Defying genocide in China: An interview with a Uyghur language activist

Nov 22, 202019 min read

Defying genocide in China: An interview with a Uyghur language activist | The Post Millennial

Abduweli Ayup is a Uyghur activist, poet, and linguist who was jailed in China for defying the Chinese Communist Party's cultural genocide of the Uyghur people by opening a kindergarten to teach Uyghur language and culture to children. Noah Alter of The Post Millennial had a chance to sit down with Mr. Ayup to share his story.

TPM: What motivated you to get involved in Uyghur language education?

Abduweli Ayup: It was because of my daughter. I worked in a Chinese city for more than six years, and then I went to the United States. After that, my daughter lost her language skills. She couldn't speak it. I looked into this issue and I found out that there is no Uyghur language kindergartens in Urumqi and other places in East Turkestan. All of them are Chinese kindergartens. So I think it is important to keep language alive because of my daughter, first of all.

Before I fought for language rights, I wrote about it, but I was teaching at a Chinese university at the time so I didn't realize it was that serious a problem until I found out there were no Uyghur kindergartens in Urumqi. It made me very sad because when I grew up in Kashgar before I came to Urumqi in 1992, we had Uyghur kindergartens. I studied at a university with a Uyghur kindergarten in front of it. Ten years later, there was no Uyghur kindergarten anymore, and it makes me very sad. You see your culture in crisis, we are in crisis, and we should be taking action to protect this language.

Without a language there is no education system to continue your culture, and it will not continue any longer. With education, your culture can continue for generations but without education, the language will become a family language before it disappears entirely.

TPM: How would you say language helps maintain a culture?

Ayup: Uyghur language plays an important role in connecting our people. Uyghur people are separated into different oases. For example, between Hotan and Kashgar we have a 500 kilometer distance and we have a desert between the two cities. It is a long distance, our land is not connected, it's separated. So the first element in keeping Uyghurs united is language. The other two elements are Uyghur culture and Uyghur music, we have a muqam culture. But they key is Uyghur.

We have over 1,500 years of literature in the Uyghur language. If the Uyghur writing system and language were to disappear, we would not be able to read our literature and Uyghur history would disappear. Without the words we cannot sing our muqam and without the language we cannot practice our culture.

We also have a poetry culture, and at gatherings we present poetry as a gift. The one who receives the gift, he or she will respond with gifting poetry of their own. Without the Uyghur language this kind of beautiful culture will disappear.

TPM: The Canadian government described Chinese policy towards the Uyghurs as a "clear attempt to eradicate Uyghur culture and religion." They also described the events taking place there as a genocide and compared it to the Holocaust. Would you say this is an accurate description?

Ayup: Yes. I would say it is just like a Holocaust. In the Holocaust you saw an attempt to exterminate an entire culture. Recently I watched news from Germany and they broadcasted that 900,000 Uyghur kids are separated from their families. It means that they are suppressing their roots and suppressing their culture. They are indoctrinated 24-hours a day in communist ideology and Chinese culture, and the next generation will lose their language. It is just like a holocaust, because they don't speak their language and practice their culture.

Another thing is they send Uyghurs to Chinese provinces. An Australian news channel reported that 80,000 Uyghurs are sent to China and separated from their families. They cannot marry Uyghurs and not start Uyghur families, their culture gets eradicated. The birth rate among the Uyghurs has plummeted over the pat three years, so yes, it is just like a genocide.

TPM: What was it like teaching in Kashgar in regard to both how you felt and also how the authorities felt about it?

Ayup: Kashgar is the heart of Uyghur culture. We documented Uyghur victim stories and discovered the most targeted city is Kashgar. We documented 4,577 victim stories, looking at missing family members and people who have been arrested and sentenced, and 34% I think are from Kashgar, one third of all people detainees are detained are detained in Kashgar. This is because Kashgar is the cultural centre of the Uyghurs. I always use Chinese Tik Tok to watch what's happening in Kashgar, and I saw that the streets are empty.

Kashgar is used by China as a "movie city." China's government uses old cities as "movie cities." For example, right now Kashgar is fully decorated as historical, as ancient, yet people are disappearing. It is just a city to show tourists that this is Uyghur culture. The problem though is that the people who own the culture disappeared but the physical teacher of the culture is still there. When I visited in 2005 and the Chinese Yunnan province in 2008, the home of the Yi people, when I got there there was no Yi people but the Yi food and Yi culture is still there. It's all done by performers. People there perform the culture, actors and actresses, but the real practitioners of the culture are not living there.

At this time, the Chinese government is turning Kashgar into a show stage. It exists to show the world that they are keeping the culture alive, but the owners of the culture are mostly detained or dispersed to different Chinese cities. It is very sad because Kashgar has more than 2,000 years of history and is the cultural capital for the Uyghurs. It is very sad to see and very sad to talk about.

TPM: I can definitely see how this would compare to the Holocaust whereby the Nazis infamously deceived the Red Cross by making their death camps look like they had vibrant cultures.

Ayup: Yes, I would say it's exactly like that.

TPM: So this is all a propaganda effort then?

Ayup: Yes it is all a propaganda effort. I watched videos of Kashgar and one interesting thing is that in China there is a TV series which is based on a tenth century book about a monk who visits Kashgar and other parts of our homeland. That historical book and TV series is playing in Kashgar to appeal to attract Chinese and foreign tourists and make it look like they are keeping Uyghur culture alive.

TPM: Can you describe what your kindergarten was like?

Ayup: Our school had teachers educated in Chinese provinces, all of them, and I interested them because they speak both Mandarin and English. We promoted Uyghur but we also wanted to show the kids that they should learn all three languages.

Kindergarten is like a small version of primary school. The chairs and desks may be small but we teach all the subjects of primary school. But in my mind it is a different context from primary school. We use play, theatre, cartoons, and other methods to tell kids that learning is not only important and interesting, but it is also fun and it is part of your life.

We also had a garden in our kindergarten for kids to play in, we brought the kids to a weather station. I do these kind of things to make learning not just about staying at school and in class. You can learn in society. Learning to climb trees nd climb mountains is also part of learning, it makes learning popular but it also promotes Uyghur through a new concept of learning and education.