As many of the rest of the following posts will be on ethnic unity, I wanted to post these photos that I took in Xinjiang. Ethnic unity is the heavily propagandized virtue, and I often came across walls painted with propaganda messages. This propaganda is becoming increasingly important as ethnic unity breaks down, and interethnic …
We realized that Kashgar was a very sensitive area, though that realization would become very real for us when, as we were leaving the city a few days later, there was an assassination and the city was almost completely shut down. But on our arrival, we were still only moderately aware of how sensitive …
Continue reading ‘If the Cops Ask, You’re Not Staying Here’ »
Galen put together a great two minute video of our time around the Sunday market in Kashgar:
Kashgar. Something about that name rings of the end of the earth. Like Kathmandu or Patagonia, the city’s name is redolent of a wild and ancient greatness that leaves me wondering why it has not yet been appropriated as the name of a clothing company, as the other two names have. Kashgar is the epitome …
Recently, the Uighur economist professor at Ethnic University in Beijing was known as a moderate promoting Uighur rights in Xinjiang. When talking to the Uighur on the bus, my friend mentioned this economist in this post a few days ago: http://www.silkroadhitchhikers.com/?p=1667 I wanted to let yall know that he was recently given a life sentence …
Time shifts all things, leaving no stone unturned. In an earlier post, I documented how the Uighurs, though now persecuted by central authorities in Beijing, were once the allies of Beijing, assisting them in the genocide of millions of Dzungarian Mongols, nearly wiping out the entirety of the people. But after the genocide, there still …
We were leaving Turpan on a sleeper bus, the bad road bumping along. The landscape was that of a brush desert, low, green-gray bushes the only plants that could hang on to life in this environment of extremes. The wind had picked up that day, rocking our bus from side to side and tossing tumbleweed …
Our bus was late. We waited in the bus station. Trying to stay cool, I walked back towards some large fans while nervously glancing from our bags to the man who was supposed to tell us when our bus finally showed up. Suddently, I heard the sound of a pop off somewhere by the ticket …
A photo we did not use from earlier that I came across