Uyghur-Chinese Mandarin Code-Switching and Government Censorship in an Online Show

This chapter presents an initial investigation of the effect of government censorship on the language use of a minority language community in Xinjiang, north-western China. Data (both quantitative and qualitative) for this study come from an online show named Anar Pishti, an online mini comedy-drama (2016–2020) that takes place primarily in the capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi. The first season was released in 2016 on the Chinese online video platform, YouKu. The subsequent five seasons were released over four years. Because of its youth elements and incorporation of up-to-date social topics in the Xinjiang region, it quickly became popular among Uyghur and some Chinese audiences; at the same time, because of its use of strong Uyghur elements and Uyghur language, it has become a likely target of the Chinese government's censorship since 2017 (the release year of Season 4), when the government's crackdown on the Uyghur Muslim population began. I hypothesize that the amount of code-switching and semiotic symbols of Chinese Han culture in the show will increase starting from Season 4. This is because Season 4 was released in 2017 when the dramatic suppression of Uyghur people in Xinjiang began. And I believe this increase in Chinese Han symbolic representation (including linguistic representation) does not merely reflect the ongoing language shift from Uyghur to Mandarin in Xinjiang but is also caused by government censorship.