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Subversive Celebrations: Holidays as Sites of Minority Identity Contestation in Repressive Regimes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2020

Lisel Hintz  and
Allison L. Quatrini Open the ORCID record for Allison L. Quatrini [Opens in a new window]
Lisel Hintz
Affiliation:
School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
Allison L. Quatrini*
Affiliation:
Behavioral Sciences Collegium, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

What role do nationally celebrated holidays play for groups that are not considered—or do not consider themselves—to be part of the majority nation of a state? What function do holidays specific to minority group cultures serve under regimes that discriminate against those groups? This article explores holidays as a forum for contestation for the national identity proposals promulgated by the state in repressive regimes. We argue that national holidays are meaningful sites of identity contestation for four reasons: the role of holidays in heightening identity salience, the malleability of identity narratives, the relative lack of institutional barriers to acts of celebration, and the significance of refusing to participate in celebrations. We collected the data through interviews and participant observation of the Hui in China and the Kurds in Turkey. We employ ethnographic observation and intertextual analysis to compare these identity narratives. We find that the Hui legitimize their group’s existence by co-opting the traditional Spring Festival, or by outwardly insisting they are not celebrating while still engaging in festivities. In contrast, Turkey’s Kurds resist the government’s co-optation of the spring celebration of Newroz as a Turkish national holiday.

Keywords

repressive regimesidentity contestationholidaysTurkeyChina
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 49 , Issue 2: Special Issue on Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Identity, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality by Law , March 2021 , pp. 289 - 307
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© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for the Study of Nationalities

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