Comments on: Who are the Uighurs and why are they protesting? http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/09/crikey-clarifier-who-are-the-uighurs-and-why-are-they-protesting/ now with extra source Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:31:40 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: John Harrison http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/09/crikey-clarifier-who-are-the-uighurs-and-why-are-they-protesting/#comment-30932 John Harrison Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:17:08 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/09/crikey-clarifier-who-are-the-uighurs-and-why-are-they-protesting/#comment-30932 I agree with Jill Greenwell's comment. First of all, it is very misleading to relate modern day Uyghurs in such a exclusive way to the Uyghur empire in Mongolia in the 8th century. It is an irrefutable fact that the very ethno name 'Uyghur' is mostly a powerful symbolic application during the course of ethnic identity construction starting from early 20th century for those people who had been living in nowaday Xinjiang for thousands of years. Those Uyghurs in the 9th century who migrated to Xinjiang after the collapse of their empire only forms part of the modern day Uyghur nation. Jillgreenwell is also correct in pointing out on the 'perception' of racial discrimination. However, I also wish to correct Jill's figures on the proportion of Uyghurs in Xinjiang in 2002, it should be 46 percent, rather than 80 percent. In Urumqi, the Uyghurs only comprise 20 percent. It is only in regions like Hoten and Kashgar in southern Xinjiang, where the Uyghurs stand out more in number, maybe reaching 90 percent and 78 percent respectively. I agree with Jill Greenwell’s comment. First of all, it is very misleading to relate modern day Uyghurs in such a exclusive way to the Uyghur empire in Mongolia in the 8th century. It is an irrefutable fact that the very ethno name ‘Uyghur’ is mostly a powerful symbolic application during the course of ethnic identity construction starting from early 20th century for those people who had been living in nowaday Xinjiang for thousands of years. Those Uyghurs in the 9th century who migrated to Xinjiang after the collapse of their empire only forms part of the modern day Uyghur nation. Jillgreenwell is also correct in pointing out on the ‘perception’ of racial discrimination. However, I also wish to correct Jill’s figures on the proportion of Uyghurs in Xinjiang in 2002, it should be 46 percent, rather than 80 percent. In Urumqi, the Uyghurs only comprise 20 percent. It is only in regions like Hoten and Kashgar in southern Xinjiang, where the Uyghurs stand out more in number, maybe reaching 90 percent and 78 percent respectively.

]]> By: JillGreenwell http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/09/crikey-clarifier-who-are-the-uighurs-and-why-are-they-protesting/#comment-30832 JillGreenwell Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:27:39 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/09/crikey-clarifier-who-are-the-uighurs-and-why-are-they-protesting/#comment-30832 It's misleading to suggest that the Uighurs aren't really original settlers of Xinjiang because they didn't get there until late Tang Dynasty days (10th century!), or to suggest that it's "a perception" by the Uighurs that they are oppressed by the Han Chinese. At the time that the Uighur people migrated to what is now western China, it wasn't any part of China at all. Even earlier, modern Xinjiang was outside China. When the Great Wall of China was first built two thousand years ago to keep out the barbarians, it extended a long way west, but not as far as modern Xinjiang. (You can see today the remains of the reed-and-mud wall near Dunhuang, a good way east of Xinjiang). It's only in modern times that Han Chinese have laid claim to the lands as far west as Xinjiang and moved to settle there. It's not just a perception of the Uighurs that they are disadvantaged in modern China: it has been Chinese Government policy to submerge Uighurs under Han immigrants. To say that the number of Han immigrants is relatively small is to miss the point that proportionally they have swamped the locals, locals who are different ethnically, linguistically, and, since the 10th century, religiously. When I visited Xinjiang in 2002, the proportion of Uighurs in Xinjiang province was 80%. It was a cause of distress to Uighurs then that the proportion of Uighurs in Urumqui was only 55%. It is not because Han Chinese have happened to migrate to Xinjiang that the proportion of Uighurs is a lot less now than it was in 2002: it is the direct result of Chinese Government policy. The "perception" extends to more than the government-directed influx of Han Chinese into Xinjiang: it relates to things like religious observance. Fathers cannot take their young sons to pray at the mosque until the boys are teenagers. That's just one example of the sort of discrimination felt by the Uighur people. What is worse is that the Chinese are persecuting those Uighurs who protest against the marginalisation of their cultural distinctiveness. Amnesty International has documented the labour camps in Xinjiang where Uighurs proclaiming their civil rights are being detained, and have been for long periods, out of sight of the world outside. The "Uighur Autonomous Province" is as autonomous as the "Tibetan Autonomous Province". It’s misleading to suggest that the Uighurs aren’t really original settlers of Xinjiang because they didn’t get there until late Tang Dynasty days (10th century!), or to suggest that it’s “a perception” by the Uighurs that they are oppressed by the Han Chinese.

At the time that the Uighur people migrated to what is now western China, it wasn’t any part of China at all. Even earlier, modern Xinjiang was outside China. When the Great Wall of China was first built two thousand years ago to keep out the barbarians, it extended a long way west, but not as far as modern Xinjiang. (You can see today the remains of the reed-and-mud wall near Dunhuang, a good way east of Xinjiang). It’s only in modern times that Han Chinese have laid claim to the lands as far west as Xinjiang and moved to settle there.

It’s not just a perception of the Uighurs that they are disadvantaged in modern China: it has been Chinese Government policy to submerge Uighurs under Han immigrants. To say that the number of Han immigrants is relatively small is to miss the point that proportionally they have swamped the locals, locals who are different ethnically, linguistically, and, since the 10th century, religiously.

When I visited Xinjiang in 2002, the proportion of Uighurs in Xinjiang province was 80%. It was a cause of distress to Uighurs then that the proportion of Uighurs in Urumqui was only 55%. It is not because Han Chinese have happened to migrate to Xinjiang that the proportion of Uighurs is a lot less now than it was in 2002: it is the direct result of Chinese Government policy.

The “perception” extends to more than the government-directed influx of Han Chinese into Xinjiang: it relates to things like religious observance. Fathers cannot take their young sons to pray at the mosque until the boys are teenagers. That’s just one example of the sort of discrimination felt by the Uighur people.

What is worse is that the Chinese are persecuting those Uighurs who protest against the marginalisation of their cultural distinctiveness. Amnesty International has documented the labour camps in Xinjiang where Uighurs proclaiming their civil rights are being detained, and have been for long periods, out of sight of the world outside.

The “Uighur Autonomous Province” is as autonomous as the “Tibetan Autonomous Province”.

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