MetaFilter posts tagged with Xinjiang

New Dominion

Abiezer — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:28:33 -0800

China’s wild west Considered journalism on the historical and political background to the recent inter-ethnic violence in Xinjiang.

Ethnic conflict in China

Kirth Gerson — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:14:35 -0800

"On the evening of July 5th, several hundred Uighur youths went on a bloody rampage [in Urumqi, Xinjiang] following a peaceful demonstration over a separate incident of ethnic violence at a Guangdong toy factory. . . . In the days that followed, bands of roving Han vigilantes armed with kitchen knives, hammers, metal pipes and other improvised weapons sought to mete out revenge in the Uighur suburbs of the city. . . . Caught in-between these increasingly polarized and agitated ethnic communities is the Chinese state, which, rather than orchestrating the brutal oppression of the non-Han minorities, finds itself increasingly powerless to stop the spiralling circle of ethnic hatred which its policies helped to foster in the first place." Here is a news report on the Guangdong toy factory violence that preceded the Xinjiang rioting. Here is a translation of the Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative) study of China's Tibet policy referred to in the linked China Beat article, with an introduction by the Campaign for Tibet. The report is carefully critical of the government's approach to Tibet: "Ordinary Tibetans have a far keener and evident sense of deprivation than any sense of government help, and like many people living in provinces in the interior, are deeply discontented with the local power-brokers."

Bulldozed Away

Pollomacho — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:50:40 -0800

In the 1860’s, while the US was busy crushing its agrarian revolution, the Russians were busy expanding their empire towards Afghanistan and cleansing the Caucuses of those pesky Circassians, Chechens, and Tartars (to name a few) in a little known places like Abkhazia, the British were busy expanding their empire towards Afghanistan and extinguishing the last outposts of “mutineers,” and the Qing Dynasty of China was losing its grip on its Empire due to a cult of longhaired Christians lead by Jesus’s Chinese little brother. Alimkul, the de facto Khan of Khotan took advantage of the chaos by sending his greatest general, Yakub Beg, to Kashgar... The indigenous population there was overthrowing and slaughtering their Chinese overlords. Yakub Beg quickly seized Kashgar and Yarkand and established Kashgaria for the Khanate. He sent a caravan full of riches for his warlord, but alas, it arrived too late; Alimkul was killed trying in vain to fend the Russians off in Tashkent. Now independent of his master, Yakub Beg declared himself Amir of Eastern Turkestan set about liberating the cities surrounding the barren Tarim basin. Eventually Eastern Turkestan would encompass most of what is now Xinjiang. Yakub Beg would become a brief lived but major player in the Great Game, positioning the British and Russians off of each other in order to hold off the inevitable reconquest by the Qing. He held out for over ten years before the Chinese conspired with a local hakim and he was poisoned. Considered a great ruler of the Uyghur people (though he was ethnically Uzbek, or was he Tajik?) Yakub Beg was buried near the great mausoleum of Afak Khoja, the Afaki, and the empty tomb of the Fragrant Concubine. That is until 1978, when the People’s Republic of China began an extensive tourist renovation of the site of the Afaki tombs and bulldozed Yakub Beg’s grave (and record of it) into the Taklimakan dust. Today in the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region”, Han Chinese make up nearly the same percentage of the population as Uyghur. Hanzu make up the majority in nearly all prefectures except for in the extreme West and North. Fearing renewed Uyghur nationalism despite the decades of displacement by Hanzu migrants, the Chinese have commenced a “modernization” effort in the old city of Kashgar.

China's Wild West

Surfin' Bird — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:30:34 -0800

Documentary about China's Wild West: an area on the west frontier of China's Gobi Desert named Xinjiang (New Land) by the Chinese, but populated by a Muslim minority known as Uighurs who believe they should be an independent Uighur nation.

Jumping Through Hoops

adamvasco — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:37:13 -0800

Is Xinjiang Province The Islamic Jihad Battlefront in China? China detains 82 'terrorists' targeting Olympics and police have shot Uighurs dead. Meanwhile people from the Uighur minority call on the international community to boycott the Beijing Olympic games. What side of the Jihad is China on? Previously there was The Al Qaeda - China Tie. The oil and petrochemical sector account for 60% of Xinjiang's local economy.

Sorry no sea shanties

Abiezer — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:07:19 -0800

Uyghur goes pop! Fully downloadable album (with samples to try before you don't have to buy) of pop music from Xinjiang, aka East Turkestan, home to the Uyghur.