The Study of Racialism

gera2561 · Posted: Thu 20 Oct 2005 03:11 Post subject: The Uighurs

The Uyghur (also called Uighur, Uygur, or Uigur) [pronounced WEE-gurs] (Simplified Chinese: 维吾尔; Traditional Chinese: 維吾爾; pinyin: wéiwú'ěr) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group living in northwestern China (mainly in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where they are the largest ethnic group together with Han people), Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Russia. Another group of Uyghurs lives in Taoyuan County of Hunan province in Southcentral China. Uyghurs form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

Within China today, there are about 35 million Muslims of which 15 million are the Persian or Turkic-speaking non-Han Sunni Muslims of the Xinjiang region of northern China (Major, 1989). About five million of these are Uighurs (Boravia, 1980).
The Muslims of the region generally pray five times a day. The two major Islamic festivals celebrated are Lesser Bairam (the Festival of Fastbreaking) and Cobran (the Sacrifice Festival). During the month prior to Lesser Bairam, the Muslims fast until sunset. They resume normal life when Lesser Bairam arrives. Seventy days later is Cobran, a 3-day vacation in which people don their national costumes, have Muslim services, eat mutton, sing songs, pray, and dance (afn, 1997).
Since the onset of Communism in China, religious activity has been extremely repressed. In fact, "[a]ll religious activity is under the control of the State Council of the P[eople's] R[epublic of C[hina] or else declared illegal" (Aitbayev, 1997, p. 7). Since 1991, around fifteen hundred Xinjiang mosques have been closed because the Chinese have said that they were built without permission (Aitbayev, 1997). Freedom of religion is allowed as long as worshipers stay out of the political arena (Chen, 1994). Growing restrictions on religious freedom have surfaced recently. 30 Muslim nationalists accused of "openly agitating against government officials" were executed on January 30, 1997. This is a part of what the Chinese government refers to as their "anti-crime campaign" against separatists. At the same time, a crackdown on "illegal" religious activities has surfaced. Chinese officials have closed local mosques and Koranic schools. They have also confiscated a large number of "reactionary" or "illegal" religious literature. These occurances have sparked a period of unrest in the region (China, 1997, pp. 1-2).

On the marriage day, the bridegroom and his best man along with a procession of relatives, friends, pipers, and drummers, come to the bride's parents' home to bring the bride to his home. The ceremony begins with a cake being dipped into salt water and divided between the bride and groom. This symbolizes that the couple will stay together despite circumstances. Guests usually bring cakes or cloth as presents to the bridegroom's family. Traditionally every Uighur bride embroideries her wedding dress for her wedding day. The ceremony is usually held in the afternoon and climaxes with the taking off of the bride's veil. At this time, the guests praise the beauty of the bride. Then the guests begin to dance (Uigur, 1997).
In order to "speed up the assimilation of the Uighurs the Chinese Communists encourage mixed marriages by offering special bonuses to those who participate" (Aitbayev, 1997, p. 11). If an Uighur marries a Chinese, they are given 100 Yen. Chinese girls that are born in the region are sent to remote villages with a stipend of 300 Yen in order to attract a Uighur mate. In these remote regions, Uighur males are promised 2000 Yen and better jobs in the cities if they marry a Chinese woman.
In general, mixed marriages are frowned upon by the local. Uighurs who have given in to marrying a Chinese are hated because of their assistance in the furtherment of the assimilation of the Uighurs. Locals refuse contact with them. Children born from these marriages are registered as ethnic Chinese. These children are usually educated by their Chinese mothers and sent to Chinese schools rather than Koranic schools. According to Aitbayev, "[m]any Uighur fathers have been unable to cope with this situation and have committed suicide" (1997, p. 12).

The Uighurs have possessed a highly developed literary language for many years. However, the ethnic Chinese have tried to eliminate the literary language of the Uighurs because of their belief that "language must serve the unification of the motherland" (Aitbayev, 1997, p. 12). In order to do so, the Arabic script used by the Uighurs has been replaced by the Latin alphabet. Many Chinese words and expressions have been infiltrated into the language. "In the city of Urumchi alone stood some 370 thousand books written in Arabic script, including the Holy Koran, Hadith and other valuable works were destroyed as ‘remnants of the past" (Aitbayev, 1997, p. 13). Then, twenty years later, the Arabic alphabet was reintroduced. After using the Latin alphabet for so long, this placed a great strain on the literacy of the people. "Although evening classes were organized to teach the Arabic script, the effort has not been much of a success so far. Members of the same families can only correspond with each other in the Chinese alphabet, because some have been educated in the Latin alphabet and some in the Arabic alphabet" (Aitbayev, 1997, p. 13). Only 16 percent of publications in Xinjiang are in the Uighur language. The Uighurs do not even have their own encyclopedia, dictionary, or basic scientific books in their language.
The educational system in Xinjiang has been purposely arranged so as to keep the Uighurs as ignorant as possible. Traditional Islamic schools have been banned. They believe that they can better assimilate the believers by eliminating their belief system and suppressing their education. An estimated 60 percent of the adult population in Xinjiang is illiterate. Because most of the Uighurs come from poor families, they are unable to afford higher education. Almost 70 percent of classes are taught in Chinese, posing a large problem to largely non-Chinese speaking Uighurs. After those Uighurs that go to Chinese language schools graduate, they cannot properly speak their mother tongue, constantly using Chinese words and forgetting their own Uighur traditions.
The Chinese have largely falsified much of Uighur history. Chinese scholars try to manipulate history so that it appears that Xinjiang has been a part of China since its foundation, and to undermine Uighur culture and civilization. "If an Uighur scholar writes about Uighur history, culture or civilization he is accused of propagating ‘nationalism,' ‘separatism,' or ‘endangering the unity of the Chinese people and the great motherland.' Scholars are punished, their works banned and publishing houses closed" (Aitbayev, 1997, p. 14).