Slate’s “Dispatches“, in which writers contribute posts detailing their travels to far-off lands, is currently running a series about China’s Xinjiang province. Officially, the segment is called “Dispatches from China’s Wild West,” and has four entries so far. The first three posts have touched on topics related to China’s minority Uighur population, which is actually the majority in Xinjiang. The central and provincial governments have been importing the majority Han Chinese by the trainloads as they try to pry the region’s natural resoures while simultaneously clamping down on any inklings of separatism. The result is, well, pretty shitty for the Uighurs.
My favorite part of the piece is when the writer, Joshua Kucera, begins chatting up a “proud Uighur nationalist” named Ali during Ramadan.
As we sat in the plastic booth while I ate my spicy chicken sandwich and fries and Ali watched, I asked whether there was any special TV programming for Ramadan. I knew many Muslim countries rolled out big miniseries for the holiday. “No, it’s the opposite here,” he said. “I think the government puts on movies with kissing and things like that, especially during Ramadan.”
According to Kucera, the government also “restricts the use of the Uighur language, has closed many mosques and monitors clerics, and gives preferential treatment to the Han Chinese who migrate here in increasing numbers.” But if they’re really putting on movies that contain kissing and other forbidden expressions during the holy month of Ramadan, then that pretty much represents a massive cultural “fuck you” to a populace that is supposedly part of China’s great and respected diversity. And knowing how Uighurs are looked upon here in Shanghai by the Chinese, I’d say all the platitudes about China respecting its minorities is all a pile of rich, steaming yakshit.
I feel pretty torn up about what’s going on in Xinjiang. I saw the same thing in Lhasa when I went to Tibet a few years ago. The Tibetans were too poor, too Buddhist, and too overmatched. The Uighurs pose more of a nationalist challenge, which is why we’re seeing such massive investments and migration into the region (oh yeah, there’s also a ton of oil there). All of this gives me a sinking sense in my stomach, and I swear I won’t laugh anymore whenever my friends start cracking jokes about mistaking Uighurs for Chinese-speaking Mexicans. Though I’m not sure where else to get hashish.
