East Turkistan: A Uyghur experience in Birmingham that would be impossible in their homeland
Before my Armchair Travels I mostly associated the horrors of colonialism with the Western world — such as the terrible statistic that Britain’s thievery was so virulent that sixty-five countries now celebrate independence from us. It’s been depressing, therefore, to come to terms with the number of other colonising countries, and the extent to which the practice continues today. This week, for example, I’m not visiting a free country, but East Turkistan, which in China goes by the coloniser name of — Xinjiang — the New Frontier.
Ironically, given TikTok’s Chinese ownership, I first heard about the Uyghur plight through a video embedded in a seemingly innocuous make-up tutorial, as well as the campaign to boycott Disney’s Mulan for being filmed within screaming distance of Chinese Concentration camps where Uyghurs are “re-educated.” I kept up the boycott by choosing instead to watch “On a tightrope”. Made in 2007 when things were tortuously hard for the Uyghurs but not yet as bad as today, it’s the story of four orphans learning traditional Uyghur tightrope walking. It starts with the filmmakers convincing the police to allowed them to film and you get the feeling that if they put one foot out of place the whole thing would be shut down. In the end they simply show what is happening on the ground and the viewer can interpret for themselves whether harm is being done. It is inspiring to witness the guts of children tackling the high wire without a net, but challenging to see how a policy to stop children being indoctrinated into religion can easily become a policy to indoctrinate children into government-mandated-faux-communism instead.
I know that some challenge whether Xinjiang is a colony, pointing out that there has always been movement of many different people in this silk route region, but that is rather the point. If a culture grew and grows from open borders, movement and learning from surrounding peoples, closing the border and putting one culture above all others will essentially kill it. But the Chinese are doing far more than that, of the eleven million Uyghurs in Xinjiang, more than one million have been imprisoned since 2017. Those not detained are subject to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor, and forced sterilizations. One of those who has been detained is Ilham Tohti, the author of this week’s book We Uyghurs Have No Say.
It’s a collection of essays he wrote before being imprisoned in 2014, since when he’s been refused access to his family and Ambassadors. What makes this all the more amazing is that he isn’t someone calling for Uyghur independence, he is a “proud Chinese Uyghur”, who hopes for stepwise change and implementation of laws the government had already put in place. He accepts that, like the USA, China is a multi-ethnic country, but with the difference that Chinese ethnicities have “lived alongside each other for generations.” He backs up proposals with speeches by Mao against “Han Chauvinism” or by pointing out that Deng Xiaoping said “the silence of the masses is a terrible thing”. He also regularly reminds us that the problem is with the government, not the Han people. The book even ends: “If I should die at the hands of the domestic security… don’t think I’ve been killed by Han people and let hatred come between our two people.”
Although its oppressed in its own homeland, Uyghur culture continues to thrive outside of China and I was able to find many Uyghur restaurants in London. I chose Tarim Uyghur as it seemed to have the most vegan options and I really fancied Tugre — vegan dumplings — and legmen (handmade noodles). The food was plentiful and the waitress fast and friendly, I promised myself I would go back and try the other options.
The Uyghurs’ Turkic routes was most noticeable in the music in this month’s playlist — a collection of the sort of songs and albums I’ve heard all over central Asia, from Turkey to Russia. It is the perfect thing to listen to while drinking Uyghur tea, the best tea I have come across in 75 counties, and one that is also available at Tarim Uyghur. Unfortunately I can’t find the recipe anywhere on the internet but I asked my fast and friendly waitress and she explained it was green tea, rose petals, goji berries and more.
And so we leave East Turkistan, wishing for peace and freedom and head on to the tiny, but also controversial Falkland (Malvinas) Islands!
