Everyday Life Surveillance, Poverty Alleviation Campaign, and Uyghur Households' Performance in Xinjiang

In Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), a region of far Northwest China, the heavily policed apparatus and re-education camp give an account of the development of surveillance society. The surveillance of everyday life is, however, neglected by critical scholars. This project is a case study of the "Visiting, Benefiting, and Gathering (fanghuiju 访惠聚)" campaign implemented in Xinjiang starting in 2014. Through discourse analysis in grassroots communities, this paper focuses on the microlayers of surveillance and performance in everyday life.