Labels matter. As Confucius (reportedly) said: 名不正，則言不順 言不順，則事不成 If names are not rectified, then words are not appropriate. If words are not appropriate, then deeds are not accomplished. … Continue reading The Battle over Politically Correct Designations for China’s Borderlands
In China has renamed hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns, we learn of the latest policy in the campaign to make Xinjiang look and feel like mainstream, Han-dominated China: Hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns have been renamed by Chinese authorities to remove religious or cultural references, with many replaced by names reflecting Communist party … Continue reading Rectification of Names: Uyghur Towns, Chinese Names
In ‘Nikah’: An astonishing portrait of Uyghur life on the edge of erasure, Darren Byler introduces a film about a traditional Uyghur wedding rite that has been banned in Xinjiang: The story on the surface is a simple one. Two daughters in their twenties, Dilber and Rena, are caught between their own ambitions — careers, … Continue reading Movie Review: Focus on the Endangered “Nikah” Uyghur Wedding Rite
In A Disappearance in Xinjiang, Financial Times' Edward White profiles Uyghur female ethnographer Rahile Dawut, who disappeared into China's Xinjiang Gulag in 2017: Rahile’s life was devoted to the preservation of cultural diversity across the vast Xinjiang region, nearly three times the size of France and covering about one-sixth of modern China. For centuries, ancient Silk … Continue reading Disappeared in Xinjiang: Uyghur Ethnographer Rahile Dawut
Uyghur poet's memoir recalls the Xinjiang administration's retrospective hunt for unPC content in textbooks once commissioned, edited and published by the state: Following the Urumchi incident in 2009, the regional government had initiated the Looking Back Project (新疆回头看). The Propaganda Department organized special groups to go over Uyghur-language books, newspapers, journals, films, television shows, and … Continue reading 新疆回头看 — Xinjiang’s Ominous “Looking Back Project”
After completing a record-breaking 151 sell-out performances at the Mongolian State Academic Theatre in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a planned run of performances in Inner Mongolia's Hohhot were abruptly cancelled by the Chinese authorities in September 2023. Not to be deterred, the stage production, entitled The Mongol Khan for British audiences, began a two–week run at the … Continue reading “Tamgagui Tur”: Mongolian Theatrical Production Abruptly Cancelled in China
In the recently released China: Mosques Shuttered, Razed, Altered in Muslim Areas report from Human Rights Watch, we learn that: The Chinese government is significantly reducing the number of mosques in Ningxia and Gansu provinces under its “mosque consolidation” policy, in violation of the right to freedom of religion, Human Rights Watch said today. Chinese … Continue reading Mosque “Consolidation” Campaign: Moving beyond Xinjiang into Gansu and Ningxia
名不正，则言不顺 In China is Slowly Erasing Tibet's Name, we learn that: The Chinese government is gradually dropping the name "Tibet" in official English-language references in favor of the region's Mandarin Chinese name —"Xizang"— with experts saying the move is in line with Beijing policies aimed at erasing Tibetan culture . . . For more … Continue reading Xizang, not Tibet: Name Rectification Underway
Newly published Questioning Borders: Eco-Literatures of China and Taiwan by Robin Visser makes for fascinating reading, and it: . . . features works by Mongol, Tibetan, Taiwanese, Tao, Bunun, Yi, Bai, Kazakh, Uyghur, and Han writers set in rapidly transforming ecologies in Xinjiang, the Tibetan Plateau, Inner Mongolia, Southwest China, and Taiwan. Authors whose works are cited in detail … Continue reading Grassland logic, Agrilogistics and Hanspace Cosmologies — Robin Visser’s Disruptive “Questioning Borders”
In Uyghur film-maker claims he was tortured by authorities in China, the Guardian reports that Ikram Nurmehmet, a director known for his Uyghur protagonists in films such as The Elephant in the Car, recently had his day in court in Ürümqi: “I was held in a dark room for 20 days and physically tortured,” Nurmehmet reportedly said during the … Continue reading Uyghur Film-maker Who Studied in Turkey Prosecuted in China
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