This paper explores the intersection between indigenous knowledge and state-framed anthropology in contemporary China, examining the work of Guan Wenming, a Sibe genealogist from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Based on long-term anthropological fieldwork conducted between 2010 and 2019 among the Manchu-speaking Sibe people, I analyse how Guan's research practice constitutes both an act of cultural preservation and an implicit critique of academic hierarchies. His work sheds light on how indigenous researchers, often positioned at the “periphery of the periphery”, generate, conserve, and reinterpret knowledge outside of formal academic structures in China.
Ildikó Sárközi (Thu,) studied this question.