Comments on: Dispatches From Xinjiang: Uyghur Memories And Berna, A 7-Year-Old Pop Star From Ürümchi (Part 1)

By: Beige Wind

Beige Wind — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 15:50:40 +0000

@Chinese Netizen: Sorry to put you to sleep. The happy-dancing automaton is certainly a dominant stereotype, but I’m trying to say that “doing the ethnic” has deeper implications. I promise that not everything I throw up here will be so serious.
@Doctor Chaza: Apendi (En: Mister) is a common character in the Islamic world, but unfortunately one of the few images experienced by Chinese viewers of Uyghur culture (I assume that this is due to the popularity of the cartoon – http://bit.ly/fpY7R). There is a whole industry of Han entrepreneurs mobilized around selling these images to domestic tourists. My sense is that the feeling many Uyghurs get when they see these images is the same feeling Black Americans get when they see White Americans performing in blackface. That being said, it would be interesting to give Apendi a chance and see exactly what feelings he inspires in differently positioned viewers.
@Tom F.: Thanks for reading!
@Bruce: Yes this is generally the case. The majority of Han students who end up studying Uyghur in college are those who fail to test into other more lucrative majors and therefore find themselves in line for army and domestic security jobs. Since the economic and cultural incentives appear negligible, Han Xinjiangers who learn Uyghur for any other reason are quite rare. As you point out in the writing of Wang Gang but would add even more explicitly the great writer Wang Meng (http://bit.ly/1dEFbU4), Han migrants in the 50s and 60s often learned the local languages since that was part of their socialist reeducation. As a result Wang Meng is highly regarded by both Han and Uyghur intellectuals.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 08:54:23 +0000

You note that “…Uyghur is no longer taught in many urban public schools until the third grade; and even then it is treated as a second or foreign language.”

Interesting. Which begs the question: Are all students, including Han, required to attend these ‘Uyghur-as-foreign-language’ classes?

If so, that would be an important breakthrough, and it would unquestionably improve the image of the language and its speakers. I may have my facts wrong, but as I understand it, it is not standard practice to teach Uyghur to all students; classes are normally restricted to students who identify themselves as Uyghur and want to take the class.

I believe this is the case in Tibet and Inner Mongolia as well; everyone must master the national language, Hanyu, while the Han are not required to master the local language, even in the so-called “autonomous counties” where non-Han dominate. Regardless of the intent of such a policy, the message conveyed is that Uyghur, Tibetan and Mongolian is for “Them,” not “Us,” and the only “real” language is Hanyu.

Under the DPP during 2000-2008, many schools in Taiwan required students to study one of the non-Han languages widely spoken in their region. Some of my Australian colleagues in HK were also required to study an Asian language such as Indonesian before they graduated high school. The result: an appreciation, even if grudging, of others’ languages and cultures.

It’s also important to note that these policies change as a result of central government decisions. While reading Wang Gang’s “English”(英格力士，王钢著) his novel about growing up as a Han in Xinjiang during the Cultural Revolution (which he did), his Han protagonist does attend Uyghur class along with all his classmates.

By: Tom F

Tom F — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 11:44:14 +0000

Interesting insight. Enjoy the diversity Beige Wind brings. Keep up the great dispatches.

By: Doctor Chaza

Doctor Chaza — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:27:41 +0000

One can only wonder what 阿凡提, the star of 70′s Chinese animation masterpiece, would think of all this…

By: Chinese Netizen

Chinese Netizen — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 07:30:06 +0000

Zzzzzzzz.
This is a downer.

We all know this site is about fluff, booze, T-n-A, burning things, spectacular road accidents and officials (and their family) behaving badly!

We all also know ethnic minorities in China only exist to sing, dance and make the People’s Congress more colorful!