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Nobody speak. A Xinjiang journal.
This entry was posted in Asia, Central Asia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Xinjiang and tagged Army, Arrests, Asia, Border, Border patrol, Brainwashing, CCTV, Central Asia, Chairman, Chen, Chen Quanguo, China, China Cables, Concentrated Education and Training, Concentration camps, Foreigners, Id Kah, Irkeshtam, Irkeshtam border, Islam, Islamist, Jiefang, Kashgar, Kashgar old town, Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan - Xinjiang, Land crossing, Mao, Mosque, Mountains, Music, People, Peter Robb, Photography, Police, Qomuz, Re-education camps, Religion, Repression, Soldiers, Street photography, Surveillance, Terrorism, Tourism, Travel, Truck, Turkestan, Turkic, Urban photography, Urumqi, Uyghur, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, Zedong. Bookmark the permalink.
Evocative and powerful post.
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Thanks a lot Rich.
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You go to a lot of places I’ll never visit. This was one of them and your post was absolutely fascinating.
Thanks.
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You’re welcome guys 🙂
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Beautifully written! I died laughing about your Imodium pantomime. Lol. But seriously, this place must be an eye opener to experience for sure. Thanks for sharing with us. X
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It was an eye opener indeed, Anna. I’m glad I went there, though it wasn’t as easy as I thought in the beginning.
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So exotic. I may have to live this one through you (although I wish that were not the case).
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Glad to be able to provide you an overview Lexi!
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Wow. This is a sobering read. First let me say that I appreciate your writing and the descriptive paragraphs where you paint the picture of surrounding and innocuous activities all around. You certainly transport us to your neighborhood.
As for the content, the plight of the hushed Muslim population under constant surveillance is poignant. The intentional drowning of local culture by flooding with Han distant lands, is nothing short of a criminal act. It is a criminal act against not only individuals who wind up in the camps, but as well one against an entire culture. And yet this inexorable destruction by flooding is one that the Chinese government has much practice with, witness Tibet etc.
One can only hope that there are enough qomuz playing individuals (and all other talented recipients and transmitters of Xinjiang culture) who manage to retain enough of the culture, pass it on to the next generation and survive on the fringe of the surveillance Han culture. Until perhaps a better day when they can become resurgent again.
On a personal level, man you are patient!! From the hours of lining up at borders to the ridiculous hours long search for where you were sleeping.. I don’t think I could do it.
Ben
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Hi Ben, thanks for the super-long comment!
You’re right, China has great experience in doing the sort of things they’re doing in Xinjiang, and they know how to do it ‘properly’ (In inverted commas). I don’t personally think anything will survive of the old Uyghur way of life. Walking through Ürümqi it was hard to imagine the city had been anything but an ugly Chinese new town; Kashgar and the rest of the region will follow. The Soviet did the same in Central Asia but, unlike the Soviet, the Chinese are efficient.
As for being patient… I haven’t said anything about the train station! Boy that was hard. And I didn’t even get on a sodding train.
Fabrizio
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Congratulations on your blog. It´s really interesting to read on first sight what´s happening over there and specially when so well written!
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Thank you so much Miguel and thanks for reading!
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A fascinating and heartbreaking post Fabrizio. I’d heard about what was happening to the Uygars, but this first-hand account makes it that much more real.
Alison
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Indeed it felt a lot ‘closer’ to the heart when I saw it. thanks for reading Alison.
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I can only echo the above comments, Fabrizio. It felt like I was right there with you, but at the same time felt grateful that I was still sitting on my couch. I marvel at your choice of destination, and am grateful for it at the same time, as it gives me a glimpse into a world I will never experience first hand. Seeing it through your eyes touches me in a way a media report never can. Thank you.
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You’re welcome, Jolandi. I think that’s the ‘beauty’, if you will, of having gone there for me. It’s to see something that, otherwise, I wouldn’t have seen.
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Really powerful, evocative and sobering. Always a great reading. Bravo.
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Thanks! 🙂
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“Because it’s there.” That must be quite the compulsion, to go through all that, when there are so many other places in the world to see. If I believed in reincarnation, I’d think something was drawing you back to that part of the world.
Really well described.
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Yes, it’s ‘there’ and… I don’t know, the first time I arrived in Central Asia under a monumental snowfall I thought “this is it”. I felt something ‘click’. Even now that I had my fair share of travels there, seen all that interested me, I’m still wondering… What if? What if I went there again. Thanks for reading Dave.
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Fabrizio, I wanted to comment on this a few days ago but honestly didn’t know where to begin. Especially because I am a Hong Konger living abroad and every day I read about the things that are happening to my hometown – the way China is responding to a pro-democracy movement that still enjoys broad support (as evinced by the scale of the “illegal” march last Sunday), even when a minority of protesters resort to vandalism and violence.
I fear that the present you glimpsed in Xinjiang is the future of my city. I’ve read reports about phones being checked at the border for “suspicious” content, of the top two leaders at Cathay Pacific, our flagship carrier, being fired for not toeing the Chinese Communist Party line, with flight attendants told not to voice support of the protests even outside of work and on their personal social media accounts. I despair at the recent news of the young Hong Kong-born British consulate worker who was detained by Chinese authorities (on spurious grounds) at the shared high-speed railway station INSIDE Hong Kong.
And it disgusts me to see how the Chinese government is behind a grand disinformation campaign both at home and abroad, spreading untruths that are gobbled up by overseas Chinese students who ought to know better, so they come out in force (using freedoms not available back home) to counter the rallies held in support of Hong Kong all around the world. I was worried the Hong Kong of just 10 or even five year’s time would become like Kashgar, a place where we cannot speak our minds for fear of repercussions, but for the employees of Cathay Pacific, that day has already come.
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James, I really feel for you buddy. And for Hong Kong, a city I’ve visited in the wake of the ‘Umbrella’ protests. You guys ought to be a lot angrier than you are; protesters and demonstrators have been a lot more restrained than I’d have been.
Beijing is afraid of you guys and they’re escalating their tactics. Technology is already frightfully advanced (have you read about that “citizenry point system”?) and I bet that what I saw in Kashgar is just the beginning. Am I optimistic for Xinjiang? No. Sad to say but it’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s a Muslim region (so people won’t sympathise too much, let’s say it) and the fact that a few Uyghur dickheads have gone to Syria to join Daesh doesn’t help either. How about Hong Kong? I’m moderately more optimist. The fact that Beijing hasn’t Tienanmen’d it speaks volumes. Hold fast mate.
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Thank you, Fabrizio. I am very grateful for the support that we have around the world, and that leaders in the West are willing to speak up and pressure Beijing. The idea of the social credit system is deeply alarming for a lot of Hong Kongers and we are pushing back against the installation of what the government is calling “smart lampposts”. I suspect that the PLA hasn’t been called in because of the potential economic fallout – there’s a prevailing theory that military intervention will cause an exodus of investors and great damage to the Chinese economy. Hong Kong is still important as a global financial center, after all, and sweeping Western sanctions on top of the US-China trade war may be too high a cost for Beijing.
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Yeah that’d be the only reason… which makes me think that a globalised economy ain’t a bad thing after all! Were it not for it I’m sure we’d be having another Tienanmen..
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I came across your blog for the first time on the Caravanistan forum, and wow – wow. That’s about all I can say. Your writing is so raw, haunting, and real. When it comes to Xinjiang I’ve watched the Vice documentaries and read the New York Times articles and kept up as best I could, but nothing has put it in perspective quite like this. That last line in particular – “On and on he continued, and on and on I sat there, listening to his serenade to a doomed culture.”
Just wanted to say thank you for doing your best to tell this terrible story as delicately and evocatively as you did. What a dark chapter in Central Asian history, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Only more darkness. You certainly earned a new follower today.
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Hey Max, glad you’re here and thanks, thanks a lot, for the kind words. Caravanistan is a mine of information, big up to Steven and Saule for keeping it going. They’re great guys.
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This is a sobering read, Fabrizio. I’ve been somewhat following the news about Xinjiang, but to read an account written by a regular global citizen like you who saw how this place is and the people are firsthand is very eye-opening, and disheartening. I can’t help but think of the unfair treatment a lot of my fellow countrymen have been perpetrating against the Papuans, the people who we call brothers and sisters when we need something from them (i.e. their rich natural resources), but we look down upon for most of the time.
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Hey Bama, thanks for reading. I’d heard about the Papuans in Indonesia, is still a problematic situation?
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It is. Recently there were riots in some cities in Papua as a response to a police raid at a Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya (Indonesia’s second largest city) where some people were caught on camera chanting racist slurs to the students.
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Oh I didn’t know. Well seems racism is there at all latitudes 😦
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I’ve been wondering whether I should make this trip or not. Reading your blog has not resolved my problem, but it has added knowledge. Thanks.
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You’re welcome, I.J. My suggestion would be to go and see with your own eyes… sometimes it’s the best way.
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Oof. This is really well written, but also a hard read due to the situation. I’ve read articles about the repression and surveillance in Xinjiang but the details you share about Han people being willing(/able) to chat and Uyghur people not is striking. Scary and sad. But thanks for sharing.
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You’re welcome, Leah, and thanks for reading.
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Because it’s there. To see it for myself. Oh how I understand this compulsion. I have done my fair share of wandering into the shadowlands of this planet. It’s called “dark tourism”, but yet it’s so enlightening to observe things for yourself rather than rely on the distortion of the media. Thank you, Fabrizio.
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You’re welcome Julie and thanks for reading. Hope you’re doing good!
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Into the heart of darkness? Why does central Asia attracts you so? 🙂
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Just no Mr Kurtz at the end… I don’t know, Central Asia is so… raw. It’s great.
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It must be. But I don’t think it’s for me. Too much car or bus ride. Bad for my back. Buon finale di settimana.
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Roads aren’t smooth indeed…
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🙂 I thought so.
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Oh my. What a punch this carries. It may be that the trip owned you but you did well, doorwise too.
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thanks Manja 🙂
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