The ‘bright future’ of Chinese life in Xinjiang
Life in the big city can be hard for Chinese migrant workers, but in Urumqi, economic incentives give them more opportunities than they'd get elsewhere. Provided that they are ethnically Han, that is.
Darren Byler
Darren Byler is an Assistant Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University, where his teaching and research focus is on the technology and politics of urban life in Northwest China and Southeast Asia. His writing has appeared in Logic, Guardian, and ChinaFile, among other publications.
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The imprisonment of the ‘model villagers’: Two Uyghur sisters on what it means to lose their family and way of life
For the family of sisters Nursiman and Nur’iman, a local work brigade placed a small red plaque with five stars on it to the front gate of their house. The stars stood for “patriotism, honesty, education, hygiene, and harmony.” But in the end, that didn't stop the sisters' parents and brother from being sent to jail for reasons that remain murky to this day.
‘Uyghurs are so bad’: Chinese dinner table politics in Xinjiang
There was a time, not too long ago, when friendship was possible between the Han Chinese of Xinjiang and their Uyghur neighbors. But where there once was camaraderie, now there is suspicion, fear, and empty slogans.
His dictionaries taught Chinese to the Uyghur world. Then he was taken away
Hüsenjan was a Chinese state employee — and member of the Chinese Communist Party — tasked with creating dictionaries for the Uyghur language. His work couldn’t save him.
‘Heaviness in the stomach’: A Uyghur daughter alone in America on her birthday during a pandemic
“I started to see a sadness in their eyes. They had become sad. They didn’t know what to do, so they just accepted it.” Post-disappearance...
Sealed doors and ‘positive energy’: COVID-19 in Xinjiang
Although there have only been several dozen reported cases of COVID-19 in Xinjiang, lockdowns within the region have created widespread forms of stress and panic.
The disappearance of Perhat Tursun, one of the Uyghur world’s greatest authors
Perhat Tursun is the preeminent modernist Uyghur author, a self-proclaimed Kafka character whose novels are among the most influential in Uyghur society. He was disappeared at the height of his powers by the Chinese state, a victim of the government’s re-education campaign in Xinjiang.
‘The darkness only deepens’: A decade of stories of loss in Xinjiang
“It took me years to feel normal again. Actually, I still don’t feel normal.” “I realized that the Chinese Communist Party’s attitude toward us had...
A Xinjiang scholar’s close reading of the China Cables
“Never allow escapes, never allow trouble, never allow attacks on staff, never allow abnormal deaths…” Darren Byler analyzes the 25 key points in the Chinese...