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China: Continued Erasure of Uyghur Identity
Posted by: Tijen Horoz
Tags: Asia,Central Asia,China,Culture,identity,Turkey,Turkistan,uyghur Posted date:
February 6, 2012 |
18 Comments
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For many Chinese, the recent new year celebrations symbolise a new beginning. It is the celebration of an ongoing journey and is held synonymous with advancement, progress and improvement. But the sad reality for many people is that the New Year signals nothing more than the continuation of their suffering. Tyranny and oppression are obstacles to progress and advancement, starvation and conflict banish hopes for improvement, and a context of stagnation and isolation suffocates any attempts at movement and development.
My first article for The Platform pilot project in 2010, on the Uyghur people of North-West China’s Xinjiang Province, detailed how the Chinese government was attempting to dilute Uyghur identity in Xinjiang and homogenise the region in line with the Han Chinese ideal of the ‘motherland’. Two years later, this article which I am writing does not, I regret to say, contain anything more positive. The campaign of the People’s Republic of China to homogenise the Uyghur population and to destroy their cultural, religious and ethnic identity is, with each passing year, proving more successful. If we measure progress in terms of the advancement of oppression, then the case of the Uyghurs in China is a fine example of progress in the new year. In fact, the only thing that seems to have remained the same is the lack of interest from the outside world.
The destruction of East Turkistan as it is known by the Uyghurs, and the erasure of the Uyghur culture and language, has been an ongoing policy of the Chinese state since Chinese nationalists overthrew the Manchu Empire to take control of Xinjiang in 1911. Historically, East Turkistan has always been outside the borders of China, as marked by the Jade Gate, which people passed through when leaving civilised China to enter the ‘wild west’ of Central Asia and Mongolia. Records show that the Uyghurs have a history of more than 4000 years in East Turkistan and Uyghur dynasties such as the Karakhanids have played major roles in Asian and Middle Eastern history. An independent East Turkistan Republic was set up in 1933, with Isa Alptekin as its Secretary General, and again in 1944 with help from the Soviet Union. However as the historian Hugh Pope has shown, after the Turkic nationalist group, ‘of which Isa Alptekin was a leading member, won the region’s last free local election in 1947’, Mao-Tse Tung’s communist party moved in; by 1949 they had re-established complete control over the area. Any attempts at resistance were brutally subdued and many Uyghurs including Isa, as well as other Central Asians, fled the country.
Since then, the population of East Turkistan has lived in a constant atmosphere of fear, oppression and isolation. Internet and telephone lines are cut for months on end at the slightest hint of unrest, mosques are summarily closed and the Uyghur language is banned in universities. Uyghurs are constantly subjected to imprisonment, torture and executions without fair trial, and Uyghur homes and historic buildings are being destroyed on a daily basis. Even books on Uyghur history and culture are attacked by the Chinese state as attempts at separatism. According to a report by the Uyghur American association, ‘In May 1991… “The Hun”, “Ancient Uighur Literature”, and, “The Uighur People”…although printed by a government publishing house…were banned’. The author of The Uighur People, Turghun Almas, was even put under house arrest.
Other attempts at homogenisation and isolation have been particularly successful. Whereas the population of ethic Han Chinese in Xinjiang was only six per cent in 1949, as a result of government policies that number has now risen to just over 40 per cent. Despite the majority of East Turkistan’s population being ethnically Turkic, very few Turks can be found in any higher and mid-level government jobs. Even the written script of the Uyghurs is a product of China’s isolationist tactics, with China having; ‘phased out the traditional Arabic script in 1962 in favour of Latin letters, to wean the Uygurs off their old, Islamic identity. But when Latin-script books started flowing in from Turkey, China moved the language to a unique modified Arabic script in 1980’. Not only did this serve to isolate them off from the rest of the world and other Turkic states, but it also meant that, two generations in a row were cut off from their parent’s written culture.
Whilst most people know the issue of Tibet and support for Tibet is widespread with powerful, well-organised lobbies in the UK, America and around the world, the situation of the Uyghurs goes largely unnoticed and unquestioned. Whilst it is true that human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in Xinjiang, international pressure and condemnation is almost non-existent. There have been attempts by Turkey to draw attention to the plight of their ethnic cousins. Following the Urumqi riots of July 2009, in which many Uyghurs were killed or imprisoned, hundreds in Turkey gathered in protest outside the Chinese embassy in Ankara. It was also reported that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan labelled the incidents in China as genocide, and announced he would be willing to approve a visa for Rebiya Kadeer, an exiled Uyghur activist currently residing in the United States. However despite continuing public condemnation of China, on an international and political level even Turkey seems to have quietened it stance on the issue, prioritising strengthening trade links with China over support for the Uyghur struggle for human rights.
The lack of recognition for human rights is down to a number of factors. One of the most important is the stranglehold that the Chinese government has on freedom of speech and freedom of the press (this applies throughout China). This does, of course, make it very difficult to obtain information and figures regarding human rights abuses and the detainment, torture, and killing of Uyghurs. This was illustrated powerfully in the coverage we received on the Urumqi riots, where official government figures and explanations of the events of 5 July 2009 and its aftermath, completely conflicted with independent sources. Despite calls from human rights groups for an independent investigation, Chinese officials have flatly refused to allow such an investigation.
As well as restricting the flow of information from Xinjiang, the Chinese have also continued a propaganda campaign that has vilified the Turkic peoples, continuously falsified the Uighur history, undermined their belief and exploited their culture’.
After 9/11 the Chinese state used the fear of Islamic fanaticism to their advantage, continually portraying Uyghurs that expressed a desire for self-determination not only as separatists, but also as Islamic terrorists. This has of course been predictably successful in curbing sympathy from a number of countries, who were anyhow, prior to 11 September, not particularly interested in the injustices committed against a an isolated, Turkic Muslim community far away in the East.
Perhaps the most important reason for the lack of interest in the Uyghur cause is the art of turning a blind eye to the inhumane actions of superpowers. Just as with America, China’s economic power has meant that the international community, either in the hope of strategic and commercial alliances, or in the fear of confrontation, has kept quiet.
However, remaining ignorant of injustices does not mean they are not happening. Reports dated as recent as 29 December 2011 detail the killings of seven Uyghurs in Pishan County, trying to leave China via the border with Pakistan. The Chinese policy of isolation, oppression and assimilation of the Uyghurs shows no sign of slowing down, and until people stand up and take notice, there is no hope that it ever will. This is why I urge ‘everyday’ people, like us, to make an active effort to educate ourselves on the situation, and to spread the message in the hope that, one day, just maybe, our governments might follow our example.
Image from: http://www.pnyxblog.com/pnyx/2011/8/30/beijing-and-xinjiang-long-term-problems.html
About the author
Tijen Horoz
Tijen Zahide Horoz is World editor at The Platform. She tweets @TijenZahide. Tijen completed a BA in English Literature and Language from King’s College London, followed by an MA in Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Tijen Zahide Horoz is World editor at The Platform. She tweets @TijenZahide. Tijen completed a BA in English Literature and Language from King’s College London, followed by an MA in Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
18 Comments
Tijen
Making the point that East Turkistan is distinctly cntral Asian does not contradict the point that China is attempting to homogenise it. The point I was trying to make is that a community that is culturally, ethnically and religiously distinct is under threat. I was not aware that the Xinjiang Normal University cnducts those courses. Thank you for that informatio. It is good to know. However I was referring to the use of Uyghur more generally in Chinese universities. Also I have to disagree that having road signs in Uyghur and Uyghur language programmes is a sign of allowing freedom. It only makes sense to retain the signs in a language that people understand. And despite the fact that programmes are broadcast in Uyghur, the content of these programmes is heavily dictated by China. Also, even in tems of soap operas and more general programming, the only ones which were aired in all my time there were Chinses soap operas (many of which are peiod dramas about the greatness of the Chinese empire) that were dubbed in Uyghur.
The fact that Uyghurs speak ther own language at home is not a symbol of their freedom. When Kurdish was banned in South East Tukey, there were still many villages full of people who could only speak Kurdish. Often, this was because of a lack of education, wealth and opputunities for them provided by the Turkish state.I think hat this can also be applied to he Uyghur situation.
I the Uyghur identity is lving on, I believe it is a testamant to te people and not the Chinse state. The idea that the Chinese are only destroying ‘slums’ and ‘illegal’ buildings is a statement that seems to toe the official Chinese line. Many traditional Uyghur famly homes that have been standing for decades, and indeed whole cmmunities have been flattened to make way for apartment blocks. Many of these buildings are undeniably a part of Uyghr/Turkic heritage in this area and we know, even from English studies on the physological and social effects of housing people in estates and tower blocks, is tha i is an obstacle in the creation/reatining of a communty spirit.
Also could you please tell me where the same modified script is used outside of China? In Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenisan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan the script differs.
inally, none is agung ha Xinjiang is not a province of China but this doesn not make them one and the same. A nation state sould embrace the cultural and ethic differenes inherent in its own territories. These diferences are no a threat, they only seve to enrich a country. I also find it unhelpful to apply the framework of modern nations, created fairly recently to a situation like this, as it doesn’t really help us to understand it.
Aussie in China
The modified Uygur Arabic Script is not a Chinese isolationist policy as you suggest but is fundamentally a policy of orthographic standardisation and reform carried out in Urumqi by linguists working for the Autonomous Region Language and Script Working Committee (Aptonom rayonning til-yeziq xizmat komiteti).
A standardistion of the Uygur Arabic Script was first proposed by the Uygur linguist Ibrahim Muti in Urumqi in 1948 after 26 years of frequent script changes by the USSR in Central Asia affecting Uygurs in the Soviet sphere.
Qaynam
Hello Aussie in China:
This is statement is your trademark. I saw it on many massage boards.
” in my 10 years here, I am yet to meet or hear of a Uygur child or adult who cannot speak Uygur”
Chinese has this saying: repeat the lies thrice, then it will become true. I don’t know if you are truly an Aussie, but it is likely that your brain was “contaminated” eating melamonie tainted foods in China, Or you could be Wang or Sheng but writing as an Aussie.
In your 10 years there, how many Uyghurs have you seen? 100, 1000 or 10000?
The issue here is not just Uyghur’s present situation, but their future identity as Uyghurs…
What China is doing to Uyghurs is assimilation by forcing and coaxing…
History has seen many empires with vicious intent, and we know what happened to them…. Unlike some pessimistic Uyghurs, I am optimistic that we will survive and will not disappear as some locusts wished.
We are gaining our lost pride slowly but surely. We don’t submit before the oppression.
Disappointment to you, but respect and appreciation to Ms. Tijen Horoz!
DId you miss the chinese style speech?
— Don’t meddle with our internal affairs, Assie!
Lucyliu
Good article, some facts and truth but majority are biased. I wanna say that I’m NOT pro Chinese CPC. I’m just a han chinese who was born and lived in Xinjiang. I attended my schools there but studied my degrees in the UK. There are many points you mentioned in your article are ridiculous (including the title). But I like to say a few obvious things.
1.”Internet and telephone lines are cut for months on end at the slightest hint of unrest “- This is definitely true. It did happen once after 2009 riots. I have been living overseas since 1999. so I have been keeping in touch with my families there through the usual means. Only time I had issue to contact my families there was after 2009’s. Again, my personal experience.
2. For 2009 riots, do you know how many innocent han chinese were killed or slaughtered by uyghur rioters? I understand that there might be some innocent uyghurs got sentenced or tortured by CPC. But you can not ignore a simpel fact, many innocent people got killed by uyghurs during 2009 riot. Why no western media, no one questioned about human right in that situation?
3. regarding to your “Chinese government was attempting to dilute Uyghur identity in Xinjiang and homogenise the region in line with the Han Chinese ideal of the ‘motherland’. I dont know what to say. Chinese government even doesnt give a crap about chinese han culture that much. I studied with Uyghur in school. yes Uyghur attends chinese school, but they do have choice to attend uyghur school. Just like us, if we cant speak english, how can you expect us to find a job or live in the UK?instead of that, we complained about we were treated unfairly by the UK government or identity got diluted. Just an example.
From your education background, you must be a bright person. but studying in a library in London and read book wrote by already biased western scholars is not gonna give your a full picture. You need to see it yourself. Go there and live there, talk to normal han chinese, normal uyghurs how happily live there and because friends with han chinese. they are representing majorities!! Good luck with your study.
lucyliu
Regarding to my point 1. what I meant your claim is definitely NOT true! communication was never cut off except for 2009 riots. I cant speak what happened before 1999.
Sire
Dear Lucy,
I read your comments with some interest as they toed the official party line when talking about Xinjiang. As a Han Chinese I am sure that given you were raised on the land of other people, you are hardly going to agree with the notion that your childhood in Xinjiang existed against a backdrop of occupation. It goes without saying that given Xinjiang’s vast resources, the incentives offered by the Chinese government to encourage Han Chinese migration to Xinjiang is more than coincidental; it is a concerted attempt by the state to alter the demographic reality of Xinjiang, thereby diluting the population and any realistic demands for self-determination. To say that communications to Xinjiang were not cut after the Urumqi riots is so absurd that I can’t believe you were being serious. China, at will, cuts communications to Xinjiang and other ‘trouble’ areas such as Tibet province; thereby ensuring that its ‘account’ of events can be constructed through carefully manipulated discourse. You miss the irony in your own comments when you say that Uyghurs should learn Chinese to fit into Chinese society; indeed, if that is not homogenisation, I am unsure what is. When China stole Xinjiang during the Qing dynasty, and named it ‘Xinjiang’ – literally meaning ‘New Land’ – it left no qualms about its intentions for the region. Between the lines, China’s usual response to the Uyghur issue has always been the same; ‘Western countries behave with disregard for human rights – therefore, so can we’.
Tijen
Thank you for your comment Lucy. When I talk of the Chinese ideal of the motherland I am in act referring to the Chinese communist stae ideal rather than a historical Han perspective. I should probably have made that clearer. Also I have been to both Xinjiang and other parts of China, so am also speaking from my experiences there. I loved my time in China and do not have any personal problem with the Chinese, but have written this article from a humanist perspective and am just trying to shed some light on a major, yet lttle known human rights issue. I don’t disagree with Uygurs learningMandarin and I have never implied that, but that is not the issue I’m addressing. them learning Han Chinese should not be related to their freedom to express their own cultural and religous identity
Yolvas
I really appreciate Tijen writing this well-researched/observed piece on the tragic situation of Uyghur people in East Turkestan. Everything you said is a fact. But the fact is well-hidden by the Chinese government from the eyes of the international community and even their own Chinese people. So it is no surprise that you would hear from Chinese who disagree with what you say. Because the reality of life for the Chinese settlers in East Turkestan is completely different for the Uyghurs. The Chinese settlers are colonizers supported by their government and military forces to colonize East Turkestan and assimilate the Uyghur people. They enjoy all the power, privilege and possessions deprived from the Uyghurs. They use them to discriminate, dehumanize and destroy the Uyghur people.
Unlike the Nazis, they don’t put all the Uyghurs on trains and send them to concentration camps for extermination. They intentionally create conditions of life by imposing extremely heavy-handed policies to gradually, quietly, and “legally” exterminate the Uyghurs without the notice of the international community. That is how Chinese destroyed the Manchus, a powerful and courageous people who occupied and ruled China for nearly 300 years. The Chinese government, and even many brainwashed Chinese people, want to get rid of all non-Chinese people and make today’s PRC – a land of Chinese only. The Chinese do not have love for any peoples. They simply do not like others – whether they are Americans, British, Russians, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indians, and Africans. Many think Africans are monkeys. And they were taught to hate Uyghurs and Tibetans as “backward, feudal, lazy, uncivilized, violent, extreme” since the day they were born.
Therefore, I recommend you to continue your research on the Uyghurs and how China attempts to destroy the Uyghurs, and continue to call on your families, friends, and everyone to help defend the rights of Uyghurs. Thank you.
Qaynam
LucyLiu:
Rebuttal to your statements line by line where it is necessary!
“2. For 2009 riots, do you know how many innocent han chinese were killed or slaughtered by uyghur rioters?”
– Do you know how many innocent Uyghur workers died as a result ot Shaoguan Chinese terrorists? If
butcher Wang Le Quan and slave Nuer Baikili had taken preventive measures, things surely would not have out of control as 7.5 and 7.7 and 7.8? Oh, yes. You forgot about Uyghurs died as a result of Chinese mobs intigated by Wang’s gangs on 7.7 and 7.8. Everyone is biased here.
3. “Why no western media, no one questioned about human right in that situation?”
— Western media is not Xinhua News Agency. They report the reality and causes of this riot. Same can be said on Xinhua. They never reported the death of Uyghurs at the hands of Chinese terrorists on 7.7 and 7.8; You never admit your mistake for once, a classic Chinese!
4. “Chinese government even doesnt give a crap about chinese han culture that much”.
-if your governmet does not give a crap about han culture, its your problem. Chinese government does not give a crap about Uyghur’s rights, it is still your problem. because as a member of a majority group, you should have at least some conscience to stand up for justice! you can do that just like Huang Zhang Jing (who was born in Uyghurland just like you and pays attention to justice in Uyghurland with sincere heart, we welcome thousands of Huang Zhang Jing to Uyghurland to live with us, BUT NOT even a shadow of Butcher Wangs).
5. “Just like us, if we cant speak english, how can you expect us to find a job or live in the UK”
— Uyghurs live in a land that’s official title is Autonomous Region! Demanding Uyghurs give up Uyghur language just to get a police job or janitorial job is ridiculous! World today is not the world you know a decade ago! How do you feel if Japanese occupies Manchuria and demand all Chinese to give up Chinese and learn Japanese so that they can get high-paying jobs?
At last, I can say that you are a han chinese who is concerned about Uyghurland. But you are too much brainwashed, I am surprised that you grew up inhaling the same air I inhaled But see things totally differently from me. Ethnicity is irrelevant here, it is the facts and justice make me write here.
Probably you did not read Ms. Horoz’s wrting well and got emotional. She went there, saw it, heard it , felt it and now presented it.
Perhaps you should go back to Uyghurland and try to see things with rational eye!
Tijen
I would just like to thak everyone for their respnses. I am glad that an open debate has opened up. I will continue my research and interest on this subject and I hope that one day it will be more openly debated on a political level
yahshi bir metin
Good job!
Two points:
1. Erdogan’s comment on the July 5 incident was no more than a lip service, which actually helped little Uyghurs if at all;
2. Why did Ankara not approve a visa for Qadir earlier? Apparently Ankara was making deals with Beijing.
3. The fate of the Uyghur people does not hinge upon international attention, but upon Uyghurs themselves. International attention is useful, but not determinant.
Aussie in China
To imply that Uygur should be used more generally used in Chinese universities is a bit like implying that Gaelic should be used more generally in British universities or Navajo in American Universities. If you meant that Uygur should be more generally used in instruction in Xinjiang universities then I would agree.
As far as TV and other media programming goes, the whole of China is subject to period dramas about the greatness of China etc, not just the Uygurs and although not many, there are Uygur cultural progams aired from time to time on Xinjiang and Central TV.
Kurdish might well be banned in south-east Turkey, but Uygur and other minority languages in China are not. In my experience the only time Uygur is not spoken is in the interaction with the Chinese or in the classroom. Everywhere else, it’s Uygur.
I did say many buildings were slums and illegal, not all. If you travelled by train to Urumqi you would have noticed the slums on the high ground to the left just before the station. Quite appalling. In my town, the old Uygur section was pulled down some years ago and the occupants re-housed in modern apartments and I would doubt very much that any Uygur family is pining for their old abode with one cold water tap and a coal burning pot-bellied stove. Any suggestion that Uygur homes are being destroyed on a daily basis is incorrect.
In the last 10 years, the Internet and international phone lines across the whole of Xinjiang have been only cut once after the 2009 incident and are not cut at the slightest hint of unrest.
Aside from the huge social and political problems for Uygurs here in Xinjiang such as poverty and seeking greater autonomy, I have yet to come across any empirical evidence or statistical data that supports the premise of the erosion of the Uygur language or culture. As my old professors used to write in red pen on my essays, “sez who?”
China: Continued Erasure of Uyghur Identity » World Uyghur Congress
[…] (typeof(addthis_share) == "undefined"){ addthis_share = [];}The Platform, 6 February […]
Martin Farr
very interesting piece and subsequent debate on here, this has spurned me on to learn more about the region – possibly even visit it firsthand to try and get a real flavour for what is going on there. Would love to read a follow-up piece if there ever is one.
Protests in Xinjiang? | The China Hotline
[…] a writer at a British site called “The Platform” has an article about the ‘erasure’ of Uyghur identity: My first article for The Platform pilot project in 2010, on the Uyghur people of North-West […]
Marzena Beata G.
It’s not only cultural extermination. In c. 2005 a Polish missionary published an article in “Gość Niedzielny” (“Sunday Guest”) magazine about Uyghur people used as compulsory organ donors. One can get death sentence even for a petty offence and then is transported to a field hospital, where surgeons wait for the execution to be only completed….
The same was repeated in a BBC article about two, or thre eyars later. Now, I have found a site whith many of the links about the issue
http://uyghuramerican.org/article/saving-face-islamic-world-and-beyond-ending-death-row-organ-harvesting-china.html
Similar articles
http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/2013/06/bitter-harvest-chinas-organ-donation.html
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-112hhrg75859/pdf/CHRG-112hhrg75859.pdf
http://hrwf.org/images/newsletters/east_asia_pacific/China_2009.pdf
http://www.amazon.com/The-Slaughter-Killings-Harvesting-Dissident/dp/161614940X
Just type in “organ harvesting in China” or “Uyghur extermination in China” or any similar phrase, and you will see dozens of links.
No comment necessary.
As a resident of Xinjiang for over 10 years I read your article with some interest and would like to address a few points.
I find some of your observations are a little mis-leading and contradictory, especially in the light that in 2010, you found that Xinjiang was openly and unmistakenly identicle to central or Eastern Turkey while at the same time arguing that Xinjiang was being homogenised and transformed into just another Chinese Province.
In this article, you claim that Uygur language is banned in Universities when the Xinjiang Normal University in Urumqi conducts programs in Uygur language and Uygur literature as well as other regional languages such as Kazakh and Mongolian.
Moreover, it is mandatory that all signage in Xinjiang is displayed in both Uygur and Mandarin not to mention Uygur language television, radio progams and bilingual education in kindergardens. Also, the modified Arabic script is also used among the Muslims of China’s Ningxia Province and other parts of Central Asia. Futhermore, in my 10 years here, I am yet to meet or hear of a Uygur child or adult who cannot speak Uygur. However, some Uygur children educated up to tertiary level in Han schools may not be able to read and write it.
Yes, there are Uygur homes being ‘destroyed’ many of which were illegally erected without building permits and many of which were no more than slum dwellings that quite frankly should have been ‘destroyed’ long ago.
The issues here are complex with mistakes coming from all sides and while there are many seemingly unsumountable and ongoing problems the Uygur culture and language has and will continue to survive but It should be remembered that Xinjiangrens are all Chinese citizens and Xinjiang is and has been a Province of China since 1884.