[[Le Monde diplomatique]]}}</ref> 

==Olturax gatherings==
In the 1990s, the social and political life in the city of [[Yining City|Yining]] (Ghulja) was predominantly secular. In Yining, young Uyghur men would informally gather, usually once a week, to drink [[baijiu]], perform poetry and music, and otherwise socialize. These meshrep gatherings, called [[''olturax'']], grew to perform important political and economic functions in Yining life.<ref name="Starr"/>

==Rise of Islamist and nationalist focus==
Islamic<ref name="Wayne"/> youth groups organized in the evenings grew in opposition to and eventually eclipsed the olturax, also serving "the foci for Uyghur resistance to Chinese rule".<ref name="Starr"/><ref name="Bulard"/> Calling themselves "meshreps", the clubs criticized the secular nature of the olturax<ref name="Tyler"/> and the alcohol consumption within [[Islam and alcohol|as un-Islamic]].<ref name="Starr"/> These meshreps, which have been compared to the Catholic [[Knights of Columbus]],<ref name="ETIM">{{Cite book|title=The ETIM: China's Islamic Militants and the Global Terrorist Threat|author=Reed, J. Todd|author2=Raschke, Diana|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|year=2010|page=23}}</ref> were more formal than the olturax: tasked with providing "moral guidance", they kept strict membership lists and organized regular meetings, wherein members would read passages from the [[Quran]].<ref name="Thwaites"/> Meshrep practitioners were held to a strict code of Islamic conduct in their daily lives, including abstinence from alcohol and [[hashish]]. Initiation into the meshrep involved [[hazing]] rituals,<ref name="Wayne"/> and once admitted, men who did not continue to meet the group's standards of Muslim piety were given [[corporal punishment]], such as [[caning]],<ref name="Wayne"/> or petty fines by the group.<ref name="Starr"/> These practices diverged significantly from the meshrep's secular tradition,<ref name="Thwaites"/> and thus revived the meshrep in Yining with "new religious and nationalist meanings".<ref name="Harris"/>

Initially, both social reformers and the local government supported the meshreps, as they provided an outlet for young Uyghur men in an environment rife with unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse, and gambling.<ref name="Thwaites"/><ref name="Tyler"/> But as the popularity of meshrep grew, meshrep groups became more assertive in their opposition to the government's goals.<ref name="Thwaites"/> In the spring and summer of 1995, meshreps started a campaign of boycotts and intimidation against shops that sold [[liquor]] in Yining and the surrounding villages.<ref name="Wayne">{{Cite book|title=China's War on Terrorism: Counter-insurgency, politics, and internal security|author=Wayne, Martin I.|publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|year=2008}}</ref> Fearing the meshrep's political potential, Xinjiang authorities banned the gatherings in July 1995.<ref name="ETIM"/> However, most meshrep groups continued to operate in secret, or delegated their morals enforcement duties to legal [[neighborhood watch]] groups.<ref name="Starr"/> When a [[association football|football game]] organized by underground meshrep teams was canceled by authorities, the meshrep mobilized several hundred Uyghur men to march across government offices and to gather in Yining's main plaza, although there was no violence and the crowd dispersed after a few days. Authorities then drew a distinction between "healthy, traditional" meshrep and an "illicit" political and religious meshrep, encouraging the former but cracking down on the latter.<ref name="Starr">{{Cite book|title=Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland|author=Starr, S. Frederick|publisher=[[M. E. Sharpe]]|year=2004|pages=109, 282, 284–287}}</ref> In 1997, a national anticrime campaign resulted in the arrests of meshrep leaders and [[talibe]]s in Yining, leading to mass riots called the [[Ghulja Incident]].<ref name="Tyler">{{Cite book|title=Wild West China: The Taming of Xinjiang|first=Christian|last=Tyler|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|year=2004|pages=168, 171}}</ref>

==Modern meshrep==
After the [[Ghulja incident|Ghulja Incident]], local antigovernment Uyghurs migrated to [[Almaty]] in Kazakhstan, where they continued to practice the meshrep as they had in Ili.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Central Asia and the Caucasus: Transnationalism and Diaspora|first1=Touraj|last1=Atabaki|first2=Sanjyot|last2=Mehendale|publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|year=2005|pages=159, 161}}</ref> In November 2010, [[UNESCO]] approved China' nomination of the meshrep to the [[List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-11/15/c_13608055.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404033556/http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-11/15/c_13608055.htm|archive-date=April 4, 2012|title=China's three nominations inscribed on List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding|date=2010-11-15|access-date=2011-07-30|publisher=[[Xinhua]]}}</ref>  Due to Chinese government's crackdown on Uyghurs since 2016, it was increasingly difficult for local Uyghur communities to organize their own meshrep, other than government-organized meshrep performance aimed at tourists.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://globalvoices.org/2020/07/08/the-uyghur-meshrep-a-traditional-community-gathering-censored-in-china/|title= The Uyghur Meshrep: A traditional community gathering censored in China|website=Global Voices|date= 8 July 2020}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

{{UNESCO Oral and Intangible music}}
{{UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding}}
{{Xinjiang topics}}

[[Category:Islam in China]]
[[Category:Uyghur culture]]
[[Category:Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding]]