Allison L. Quatrini

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.

If citizens trust the state, they will see its directives as reasonable and worth following. [...]to the degree that Asian authoritarian political systems achieve greater legitimacy than liberal democratic counterparts, contrary to the assumption that such legitimacy requires the consent of the governed, then Asian authoritarian politics ought to be better positioned to handle public health crises. [...]even with a positive assessment of the government and in the absence of an opportunity to criticize the state, one cannot assume that this must equate to trust in the government. [...]Kleinfeld argues that there is a marked difference between voluntary compliance and government enforcement.