And I ran, I ran so far away I just ran, I ran all night and day I couldn’t get away – Flock of Seagulls If you have not read our account of how we got to Wuqia, where we underwent border processing, check it out here to get some background on what …
Recent attacks in Kashgar and the government’s new decision to ban burqas in Xinjiang’s largest city, Urumqi. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/world/asia/uighurs-xinjiang-kashgar-police-attack.html?_r=0 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2869905/Capital-Chinas-Xinjiang-ban-burqas-public-report.html
Here is some news on the assassination that we covered here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/world/asia/jume-tahir-murder-verdict-xinjiang.html?_r=0
The morning after Eid al Fitr, we were preparing to leave Kashgar for the Karakurom Highway. As we tried to upload photos and send out emails, our internet slowed to a crawl and then stopped completely. This was not unusual. Though we were using VPNs to navigate around the Great Firewall of China, we were …
Just an update on the situation I’ve been following with Ilham Tohti: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/world/asia/prosecution-of-uighur-students-underscores-perils-of-chinese-clampdown.html
Kashgar’s Urban Planning Museum was tough to get into, but it was worth it. Hidden behind the staid language of historians and economists and a skyscraper-speckled diorama was a story of the death of Kashgar. China has a slew of these Urban Planning Museums. Normally, each museum has a section acknowledging that city’s inevitably glorious …
Just a quick update on Ilham Tohti, the Uighur professor who I reported on here Here is a quick link to an article about Professor Tohti: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/21/chinese-court-rejects-ilham-tohti-appeal?utm_source=The+Sinocism+China+Newsletter&utm_campaign=2d2f5dfd5d-Sinocism11_23_1411_23_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_171f237867-2d2f5dfd5d-29623861&mc_cid=2d2f5dfd5d&mc_eid=f3a28cf511 There is nothing to update really. The Chinese government still considers him a separatist, and has not revoked its judgement on the economist’s actions. Unfortunate, but not unexpected.
We were traveling in Xinjiang during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month which is usually marked by fasting from sunrise to sunset by the devout. However, students and government bureaucrats were not allowed to follow their religious traditions, some of them being forced to eat during Ramadan. Not surprisingly, many Uighurs resented this treatment. The …
In China’s east, newspapers are ubiquitous. Living in Nanjing in 2009, I was spoiled for choices. In the ten minute walk to school, I would pass two or three news stands, each of them overflowing with newspapers from everywhere, including five to ten local papers like the Yangtse Evening Post, Beijing official broadsides like the …
Like in Urumqi and Turpan, Kashgar is blanketed in the omnipresent sound of police sirens. This is not so much because of the prevalence of crime. Instead, it is because ethnic tension has been racheted up. The police want to have boots on the ground, to discourage any large-scale violence. But I have been …