Who are the Uyghurs? Understanding China’s Silk Road Today
Global Classroom Workshops made possible by:
THE Photos by Tese Wintz Neighbor NORCLIFFE FOUNDATION A Resource Packet for Educators RESOURCES COMPILED BY: And World MARYANNA BROWN & NICOLE GLASGOW Affairs Council TESE WINTZ NEIGHBOR Members WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL May 12, 2010
USING THIS RESOURCE GUIDE ...... 1 GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY RESOURCES ON XINJIANG ...... 4 MEET THE UIGHURS ...... 9 JONATHAN LIPMAN ON ETHNIC TENSION IN CHINA ...... 10 THE URUMQI RIOTS OF JULY 2009 ...... 16 THE CHINESE PERSPECTIVE ...... 19 TERRORISM AND SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS ...... 21 HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UYGHURS ...... 24 OTHER ISSUES FACING XINJIANG TODAY ...... 29 RESOURCES ON XINJIANG CULTURE & ARTS ...... 32 NGOS WORKING IN XINJIANG ...... 34 CURRICULUM MATERIALS ...... 38 BOOKS ...... 42 BLOGS ...... 46 ISLAM IN CHINA ...... 47 GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY RESOURCES ...... 47 MUSLIMS IN CHINA TODAY ...... 50 THE SILK ROAD ...... 58 ARTICLE : ISLAM IN CHINA ...... 60 SILK ROAD MAPS ...... 64 SILK ROAD FOUNDATION SILK ROAD TIMELINE ...... 65 SILK ROAD OVERVIEW ...... 69 THE NEW SILK ROAD ...... 70 SILK ROAD CURRICULUM MATERIALS ...... 71 SILK ROAD BOOKS FOR ADULTS ...... 74 SILK ROAD BOOKS FOR CHILDREN ...... 76
USING THIS RESOURCE GUIDE Please note: many description were excerpted directly from the websites Packet published: 05/08/2010; Websites checked: 05/05/2010
Lesson Plans/ Educational Resources Educational Games
Charts and Graphs Recommended Resources
Audio Photo Slideshows
Video Chinese Source
Science and Technology Maps
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 1
XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION
Available for educational use at www.johomaps.com (2007)
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 2
XINJIANG FACT SHEET
Official Name: Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Capital: Urumqi Official Language: Mandarin Other Languages Spoken: Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Mongol Currency: Renminbi (RMB); literally “People’s Currency” Area: 1,600,000 square kilometers; about the size of Iran Founded: 1955 Total Population: 21 million (2007) Natural Population Growth Rate: 10.8 per thousand (2003) ______
Ethnic Groups: Uyghur (45%), Han (41%), Kazak (7%), Hui (5%), Kyrgyz (0.9%), Mongol (0.8%), Dongxiang (0.3 %), Pamiris (East Iranian language variations, Tajik - 0.2%), Xibe (0.2%) Life Expectancy at Birth: 71 years; in 1949 it was only 31 years Total Fertility Rate: 16.0 per thousand (2003) Morality Rate: 5.2 per thousand (2003) ______
GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): 301.9 billion GDP Per Capita: RMB 14871 (US$1894) GDP Composition: Agriculture 17.6%, Industry 47.7%, Services 34.7% Per Capita Disposable Income of Urban Residents: RMB 9120 (US$1162) Per Capita Annual Net Income of Rural Residents: RMB 2737 (US$349) Urban Unemployment Rate: 3.7% (2008) ______Industries: Raw and refined oil, iron and steel, metallurgy, machinery, chemicals, and power generation Services: Telecommunications, tourism Exports: Tomato jam, casings, cotton yarn, shoes and TV sets Major Export Markets: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Russia Imports: Rolled steel, crude oil, oil products and fertilizers Agriculture Products: Yili apples, Korla pears, seedless white grapes, Hami melons, cotton, lavender, hops, sugar beets, sheep farming, fine-wool production, milk
Table Compiled From: http://www.xinjiang.gov.cn/10018/index.htm , http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009- 07/07/content_11668365.htm , http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0005394.html
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 3
GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY RESOURCES ON XINJIANG
XINJIANG/ UYGHURS RESOURCES – CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA: VIRTUAL ACADEMY http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/uighur/index.php The Congressional-Executive Commission on China was created by Congress in October 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China, and to submit an annual report to the President and the Congress. The Commission consists of nine Senators, nine Members of the House of Representatives, and five senior Administration officials appointed by the President. The current Chairman is Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) and the Cochairman is Representative Sander M. Levin (D-MI).
TRUE XINJIANG http://www.truexinjiang.com/ TrueXinjiang.com is maintained by dedicated editors and correspondents of the Global Times website (www.globaltimes.cn). Approaching a true Xinjiang - the site is the largest portal on Xinjiang in English language and aims to present everyone a true picture of this autonomous region in Northwest China. Through this portal, aspects of Xinjiang rarely known to the outside world have a chance to highlight their charms. It covers culture, religion, travel and latest developments in Xinjiang with voices from both authorities and individuals. Features like "Xinjiang in my eyes" and "Xinjiang, my hometown"are designed to reflect Xinjiang’s local life. You are also welcome to join Xinjiang-related issues on the forum.
REGIONS AND TERRITORIES: XINJIANG PROFILE – BBC NEWS 11.03.09 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/8152132.stm Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions. They also include audio and video clips from BBC archives.
URUMQI: CHINA’S ECONOMIC HUB IN CENTRAL ASIA - EURASIANET http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav071307.shtml EurasiaNet provides information and analysis about political, economic, environmental and social developments in the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as in Russia, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia. Based in New York, EurasiaNet advocates open and informed discussion of issues that concern countries in the region. The web site presents a variety of perspectives on contemporary developments, utilizing a network of correspondents based both in the West and in the region. The aim of EurasiaNet is to promote informed decision making among policy makers, as well as broadening interest in the region among the general public. EurasiaNet is operated by the Central Eurasia Project of the Open Society Institute.
WHITE PAPER ON DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS IN XINJIANG – CHINA HUMAN RIGHTS http://www.chinahumanrights.org/Messages/China/t20090922_494890.htm The Information Office of the State Council, or China's cabinet, published a white paper on the development and progress in Xinjiang on September 21, 2009.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 4
GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY RESOURCES ON XINJIANG
CHINA’S WILD WEST – CURRENT MEDIA 08.20.2008 http://current.com/items/89221794_chinas-wild-west.htm Current Media is an award-winning multiplatform company dedicated to the in-depth investigation and exploration of the world's most important, interesting, and entertaining stories. With a fully integrated broadcast and online platform, Current connects its audience with what's going on in their world through its unique blend of original productions and viewer created media. In this Vanguard report, Laura Ling travels to the wild-west frontier in China's Gobi Desert, an area the Chinese named Xinjiang, or New Land, but a place many Uyghurs believe should be an independent Uighur nation.
TURKIC AND CENTRAL EURASIAN STUDIES PROGRAM – UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON http://depts.washington.edu/centasia/index.htm Founded in 1949, the Turkic and Central Eurasian Studies Program at the University of Washington is one of the oldest and most distinguished programs in the United States. At the core of the Program is language learning. It offers courses at all language levels (elementary, intermediate, and advanced) in Uzbek, Kazak, Kyrgyz, and Uyghur.
CENTRAL ASIA-CAUCASUS ANALYST- JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY http://www.cacianalyst.org/ The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a globally leading periodical for analysis and information on the region, freely accessible online. Established in 1999 and edited by Svante E. Cornell, the Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst has established itself among the world's most authoritative sources of analysis and information on the region.
EAST-WEST CENTER http://www.eastwestcenter.org/ The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. Established by the U.S. Congress in 1960, the Center serves as a resource for information and analysis on critical issues of common concern, bringing people together to exchange views, build expertise, and develop policy options. The Center is an independent, public, nonprofit organization with funding from the U.S. government, and additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and governments in the region.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 5
THE UYGHURS – GENERAL RESOURCES A Note on Spelling
Is it Uygur, Uigur, Uighur, Uyghur, or Weiwuer? (pronounced Wee-ger)
For the Uygur/Uigur/Uighur/Uyghur/Weiwuer problem (which is actually worse than it looks, because the word "Hui" or "Huihui" also derives from an old word for Uygur, namely Huihe), there's no handy-dandy guide. It doesn’t really matter which Romanization you use. I find Uyghur to be the most accurate of all the inaccurate Romanization. It's actually pronounced wee (or way) goor, with the "g" as a growl in the throat, so it can't really be Romanized. Most Uyghurs couldn't care less how it's Romanized since they read it either in Arabic script (which also doesn't have a growling g so they had to make up a new letter for it) or in Chinese, where it's wei-wu-er (though it used to be hui-hu or hui-he, back in the Ming dynasty). JL
Note: When quoting directly from the source we have kept the spelling that was used. TN
PHOTO ESSAY: WHO ARE THE UIGHURS? – FOREIGN POLICY 07.09.2009 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/09/photo_essay_who_are_the_uighurs?page=f ull The Uighur independence movement has received far less attention in the Western media than has neighboring Tibet, but its profile has been growing in recent years, thanks largely to actions by the Uighur diaspora. (The Chinese government has blamed the current unrest on Uighur- American activist Rebiya Kadeer.)
THE OTHER TIBET: CHINA’S UIGHURS – NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 12.01.2009 http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/uygurs/teague-text The Uygurs, Muslim people of China’s resource-rich far west, are becoming strangers in their own land as Han Chinese pour in. Like the Tibetans, who face similar pressures, some Uygurs see a chance for a better life, but others protest the disintegration of their culture, even at the risk of death.
CHINA AND THE ENDURING UIGHURS – STRATFOR GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE 08.06.2008 http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/china_and_enduring_uighurs STRATFOR’s global team of intelligence professionals provides an audience of decision-makers and sophisticated news consumers in the U.S. and around the world with unique insights into political, economic, and military developments. Uighur ethnic nationalists and Islamist separatists have risen several times to challenge Chinese control over Xinjiang, but the Uighur independence movement remains fractured and frequently at odds with itself. However, recent evolutions within the Islamist militant Uighur movement, including growing links with transnational jihadist groups in Central and Southwest Asia, may represent a renewed threat to security in China.
RUMBLES ON THE RIM OF CHINA’S EMPIRE – NEW YORK TIMES 7.11.2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/weekinreview/12wong.html For centuries, the rulers of China have sought to control and shape Xinjiang, much as the dry winds of the vast deserts there sculpt the rocks.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 6
THE UYGHURS – GENERAL RESOURCES
UIGHUR NEWS – NEW YORK TIMES http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/u/uighurs_chinese_ethnic_group /index.html An archive of news stories featuring the Uighurs from the NYT .
SELF DETERMINATION CONFLICT PROFILE: THE UIGHURS – FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS http://presentdanger.irc-online.org/conflicts/uighur_body.html FPIF is a "Think Tank Without Walls" connecting the research and action of more than 600 scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the United States a more responsible global partner. Two episodes at the turn of the 1990s spurred Uighur nationalists into their current state of militancy. First, the ignominious Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan suggested that a lone Muslim people struggling against an infidel invader could emerge victorious. The Afghan experience intensely influenced many young Uighur political entrepreneurs, and its symbolic power was eclipsed only by the second event--the serendipitous rise to statehood of the Central Asian republics after the Soviet collapse; seeing that their fellow Turkic Muslims of Central Asia now had their own sovereign lands, Uighur proto-separatists now brandished archetypes for their own prospective nation-state.
SINO-PAKISTAN RELATIONS AND XINJIANG’S UYGHURS – ZIAD HAIDER 08.01.2005 http://www.stimson.org/southasia/pdf/XINJIANG.pdf China’s Muslim Uighurs have recently proven to be an unusual source of friction in the stalwart Sino-Pakistan friendship. This essay analyzes how politics in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and trade and movement along the Karakoram Highway linking Xinjiang with Pakistan have affected the relationships among Beijing, Islamabad, the Uyghurs, and the Pakistani traders operating in Xinjiang.
AMERICAN MEDIA PORTRAYALS OF THE UIGHUR MINORITY PRE AND POST 9/11 – ANNA FILE 2009 http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/respublica/vol14/iss1/13/ The Muslim Uighur ethnic minority in China has long been repressed by the Chinese Central Government in a way not dissimilar from the Tibetan ethnic minority. While policy decisions, assimilation projects, and systematic restriction of freedoms support this claim, Americans with interest in the area have a more complex relationship with opinion on Uyghurs.
THE XINJIANG CONFLICT: UYGHUR IDENTITY, LANGUAGE AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE – ARIENNE M. DWYER This study explores Chinese language policy and language use in Inner Asia, as well as the relation of language policy to the politics of Uyghur identity. Language is central to ethnic identity, and official language policies are often overlooked as critical factors in conflict over ethnic nationalism. In Chinese Inner Asia, any solution to ethnic conflict will include real linguistic and cultural autonomy for major ethnic groups.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 7
THE UYGHURS – GENERAL RESOURCES
ETHNO-DIPLOMACY: THE UYGHURS HITCH IN SINO-TURKISH RELATIONS – YITZHAK SHICHOR 2009 http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/10349/1/ps053.pdf Beginning in 1949, China considered, and dealt with, so-called Uyghur separatism and the quest for East Turkestan (Xinjiang) independence as a domestic problem. Since the early 1990s, however, Beijing has begun to recognize the international aspects of this problem and to deal with its external manifestations. This new policy has affected China’s relations with Turkey, which had ideologically inspired Uyghur nationalism, offered sanctuary to Uyghur refugees, and provided moral and material support to Eastern Turkestan movements, organizations, and activities.
UYGHUR NEWS http://www.uyghurnews.com/ Uyghur News.com is a news article collection website on Uighur people from East Turkistan (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China) and Tibetan People from Tibet. [The site is} designed to keep all media releases about Uyghur People in one place and help researchers on Uyghur people or East Turkistan and Tibet.
MEAT ON A STICK – DANWEI TV 6 04.20.2006 http://www.danwei.org/danwei_tv/danwei_tv_6_meat_on_a_stick.php In this show, Danwei TV interviews several Uighurs in Beijing selling lamb kebabs (yang rou chuan'r) and Uighur candy, and shows their working conditions. Interviews were conducted in Mandarin, which is not the Uighur's native tongue: they speak their own language, which is related to Turkish.
UIGHUR STREET EATS – UNCORNERED MARKET 2008 http://www.uncorneredmarket.com/photos/set/72157603488447039/page1/ When we first entered China from Kyrgyzstan, we weren't that excited about the food. It sounded very similar to Central Asian food (i.e., lots of mutton), which we'd already overdosed on. Our expectations were far exceeded, however and we were pleasantly surprised by the new flavors we encountered in Uighur food - particularly at the Kashgar night market. And, our first tastes of more traditional "Chinese food" in Urumqi was also exceptional.
TOP TEN XINJIANG DISHES – UNCORNERED MARKET 2008 http://www.uncorneredmarket.com/2008/09/top-10-xinjiang-dishes/ We begin our Chinese food series in the same place we entered China: in the city of Kashgar in China’s western frontier province of Xinjiang. Like the native Uighur people and their culture, food in Xinjiang province resembles Central Asian and Turkic cuisine more than stereotypical Chinese food. Thankfully, however, Xinjiang’s food scene did not feature a culinary repeat of Central Asia. Instead, the food of the Uighurs proved a diverse and tasty introduction to the broader Chinese table.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 8
MEET THE UIGHURS The majority of Uighurs live in Xinjiang, the massive western "autonomous region" that accounts for nearly a sixth of China's land area. At its height in the ninth century, the Uighur empire stretched from the Caspian Sea into eastern China. The Uighurs also managed to establish independent republics twice during the 20th century before being annexed by the People's Republic of China in 1949. The Chinese government has actively promoted the migration of Han Chinese to Xinjiang, and since the 1950s, the region's Han community has grown from 5 to 40 percent of the region's total population. Although recent years have seen enormous economic growth in the region, local Uighurs have become increasingly resentful of control from Beijing. After a Uighur uprising in 1990, the Communist Party took steps to accelerate the integration of Xinjiang into China by stepping up migration and increasing the security presence and control over religion in the region.
Most Uighurs practice Sunni or Sufi Islam, infused with a fair amount of local folklore and tradition. Uighur Islam is traditionally extremely moderate on social issues, though in recent decades, more fundamentalist traditions were introduced by students who studied abroad in Central Asian and Pakistani madrasas. The Uighur independence movement has had a strongly Islamic character since the 1980s. Until recently, there was almost no tradition of Islamist militancy in Xinjiang, but there have been reports that the Central Asian jihadist group Hizb ut-Tahrir has made inroads in the region. The government tightly regulates the practice of Islam and accreditation of clerics.
Uighurs have resented being forced to attend Chinese schools, where classes are taught in Chinese rather than their own Turkic-derived language. Uighur cities, particularly Kashgar, have been important trade outposts along the Silk Road for more than 2,000 years. But in recent decades, many Uighurs have felt economically marginalized and shut out of Xinjiang’s rising prosperity as they’ve been forced to compete for jobs and agricultural land with the rising Han population.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Chinese government switched its official position from denying the existence of unrest among Xinjiang's Muslim population to actively linking the region's separatist movement to global terrorism. International human rights groups say China is exaggerating the extent of Uighur terrorism and that many of the incidents labeled "terrorist attacks" are actually spontaneous civil unrest. The world's best known Uighurs may be the 22 detainees that the United States detained at Guantánamo Bay as "enemy combatants." The detainees have since been cleared of terrorism charges by the U.S. military. Beijing has demanded that the detainees be remanded to China, but the United States fears they would be abused in custody or executed. The Bush and Obama administrations have subsequently worked to arrange for other countries and territories -- including Albania, Bermuda, and Palau -- to take them in.
The Uighur independence movement has received far less attention in the Western media than has neighboring Tibet, but its profile has been growing in recent years, thanks largely to actions by the Uighur diaspora. (The Chinese government has blamed the current unrest on Uighur-American activist Rebiya Kadeer.) Taken from: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/09/photo_essay_who_are_the_uighurs?page=full
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 9
JONATHAN LIPMAN ON ETHNIC TENSION IN CHINA
Jonathan Lipman on Ethnic Tension in China
Posted July 16, 2009, Mount Holyoke Website
Questioning Authority asked Jonathan Lipman, Felicia Gressitt Bock Professor of Asian Studies and professor of history, to explain the recent violence against the Uyghur people in China. Author of Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China (1998), he has studied this subject for many years. It’s a long and fascinating tale…
QA: Who are the Uyghur and Han people of China?
JL: To start with, "the Han people" and "the Uyghur people" do not really exist. They are constructions that we (and the Chinese state and the folks in question) all use to try and make generalizations about groups of people who are actually quite diverse and internally contradictory.
Uyghurs range from intellectuals with Ph.D. degrees to illiterate farmers, from engineers to chefs to stall keepers in the bazaar. Would you expect all those folks to agree about anything? Probably not. How much less so "the Han people," supposedly a "unified ethnic group,” living from Siberia to the tropics, from dire poverty to ostentatious wealth? All news stories using these constructions contain, by definition, serious falsehood and overgeneralization.
The conventional definitions are roughly these: the approximately 11 million Uyghur people live in the oases around the Taklamakhan desert, and more recently in northern Xinjiang. They are Muslims, speak a version of eastern Turkic (now called “Uyghur”), and live primarily by agriculture and small-scale commerce. Their culture and language appear very similar to those of Uzbeks, who live on the other (western) side of the Pamir mountains. The Han are the “culturally Chinese,” a vast amalgam of over one billion people who live all over the world but trace their ancestry to “the Chinese culture area,” which now stretches from the Mongolian steppe in the north to the South China Sea. Though they speak many mutually incomprehensible languages (“dialects”), literate Han all use the same nonphonetic ideographs (“characters”) to write, creating a common literary heritage of great depth.
QA: What is the history of the Xinjiang area, where much of the Uyghur population lives?
JL: China currently claims that the area now called the "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" has been part of China for 2,000 years and that its inhabitants, about 45 percent of them now called "Uyghurs" (or Uighurs, in the People's Republic of China spelling), are members of "ethnic groups," all of which are "Chinese" by virtue of living World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 10 in China. There is very limited truth in these claims. Xinjiang did not exist as a unified or China-ruled entity until 1759, when that huge part of Central Asia, then ruled by a Mongolian people called Zunghars, was conquered by the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty and incorporated into their empire. The region--which included one of the world's worst deserts, some of the world's highest mountains, and a thinly scattered population mostly Muslim and Turkic-speaking--had never been entirely incorporated into a China- based state before, and its political connections lay primarily over some very high mountains (the Pamirs) in Ferghana and the rest of Muslim Central Asia. For scale: Xinjiang is three times the size of France and has a population of 20-25 million.
After a series of rebellions, and a Muslim state, separated Xinjiang (which means "New Dominion" or "New Frontier") from the Qing in the 1860s and 1870s, a reconquest gave the Qing another opportunity to govern there. They made Xinjiang a regular province of the empire, which they ruled (badly) until the dynasty fell in 1912.
For the first half of the twentieth century, Xinjiang did not belong to any Chinese central government that could rule it effectively. Rather, a series of warlords, all culturally Chinese, ruled over a rebellious, violent, seething society--mostly Turkic- speaking and Muslim--pieces of which broke away from their control sometimes, usually to meet with brutal suppression and reunification. The Soviet Union took a hand in much of this turmoil, as (occasionally) did Great Britain. Few culturally Chinese people (most of whom would now be called "Han") went to live there, and those who did tended to stay in the northern part of Xinjiang. The armies that enabled these warlords to rule the region consisted primarily of Chinese-speaking Muslims (now called "Hui"), an intermediate group who partake of both Muslim and Chinese cultures and may be found all over China.
QA: What has been the relationship between China and Xinjiang since the People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949?
JL: Since 1949, a much more intrusive, modern state--the People's Republic of China (PRC)--has incorporated Xinjiang much more effectively, a state ruled from Beijing and tolerating much less local autonomy (despite the name "Autonomous Region") than its predecessors. For example, all of the PRC, which is as large as the U.S., constitutes a single time zone. When the sun rises in Beijing at 7 am, it's officially 7 am in Xinjiang, though the sun will not rise there for another three hours. Folks in Xinjiang hate that, because it means that their children have to go to school in the dark (all Chinese schools must open at the same time) and government offices open before dawn. Some adjustments have been made, but decisions made in distant Beijing have much more power in Xinjiang than they ever have before.
The most obvious change in Xinjiang since 1949 has been demographic. When the PRC was founded, Xinjiang's population was 95 percent Turkic-speaking and Muslim (including people now called Uyghur, Qazaq, Tatar, Uzbek, and some others). The
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 11 population now, many times larger, is about 45 percent Chinese ("Han"). That feels, to many Uyghurs, like an invasion, a colonial enterprise designed to deprive them of their homeland. To some other Uyghurs, it represents modernity, a way out of poverty and backwardness into the world of the Internet, science, and globalization. To some other Uyghurs, it doesn't matter much, because they continue to farm the land as their ancestors did. The Uyghurs, no matter what some uninformed reporters say, are not and never were either nomads or pastoralists. Some do keep flocks, but on farms, not usually on nomadic pastures. Only in the past 30 or 40 years have some of these oasis- dwelling folks moved up into the mountains to herd, and their numbers are small.
The demographic change has been accompanied, obviously, by deep and conflictual cultural change. The languages of opportunity and success in Xinjiang before the twentieth century were Turkish (indigenous), Persian (literary/religious), and Arabic (religious). In the nineteenth century, Russian became important, mostly because the rest of Central Asia came under Russian rule. In the twentieth century, however, Chinese has become the language of social mobility in Xinjiang, and this is especially true since the end of the Maoist era in 1978. By cutting off the local populations (however they are defined ethnically) from contacts across the frontiers, the PRC has tried to turn Xinjiang decisively eastward, toward cultural China (called the "Central Plain" or "the interior"). Of course, that "cutting off" can never be complete, since the PRC wants the profits and markets created by transborder trade with Central Asia, Russia, and Pakistan. So there has been tension in the region for several decades regarding who can cross the borders, for what purposes, and what they can and cannot do while outside the PRC.
Education, too, has been profoundly affected by Beijing's policies, which have gradually, with many starts and stops, moved toward assimilationist goals--making sure that local folks learn Chinese before they start learning English, for example, or not allowing any secondary or college-level courses to be taught in Turkic languages. Here I would suggest Arienne Dwyer's excellent monograph, The Xinjiang Conflict , published by the East-West Center, Washington, in its Policy Studies series.
Another important area of cultural conflict lies in the realm of religion. Though all Uyghurs are Muslims, by definition, their practice of Islam varies tremendously, from pious and orthopractic imams to atheistic members of the Chinese Communist Party, who would never go near a mosque. Islam is legal and constitutionally protected in the PRC, but that has not prevented state authorities (including some Uyghurs) from surveillance of Islamic activities and harassment of any public sector employees who practice religion openly. Male schoolteachers, for example, have been prohibited from wearing mustaches (seen as “Muslim”) or attending prayers, while female students have been punished for covering their heads or wearing skirts that are “too long.” Mosque services, especially the Friday congregational prayers, are closely watched to ensure that children under 18 do not attend. Uyghurs dissatisfied with these policies have accurately observed that Chinese-speaking Muslims (Hui) have not been subject
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 12 to such stringent state interference in religious life. Some Uyghurs (by no means all) feel that by constraining Islam and allowing massive Han migration to Xinjiang, the PRC intends to obliterate their cultural identity.
QA: What has brought about the recent conflict and crackdown against the Uyghurs?
JL: Obviously, it has a lot to do with the history I've just narrated. The proximate cause, however, lies outside Xinjiang. Since the beginning of the reform period in 1978, controls on mobility (which were draconian under the Maoists) have been eased in the PRC, so many Uyghurs have left Xinjiang and gone to the coastal cities, some to make kebabs in the marketplace, some to engage in illegal currency exchange businesses, some to work in factories, some to go to college or university, and more. Some of the Uyghur factory workers, way down in Guangzhou (about as far from Xinjiang as New Mexico is from Philadelphia), got into trouble with fellow workers, and a number of them (according to some stories) were killed. As usual, no arrests, no punishments (even administrative) for the perpetrators or the officials responsible. So the folks back home in Xinjiang got understandably upset, and some thousands of them marched in demonstrations against both the killings in Guangzhou and the government's (lack of) reaction to them. The armed police opened fire, and hundreds (some say thousands) of people have been killed and wounded in demonstrations and street brawling. Some local Han say they had it coming, that they should shut up and enjoy the benefits of the harmonious society created by the PRC and the Communist Party. Other Han deplore the violence but consider the Uyghurs to be semi-barbarians, superstitious (that is, Muslim), and not very bright, who need to be educated into the light of Han culture and modernity. Others think of all Uyghurs as thieves and drug dealers who should be locked up in any case. Almost all Han I have ever met (with a few remarkable, eccentric exceptions) agree that Han have every right to be in Xinjiang, as citizens of the PRC, and that they "belong" there as much as any Uyghur does.
Some of this should sound very familiar to you. Native Americans, Latinos, and African Americans have been handled in this way in the U.S. at various times by various levels of government. Indeed, the best American analogy for the Uyghurs is probably the Navajo. Imagine a Navajo looking down on Phoenix or Tucson. That's a Uyghur, looking at Kashgar or Aksu, which used to be "his" and are now "theirs." You can join the Han- led modern state and society (some do), or you can fight them (some do), but it is becoming increasingly impossible to ignore them. I once heard a Uyghur greybeard describe the Han people getting off the train in his native town, to seek work there as construction laborers or shop assistants, as "a goddam locust plague." So much of the resentment that boils up--not surprisingly, among young males more than any other segment of the population--stems from that history.
QA: Is the Communist Party crackdown on the Uyghur harsher than last year's crackdown on the Tibetans?
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 13
JL: In terms of numbers of dead, probably. The two regions are structurally similar--a kind of contiguous colonization of frontier zones by a powerful, modernizing, overwhelmingly populous state. The differences lie in location (desert vs. high plateau), economic significance (important trade routes and natural resources vs. isolated wilderness), and culture (Muslims vs. Buddhists). Uyghur friends have yearned, in my presence, for a Dalai Lama to lead them ("How come the Tibetans have Richard Gere and we don't?"), but because they are Muslims and "their" province has transport access to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Qazaqstan, and Russia, they get no sympathy or help from "the West." In fact, no one currently cares much about the Uyghurs, any more than the Europeans cared much about the fate of the Navajos. The Central Asian Muslim states, who could have been Uyghur allies, identified by language, religion, and culture, have been effectively and sure-handedly co-opted by China through the Shanghai Cooperative Organization (SCO). Chinese diplomacy has very thoroughly neutralized the Uyghur diaspora, and 9/11 (with the Bush administration's condemnation of a tiny, ineffective Uyghur organization as "terrorists") gave China plenty of slack to deal brutally with any Uyghur(s) they didn't like. The U.S. imprisoned almost two dozen Uyghurs, arrested in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the most part, at Guantanamo Bay but, having decided that they pose no security threat, currently refuses to repatriate them (as the PRC requests) because they would almost certainly face dire punishment in China.
The current head of government in Xinjiang, a Han named Wang Lequan, has been there for a long time and regularly threatens to, then actually does, imprison, torture, and kill as many people as necessary to make all undesirable political activity by local folks stop. As one colleague put it many years ago, "Repression works."
QA: The Uyghurs occupy some oil-rich territory. Is this a factor?
JL: Certainly, the natural resources in Xinjiang (some oil, more natural gas, minerals) do matter. But "the Uyghurs" do not "occupy" them, nor have Uyghurs been "moved" so that the "Han" could get to the resources. Conflict in this area revolves around some Uyghurs' perception that the resources of Xinjiang belong to "us," not to "them," and that "they" are stealing "our" wealth to enrich themselves and China. That the contemporary Uyghurs somehow have proprietary rights to the mineral wealth of northern Xinjiang (which was never part of "their" statelets but tended to be ruled by Mongols or Qazaqs) is a standard argument, but it has little historical validity.
QA: Is there more suspicion of the Uyghurs in the wake of 9/11?
JL: No, the PRC has always been suspicious of the Turkic-speaking Muslims who used to form the majority of the population of Xinjiang. As noted above, 9/11 gave the state an opportunity to suppress Uyghur associations and activism, because they seemed to have been given carte blanche by "the international community" (read, the U.S.) to deal
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 14 summarily with anyone they felt like identifying as a "terrorist, splittist, or illegal religious activist."
QA: Is the West responding appropriately? What should Western governments be doing at this point?
JL: That depends entirely on what you think the U.S. (or Germany or France or Italy or Japan, all of which somehow belong to "the West") "should" do about the destruction of indigenous cultures all over the world. We destroyed, and are destroying, a fair number ourselves, so we can hardly ride a high horse on this issue. China's territorial integrity (national sovereignty) demands that we keep hands off their domestic conflicts, and most countries in the world will respect that. Should they? Is this Kosovo, that we "should" intervene? How? If not, should we boycott Chinese goods, thereby bankrupting Wal-Mart and Target and raising the prices of our own consumer goods into the stratosphere? Indigenous peoples generally don't stand a chance against the large, technologically sophisticated, overwhelmingly numerous societies that rule over them (think of Cherokee, Australian aborigines, or Inuit). Is that the appropriate analogy for the Uyghurs? Or the Tibetans? This point depends entirely on one's own judgment of "appropriate," and I cannot impose mine on you or your readers. With this question, we enter a realm of moral and political judgment. Both Uyghur activists and the PRC have created historical narratives justifying their own positions on Xinjiang— that it belongs to “us Uyghurs” or that it has “always been part of China.” Historians cannot satisfy you here, for the evidence allows no unambiguous answer.
Taken from: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/news/23197.shtm l Copyright © 2009 Mount Holyoke College • 50 College Street • South Hadley, Massachusetts 01075. To contact the College, call 413-538-2000.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 15
THE URUMQI RIOTS OF JULY 2009
BEHIND THE CHINA RIOTS: OIL, TERRORISM, AND GREY WOLVES – NEW AMERICAN MEDIA 07.13.2009 http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=6dee147021a596f4f22c6 9316977d3f3 New America Media is the country's first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. Over 51 million ethnic adults connect to each other, to home countries and to America through 3000+ ethnic media, the fastest growing sector of American journalism. Chinese media reported that the Urumchi riots were sparked by a clash between migrant workers in a Hong Kong-owned toy factory in southern China. But other evidence indicates the incident was merely a convenient pretext for a premeditated plan to destabilize Xinjiang province, the center of China's oil and gas industry.
CHINA: EXAMINING THE ROOT CAUSES OF XINJIANG’S ETHNIC DISCONTENT – EURASIANET 07.09.2009 http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav070909b.shtml The early July inter-ethnic violence that hit China’s western Xinjiang Province may have been shocking, but it shouldn’t have been surprising. Tension between the Uighur and Han Chinese communities had been steadily building over the past three decades, and Communist authorities in Beijing hadn’t been doing much to defuse simmering anger.
ETHNIC TENSIONS IN CHINA – WAMU 88.5 07.09.2009 http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/07/09.php#26703 For more than 30 years, The Diane Rehm Show has offered listeners thoughtful and lively conversations on an array of topics with many of the most distinguished people of our times. The Diane Rehm Show is produced at WAMU 88.5 and distributed by National Public Radio, NPR Worldwide, and SIRIUS satellite radio. More than one hundred fifty people have died as ethnic tensions rise in western China. A panel joins Diane to discuss what's behind the violence and the challenge it presents to China's leadership.
CHINA’S WESTERN FRONT – FOREIGN AFFAIRS 08.14.2009 http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65223/christian-le-mi%C3%83%C2%A8re/chinas- western-front Since its founding in 1922, Foreign Affairs has been the leading forum for serious discussion of American foreign policy and international affairs. It is published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a non-profit and nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to improving the understanding of U.S. foreign policy and international affairs through the free exchange of ideas. Recent violence in China's western provinces shows that the state's dual policy of migration and development has failed. A political solution for Xinjiang and Tibet, however, could be closer than Beijing may think.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 16
THE URUMQI RIOTS OF JULY 2009
CONFUSED ABOUT THE XINJIANG RIOTS? FOLLOW THE MONEY – GLOBALPOST 07.11.2009 http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/090711/confused-about-the- xinjiang-riots-follow-the-money?page=0,0 GlobalPost seeks to exploit powerful global demographic, political and economic trends by being the only Internet journalism site devoted exclusively to international news and related content. Since the start of its “Go West” campaign in the year 2000, Beijing has invested tens of billions in Xinjiang in an effort to develop its rich stores of oil (China’s second-largest), uranium, gold and other minerals. Such investment is described in Chinese state media as a boon to Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang — a sort of ethnic minority stimulus plan. While the region’s GDP growth has hovered in the teens, however, the practical benefits to Xinjiang natives have been meager.
UNREST IN CHINA HIGHLIGHTS THE PLIGHT OF ETHNIC MINORITIES – NPR (ALL THINGS CONSIDERED) 07.14.2009 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106605925 This is the second year of major ethnic unrest in western China, after riots in Tibet last year. The events have prompted renewed debate over the treatment of ethnic minorities in China. Details about the unrest in Xinjiang this year and Tibet last year are still hotly disputed. Why did the government take hours to stop the violence? Did peaceful protests precede the riots?
XINJIANG RIOTS EXPLODE IN CHINA – CURRENT MEDIA 07.08.2009 http://current.com/items/90369286_xinjiang-riots-explode-in-china.htm Current Media posted 1.41 minutes of close video footage of the riots.
FUSE OF FEAR, LIT IN CHINA, HAS VICTIMS ON 2 SIDES – NEW YORK TIMES 07.12.2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/world/asia/13uighur.html?_r=1&ref=asia The bottled frustration of the Uighurs exploded on July 5, when a clash between at least 1,000 Uighur protesters and riot police officers turned into a night of bloodletting in which young Uighur men rampaged through the streets killing Han civilians. For at least three days after, Han mobs armed with sticks and knives roamed the city exacting vengeance.
THE REAL STORY OF THE UIGHUR RIOTS – WALL STREET JOURNAL 07.08.2009 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124701252209109027.html When the Chinese government looks back on its handling of the unrest in Urumqi and East Turkestan this week, it will most likely tell the world that it acted in the interests of maintaining stability. It will most likely forget to explain why thousands of Uighurs risked everything to speak out against injustice, or why hundreds of Uighurs are now dead for exercising their right to protest. This article was written by Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uighur Congress and author of " Dragon Fighter: One Woman's Epic Struggle for Peace with China " (Kales Press, 2009).
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 17
THE URUMQI RIOTS OF JULY 2009
TENSIONS REMAIN HIGH IN CHINA FOLLOWING DEADLY RIOTS – CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE 07.07.2009 http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=23378 The recent clashes between Han Chinese and Uighurs in the restive Xinjiang province have killed over 150 people and injured well over 800 others. To discuss the sources of the violence, Carnegie's Minxin Pei joined Alim Seytoff, the spokesperson for the World Uighur Congress, on PBS' NewsHour. Pei explained that Uighurs have long resented Han Chinese explorations of Xinjiang's deposits of oil, natural gas, and other natural resources and the central government's half-century-long effort to encourage Han migration to the province.
“WE ARE AFRAID TO EVEN LOOK FOR THEM” – HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 10.20.2009 http://www.hrw.org/en/node/86103/section/2 Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. This 44-page report, "‘We Are Afraid to Even Look for Them': Enforced Disappearances in the Wake of Xinjiang's Protests," documents the enforced disappearances of 43 Uighur men and teenage boys who were detained by Chinese security forces in the wake of the protests.
THE WOMAN CHINA BLAMES FOR THE URUMQI UNREST – TIME 07.08.2009 http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1909109,00.html For friend and foe alike, Rebiya Kadeer has become the public face of the Uighur movement. A successful businesswoman and local leader, she was jailed by the Chinese authorities in 1999 on charges of betraying state secrets. After her prison term, she was exiled in 2005, and she now lives in the Washington area, where she leads the World Uyghur Congress. Kadeer spoke with TIME's Bobby Ghosh via a translator.
CHINA NEWSWEEK REPORTING FROM URUMQI – DANWEI 08.13.2009 http://www.danwei.org/state_media/they_were_full_of_understandin_1.php Danwei is a website about media, advertising, and urban life in China. With frequent reference to and translations from Mainland Chinese media, [they] publish fresh information about China that you won't find anywhere else. Using extensive Chinese language sources, we keep tabs on a wide variety of subjects including legal and business stories, media and entertainment gossip, and the environment. Wang Gang ( 王刚) and Wang Jing ( 王婧) are two Chinese journalists who got to Xinjiang the Monday after the riots happened on Sunday July 5 to report for China Newsweek . Danwei asked the journalists about the ethnic conflict, their own take on media freedoms during reporting, reactions to Western reports and biases, and their stay in Xinjiang.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 18
THE URUMQI ETHNIC RIOTS OF JULY 2009
WHAT SHOULD CHINA DO ABOUT THE UIGHURS? – NEW YORK TIMES 07.08.2009 http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/what-should-china-do-about-the- uighurs/?pagemode=print What are the roots of the tensions between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese? As the government cracks down, what dangers does it face as anger continues to simmer on both sides, especially from Uighur separatists? This Room for Debate features Chien-peng Chung (political scientist), Stevan Harrell (anthropologist), Yan Sun (political scientist), and Rohan Gunaratna from Nayang Technological University.
THE CHINESE PERSPECTIVE
CHINA’S EU AMBASSADOR REVEALS THE TRUTH ABOUT XINJIANG RIOT – CHINA DAILY 07.26.2009 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-07/26/content_8474109.htm Chinese Ambassador and head of China's mission to the EU Song Zhe recently wrote an article to reveal the truth about the July 5 Urumqi violence in China's Xinjiang and rebut forcefully against distorted reports by some European media about the incident. His article, entitled as "What Europe should understand about the violence in Urumqi" and with a sub-title as "Behind the brutality in China," was published by the European Voice.
NOTES ON THE HANDLING OF THE URUMQI RIOT IN XINJIANG – SILK ROAD STUDIES PROGRAM 2009 http://www.chinaeurasia.org/images/stories/isdp-cefq/CEFQ200912/cefq7.4yhl11-15.pdf The influx of Han migration to Xinjiang from inland China escalated after the PRC was established in 1949, gradually but drastically changing the ethnic composition of Xinjiang’s population due to deliberate governmental policies to populate the northwest territories…Such demographic change is one of the major reasons for the Uygur’s resentment of the Han population in Xinjiang. They believe their homeland has been taken over and is not controlled by themselves.
UNITY IS DEEP IN CHINA’S BLOOD – MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS FOR THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 07.13.2009 http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zwjg/zwbd/t572653.htm Different ethnic groups in Xinjiang have lived side by side for centuries like one big family. The relationship has been generally amicable, though,as in all families and multi-ethnic communities, frictions occasionally happen. We call them "problems among the people," meaning they can be solved through coordination and are not a life-or-death struggle. That is why the violence in Urumqi on 5 July, causing more than 180 deaths and a thousand wounded, came as a shock.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 19
THE CHINESE PERSPECTIVE
XINJIANG: A VAST CAULDRON OF HUMANITY – CHINA DAILY 07.13.2009 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009xinjiangriot/2009-07/13/content_8418635.htm "The cultural and economic exchanges between ancient herding and farming ethnic groups were natural and that was the economic base for China to become the unified but multi-ethnic nation," Jiang Yingliang, in his book, History of Nationalities , pointed out. "Although there were splits during political struggles, eventually the country was united and each union covered almost the same land territories largely because of the wholeness of its economy and culture."
GOVERNMENT WHITE PAPER ON “REGIONAL AUTONOMY FOR ETHNIC MINORITIES IN CHINA” – STATE COUNCIL INFORMATION OFFICE OF THE PRC 2.28.2005 http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/uighur/index.php Regional autonomy for ethnic minorities in China means that, under the unified leadership of the state, regional autonomy is practiced in areas where people of ethnic minorities live in compact communities. In these areas, organs of self-government are established for the exercise of autonomy. The implementation of this policy is critical to enhancing the relationship of equality, unity and mutual assistance among different ethnic groups, to upholding national unification, and to accelerating the development of places where regional autonomy is practiced and promoting their progress.
PIERCING THROUGH REBIYA’S VEIL – CHINA DAILY 07.16.2009 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009xinjiangriot/2009-07/16/content_8438003.htm Once again, Rebiya Kadeer is attempting to paint the Chinese government as a cruel repressor of the Uygurs, who she says suffered "decades of economic, social and religious discrimination, together with the widespread execution, torture and imprisonment." In an article published by the British newspaper Guardian , Rebiya compared the Uygurs experience in China in the past 60 years and the experience of African-Americans in the United States before 1955. But these two are, in Rebiya's own words, "half a world" apart and incomparable.
WORLD YOUTH CONGRESS BEHIND XINJIANG VIOLENCE – CHINA DAILY 07.07.2009 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-07/07/content_8389647.htm Evidence showed that World Uyghur Congress had masterminded Sunday's deadly violence in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a Chinese counter-terrorism expert told Xinhua Tuesday. "Judging from what Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uyghur Congress, had said and done, it is fair to say the organization masterminded the incident," said Li Wei, director of the Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 20
THE CHINESE PERSPECTIVE
FRIEDMAN: CHINESE BELIEVE TIBETANS, OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS SHOULD BE INCORPORATED INTO ONE CHINA – COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 04.23.2008 http://www.cfr.org/publication/16052/friedman.html Edward Friedman, an expert on Chinese nationalism at the University of Wisconsin, says there is tremendous difference of opinion among Chinese who are doing well economically and those that are not. However, there is consensus that “the people who are not Han, who live near the frontiers [such as Tibetans and Uighurs] should be seen as people who should be incorporated into the larger Chinese state.”
TERRORISM AND SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS
CHINA’S UIGHUR CONUNDRUM – TRANSNATIONAL INSTITUTE 07.08.2009 http://www.tni.org/article/chinas-uighur-conundrum The Transnational Institute (TNI) was established in 1974 as an international network of activist researchers (“scholar activists”) committed to critical analyses of the global problems of today and tomorrow. It aims to provide intellectual support to movements struggling for a more democratic, equitable and environmentally sustainable world. Until now, it has been Beijing that talked up the threat of ethnic separatism in its far north-west region of Xinjiang, while the attitude of most of the Muslim Uighur population has been one of quiet – though unhappy – acceptance of Chinese rule. But the latest outbreak of violence in the regional capital of Urumqi is unprecedented and suggests that Uighur resentment at heavy-handed Chinese policies has begun to boil over.
CHINA’S ‘WAR ON TERROR’ IN XINJIANG: HUMAN SECURITY AND THE CAUSES OF VIOLENT UIGHUR SEPARATISM – MICHAEL CLARKE 11.11.2007 http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/18239/regional-outlook-volume-11.pdf Due to the diplomatic endeavors of the Chinese government, a number of allegedly terrorist Uighur organizations have been linked to Central Asian groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.
SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY – THE NEW REPUBLIC 07.16.2009 http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/self-fulfilling-prophecy The New Republic was founded in 1914, its mission was to provide its readers with an intelligent, stimulating and rigorous examination of American politics, foreign policy and culture. The eight million Uighurs who live in Xinjiang province have long chafed at Beijing’s rule. Shortly after the United States introduced the concept of a global “war on terror,” the local police seized the opportunity to ratchet up already stringent security measures aimed at Uighurs under the mantra of cracking down on the “three evils” of “terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism.”
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 21
TERRORISM AND SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS
EAST TURKESTAN ISLAMIC MOVEMENT – COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 07.31.2009 http://www.cfr.org/publication/9179/ The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is a militant Muslim separatist group in Xinjiang province in northwest China. The U.S. State Department listed the ETIM as a terrorist organization in 2002 during a period of increased U.S.-Chinese cooperation on antiterrorism matters in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. AN AL-QAEDA ASSOCIATE GROUP OPERATING IN CHINA? – SILK ROAD STUDIES PROGRAM 2006 http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/docs/CEF/Quarterly/May_2006/GunaratnaPereire.pdf The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and the Silk Road Studies Program were designed, in 1996 and 2002 respectively, to respond to the increasing need for information, research and analysis on these regions with the identical ambition: to help bring these regions out of the shadows of the American and European consciousness to which fate had consigned them. The threat of global terrorism has escalated significantly in the last few years. International attention is naturally focused on countries where terrorist spectaculars have occurred, or where there are ongoing high profile conflicts. The drama and, corresponding attention often leave little time or attention to ‘lesser-known conflicts’. The situation in Xinjiang in Western China, an area bordering Afghanistan is a case in point.
VIOLENT SEPARATISM IN XINJIANG: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT – JAMES MILLWARD 2004 http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/PS006.pdf Since the 1990s, concerns about Uyghur separatism have received increasing official and media attention. These concerns have heightened since the events of 9-11 with the advent of a more robust U.S. presence in Central Asia and Chinese attempts to link Uyghur separatism to international jihadist groups.
CYBER-SEPARATISM AND UYGHUR ETHNIC NATIONALISM IN CHINA – DRU GLADNEY http://www2.hawaii.edu/~dru/articles/cyberseparatism.pdf 07.05.2003 The Uyghur provide an excellent illustration of this process in which a group of oasis-dwelling Turkic-speaking people shared a general historical experience but did not begin to think of themselves as a single national identity until the early part of this century, when Soviet and Chinese states identified them as one of several Turkic nationalities.
THE XINJIANG CONFLICT: UYGHUR IDENTITY, LANGUAGE POLICY, AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE – ARIENNE M.DWYER 2005 http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/3504 This study explores Chinese language policy and language use in Inner Asia, as well as the relation of language policy to the politics of Uyghur identity. Language is central to ethnic identity, and official language policies are often overlooked as critical factors in conflict over ethnic nationalism. In Chinese Inner Asia, any solution to ethnic conflict will include real linguistic and cultural autonomy for major ethnic groups. Language policy has been at the heart of Chinese nation building.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 22
TERRORISM AND SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS
LET’S NOT MEET THE UIGHURS –WASHINGTON POST 05.15.2009 http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Newt-Gingrich/Lets-NOT-meet-the- Uighurs-45080387.html Seventeen of the 241 terrorist detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay are Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs. These Uighurs have been allied with and trained by al Qaeda- affiliated terrorist groups. The goal of the Uighurs is to establish a separate sharia state…At Guantanamo Bay, the Uighurs are known for picking up television sets on which women with bared arms appear and hurling them across the room. This article was written by Newt Gingrich. UIGHURS FIRE BACK AT GINGRICH FROM GITMO: “WHY DOES HE HATE US SO MUCH?” – HUFFINGTON POST 05.19.2009 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/19/uighurs-fire-back-at-ging_n_205261.html The seventeen Uighurs told their translator, Rushan Abbas, how they felt when they heard Gingrich's remarks…"Why does he hate us so much and say those kinds of things? He doesn't know us. He should talk to our attorneys if he's curious about our background," Abbas relates. "How could he speak in such major media with nothing based in fact? They were very disappointed how Newt Gingrich was linking them to ETIM which they never even heard of the name ETIM until they came to Guantanamo Bay." UYGHURS LANGUISH IN GITMO PRISON AND ALBANIAN EXILE – DEMOCRACY NOW 01.30.2009 http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/30/long_cleared_of_terrorism_charges_uighurs Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Uyghur prisoners at Guantanamo have long been determined to be not guilty of terrorism. But seventeen of these ethnic Muslim Chinese are still imprisoned at Guantanamo after almost eight years. Five were forcibly resettled in Albania, isolated and away from their families. We speak with their lawyer, Sabin Willett, and PBS FRONTLINE reporter Alexandra Poolos, who has followed their story for a new report.
HOW THE U.S. BETRAYED THE UIGHURS – CBS NEWS 09.04.2009 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/04/opinion/main5288535.shtml The real story of the Uighur detainees is to be found in the unsavory history of Guantánamo in the run-up to the Iraq War. There, men who, in their fight against Chinese oppression, had looked to the United States with hope, fell victim to a cynical diplomatic betrayal, a corruption of justice that a Bush administration deputy assistant secretary of state has called "nothing short of ‘tragic' " and for which even a congressman who supports enhanced interrogation has expressed "deep sadness and regret."
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 23
TERRORISM AND SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS
THE UIGHURS, IN THEIR OWN WORDS – LONG WAR JOURNAL 04.21.2009 http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/04/the_uighurs_in_their.php The Long War Journal is dedicated to providing original and accurate reporting and analysis of the Long War (also known as the Global War on Terror). This is accomplished through its programs of embedded reporters, news and news aggregation, maps, podcasts, and other multimedia formats. The Uighurs frequently professed their innocence, claiming that they were not targeting Americans and denying that they had anything to do with al Qaeda or the Taliban. But in the context of their denials the Uighur detainees also admitted to training at a terrorist camp in the Tora Bora Mountains. That camp was run by Abdul Haq and Hassan Mahsum, and was most likely supported by al Qaeda and the Taliban.
VICTORY FOR UIGHURS AT GUANTANAMO …BUT NOW WHAT? – POMFRET’S CHINA 10.07.2008 http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/pomfretschina/2008/10/a_victory_for_the_ui ghurs_at_g.html [John Promfet’s] blog will attempt to provide the broadest take on things Chinese -- in politics, culture, art, society, foreign affairs, economics and business. One of the the strangest cases to come out of Guantanamo have been those against a group of Chinese Muslims who were picked up in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. These men were training or living in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and were sent to Guantanamo after being turned over to U.S. authorities apparently by bounty hunters.
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UYGHURS
CHINA SILENCED – PBS FRONTLINE WORLD 01.01.2005 http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/china401/map.html Rimmed by snow-covered mountains, Xinjiang is a mostly desert province in western China that is home to 8 million Sufi Muslims known as the Uighurs. FRONTLINE/World correspondent Serene Fang traveled to Xinjiang to see how China treats its Muslim population. But this trip would also become a reporter's nightmare after a fateful encounter with a Uighur man and a repressive government.
DEVASTATING BLOWS: RELIGIOUS REPRESSION OF UIGHURS IN XINJIANG – HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA 04.01.2006 http://www.hrichina.org/fs/downloadables/Xinjiang%20Report?revision_id=21519 Documents obtained and interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch reveal a multitiered system of surveillance, control, and suppression of religious activity aimed at Xinjiang’s Uighurs.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 24
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UYGHURS
WHAT ABOUT CHINA’S DIRTY SECRETS? – HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 11.15.2009 http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/17/what-about-chinas-dirty-secrets Human rights have deteriorated markedly in China since President Obama took office, particularly for the country's vibrant but beleaguered civil society-journalists, lawyers, health, human rights and religious advocates.
BEYOND GUANTANAMO: CHINA’S UYGHUR MUSLIM MINORITY – CURRENT MEDIA 06.26.2009 http://current.com/items/90286755_beyond-guantanamo-chinas-uyghur-muslim-minority.htm This Stanley Foundation video, filmed in November 2008, explores China's treatment of its Uyghur population through interviews with various experts and a visit to Xinjiang province.
UIGHURS AND CHINA’S XINJIANG REGION – COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 07.06.2009 http://www.cfr.org/publication/16870/ Some Uighurs call China's presence in Xinjiang a form of imperialism, and they stepped up calls for independence—sometimes violently—in the 1990s through separatist groups like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The Chinese government has reacted by promoting the migration of China's ethnic majority, the Han, to Xinjiang. Beijing has also strengthened economic ties with the area and tried to cut off potential sources of separatist support from neighboring states that are linguistically and ethnically linked with the Uighurs.
UIGHUR ACTIVIST: CHINA IS MAKING "A FRONTAL ATTACK ON OUR ETHNIC IDENTITY" – EURASIANET 03.07.08 http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav030708.shtml Rebiya Kadeer, a human rights activist for the Uighur people of northwestern China, spent six years in jail in China for "leaking state secrets" – in fact sending local newspaper articles to her husband in the US. She was released in 2005 and has since then made her home in the Washington, D.C. area, where she advocates for Uighur rights and for greater US support of Uighur issues. In 2006, Ms. Kadeer was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. She sat down for an interview with EurasiaNet at the offices of the Uighur American Association, just a block from the White House.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 25
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UYGHURS
UIGHUR ETHNIC IDENTITY UNDER THREAT IN CHINA – AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 04.01.2009 http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA17/010/2009/en/e952496e-57bb-48eb-9741- e6b7fed2a7d4/asa170102009en.pdf The ethnic identity of Uighurs in western China is being systematically eroded. Government policies, including those that limit use of the Uighur language, severe restrictions on freedom of religion, and a sustained influx of Han Chinese migrants into the region, are destroying customs and, together with employment discrimination, fuelling discontent and ethnic tensions. The government has mounted an aggressive campaign that has led to the arrest and arbitrary detention of thousands of Uighurs on charges of “terrorism, separatism and religious extremism” for peacefully exercising their human rights.
KASHGAR UYGHURS PRESSURED TO SHAVE – RADIO FREE ASIA 02.20.2009 http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/hair-02202009174717.html Authorities in China’s westernmost city of Kashgar are stepping up pressure on government employees to go clean-shaven, and the city’s large ethnic Uyghur population, whose adult males overwhelmingly sport moustaches, aren’t happy about it, residents say.
LETTER FROM XINJIANG: REFLECTIONS ON THE XINJIANG PROBLEM – ASIA! 01.20.2010 http://www.theasiamag.com/perspectives/letter-from-xinjiang-%E2%80%93-reflections-on- the-xinjiang-problem Asia ! is an online and mobile platform for Asian bloggers and other writers. For readers, Asia! is a place to get a feel for what ordinary Asians are thinking and saying and doing, a glimpse of the Asia that lies beyond the news headlines.This is a letter written to Ruan Yunfei, a well- known Chinese writer and blogger, by someone from a very small minority group in Xinjiang after the Urumqi riots of July 2009. It provides a unique perspective of ethnic relations in the region. It is unique because the author is neither Han nor Uighur, and the voice from smaller minority groups in Xinjiang is seldom heard.
CHINA: MINORITY EXCLUSION, MARGINALIZATION, AND RISING TENSIONS – HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA 2007 http://www.hrichina.org/public/PDFs/MRG-HRIC.China.Report.pdf This report demonstrates how this repression is having a particularly grave impact on Mongols in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR), Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). It examines how this repression is being exerted under the guise of ‘development’ and ‘security’. China continues to use both its status as a ‘developing’ country and the justification of the United States of America (USA)-led ‘war on terror’ to deter critics of its human rights policies.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 26
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UYGHURS
MUTE MUSLIMS: WHY DOESN’T THE ISLAMIC WORLD SPEAK UP ABOUT THE UIGHURS- FOREIGN POLICY 07.13.2009 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/13/mute_muslims Chinese repression of Uighurs has been going on for a long time. What have Muslim leaders worldwide said or done so far? Not much. As Foreign Policy has reported, in different countries, mullahs, imams, and assorted clerics have found the time to issue fatwas condemning among other practices, Pokémon cartoons, total nudity during sex for married couples, and the use of vaccines against polio, not to mention Salman Rushdie. They have yet to find the time to say anything about China's practices toward Uighurs.
CHINA: ACCOUNT FOR UIGHUR REFUGEES FORCIBLY REPATRIATED TO CHINA – HRW 02.28.2010 http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/01/28/china-account-uighur-refugees-forcibly-repatriated- china On December 19, 2009, the Cambodian government, under Chinese pressure, forcibly repatriated a group of 20 Uighurs, including two young children, in breach of the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, to which Cambodia is a party.
ROUNDTABLE ON REFUGEE ISSUES RELATING TO CHINA – BROOKINGS INSTITUTE 10.19.2007 http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/speeches/2007/1019_china/1019_china.pdf What we really are talking about is China’s emergence as a world power with territorial ambitions, growing influence in Asia and increasing economic and political impact throughout the world, all the while demonstrating insufficient commitment to the international refugee and human rights standards to which it has signed onto. If this situation remains unchecked, it will be a dangerous regional and international development.
HUMAN RIGHTS TRENDS IN CHINA: TRENDS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS – CRS REPORT FOR CONGRESS 07.13.2009 http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA503255&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf This report analyzes China’s mixed record on human rights – major human rights problems, new human rights legislation, and the development of civil society, legal awareness, and social and political activism.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 27
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UYGHURS
INTERNAL COLONIALISM AND THE UYGHUR NATIONALITY: CHINESE NATIONALISM AND ITS SUBALTERN SUBJECTS – DRU GLADNEY 2005 http://cemoti.revues.org/document48.html This article suggests that while China may not have expansionist designs on any of its neighboring territory that is already considered part of China, policy shifts toward China's subaltern groups indicate that a rise in Chinese nationalism will have important implications for China's internal colonialism.
ETHNIC MINORITY ELITES IN CHINA’S PARTY-STATE LEADERSHIP: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT - C HINA LEADERSHIP MONITOR 2009 http://media.hoover.org/documents/CLM25CL.pdf How China handles the “nationalities question” will be a crucial determinant of social stability going forward. Chinese top leaders have long recognized the value to the Party of having ethnic minority cadres among the Party- state elites, both for propaganda purposes as well as to inspire minority peoples to view the system as containing opportunities for their own advancement. Yet the Party has also maintained a firm grip on power in the ethnic minority- dominant political units by appointing ethnic Hans to the most important positions.
HOW CHINA WINS AND LOSES XINJIANG – FOREIGN POLICY 07.09.2009 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/09/how_china_wins_and_loses_xinjiang If you visit Xinjiang, the restive province that's home to China's roughly 8 million Uighurs, you'll realize there's a gap -- often a chasm -- between official intention on minority issues and what happens in practice. Sometimes the government's missteps appear to be the product of malevolence, sometimes of ignorance. The results are both tragic and absurd.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 28
OTHER ISSUES FACING XINJIANG TODAY
DID CHINA’S NUCLEAR TESTS KILL THOUSANDS AND DOOM FUTURE GENERATIONS? – SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 07.01.2009 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=did-chinas-nuclear-tests A few hundred thousand people may have died as a result of radiation from at least 40 nuclear explosions carried out between 1964 and 1996 at the Lop Nur site in Xinjiang, which lies on the Silk Road. Jun Takada, a Japanese physicist, has calculated that the peak radiation dose in Xinjiang exceeded that measured on the roof of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor after it melted down in 1986. Most damage to Xinjiang locals came from detonations during the 1960s and 1970s, which rained down a mixture of radioactive material and sand from the surrounding desert. Some were three-megaton explosions, 200 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, says Takada, who published his findings in a book, Chinese Nuclear Tests .
DEMOGRAPHY OF HIV/ AIDS IN CHINA – CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 07.01.2007 http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/070724_china_hiv_demography.pdf A bipartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, CSIS conducts research and analysis and develops policy initiatives that look into the future and anticipate change. The level and growth of HIV infection will probably not present a major social or economic challenge to the PRC as a whole, but it will be damaging in certain communities, especially in Guangxi, Yunnan, southern Sichuan, and western Xinjiang provinces.
HIV/AIDS IN XINJIANG: A GROWING REGIONAL CHALLENGE – SILK ROAD STUDIES PROGRAM 2006 http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/docs/CEF/Quarterly/August_2006/GillGang.pdf Neither Beijing nor the international community has focused sufficient attention on the HIV problem in Xinjiang, and how it relates to broader transnational concerns of drug trafficking, the spread of infectious disease, and political discontent. To dig deeper into these issues, this article examines HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang and considers the transnational security threats it may pose to China and its neighbors in Central Asia.
TACKLING HIV AND AIDS IN CHINA – NPR 01.13.2006 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5156254 By the end of 2004, an estimated 78 million people worldwide were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. China is not immune to the epidemic. According to 2003 statistics compiled by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, as many as 1.5 million Chinese were thought to be infected with HIV. UNAIDS says China has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world. Sarah Schlesinger, a research associate professor in the Laboratory of Cellular Immunology and Physiology at Rockefeller University and Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, talks with NPR.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 29
OTHER ISSUES FACING XINJIANG TODAY
A CHINA ENVIRONMENT HEALTH PROJECT RESEARCH BRIEF– WILSON CENTER 2008 http://wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/xinjiang_dec08.pdf Ecological and human health trends in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are grim. The growing negative impacts of air and water pollution, desertification, and overall ecological damage have turned Xinjiang into one of the unhealthiest regions in China. In a comprehensive assessment of environment and health done by scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinjiang was rated as having the fifth worst (out of 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions) environment and health indices based on indicators relating to population growth, health status, level of education, natural conditions, environmental pollution, economics, and health care resources.
CHINESE GROWTH PLANS STOKE FEARS OF CENTRAL ASIAN ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE – EURASIANET 08.17.2007 http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav081707.shtml Economic demands aside, environmentalists worry that if the Chinese continue to increase their diversions from the Ili and Irtysh, the damage to the regional environment will be irreversible. But as the rows of new apartment houses springing up in Yining and other parts of Xinjiang attest, China is unlikely to apply the brakes on western development. Most imperiled is Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan. The 15th largest lake in the world, it has an average depth of less than 20 feet. That combination of size and shallowness leaves it especially vulnerable to fluctuations in water supply.
MEAN AND GREEN: HOW CHINA USES THE ENVIRONMENT AS AN EXCUSE TO TRANSPLANT MINORITY GROUPS – FOREIGN POLICY 12.02.2009 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/11/11/forced_ecological_migrations?page=0,0 Across China's vast northern wilderness, a pattern is repeating itself: Ethnic minority nomads are being systematically and often forcefully relocated into settled communities as part of a process known as "ecological migration." The government's ostensible goal is to preserve fragile ecosystems, but often that's a convenient cover for policies that perpetuate inequality among the country's 55 official minority groups.
TEARING DOWN OLD KASHGAR: A BLOW TO THE UIGHURS –TIME 07.29.2009 http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1913166,00.html In the latest move, authorities have started to demolish Kashgar's old town — an atmospheric, mud-brick maze of courtyard homes, winding cobblestone streets plied by donkey carts, and dozens of centuries-old mosques. By some accounts, at least 85% of Old Kashgar will be knocked down. Many expect the ancient quarter, considered one of Central Asia's best preserved sites of Islamic architecture, to disappear almost entirely before the end of the year.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 30
OTHER ISSUES FACING XINJIANG TODAY
ETHNIC KAZAKHS TO PONDER FUTURE AMID TOURISM BOOM – EURASIANET 10.05.2007 http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav100507f.shtml The Chinese province of Xinjiang is often in the news, with most media reports examining the independence aspirations of its Uighur population, as well as the Go West policy of populating the region with Han Chinese. There is another, less reported story in Xinjiang -- the erosion of ethnic Kazakh culture. Chinese rule and an influx of people from other parts of the country have forced lifestyle changes upon Xinjiang’s Kazakhs, who have for centuries lived a nomadic existence.
CHINA’S GO WEST CAMPAIGN RESULTS IN DAMAGE – JENNIFER TURNER 07.22.2007 http://www.wilsoncenter.org/news/docs/chautauquadaily.pdf Jennifer Turner speaks on the negative impact of the Chinese government’s efforts to develop the Western part of the country.
DEMOLISHING KASHGAR’S HISTORY – SMITHSONIAN 4.2010 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Demolishing-Kashgars-History.html …….Now the Chinese government is doing to Kashgar’s Old City what a succession of conquerors failed to accomplish: leveling it. Early in 2009 the Chinese government announced a $500 million “Kashgar Dangerous House Reform” program: over the next several years, China plans to knock down mosques, markets and centuries-old houses—85 percent of the Old City. Residents will be compensated, then moved—some temporarily, others permanently—to new cookie-cutter, concrete-block buildings now rising elsewhere in the city. In place of the ancient mud-brick houses will come modern apartment blocks and office complexes, some adorned with Islamic-style domes, arches and other flourishes meant to conjure up Kashgar’s glory days. The government plans to keep a small section of the Old City intact, to preserve “a museumized version of a living culture,” says Dru Gladney, director of the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College and one of the world’s foremost scholars of Xinjiang and the Uighurs.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 31
RESOURCES ON XINJIANG CULTURE & ARTS
CHINA: KUNG FU ENGLISH – PBS FRONTLINE WORLD 08.18.2008 http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/6642/preview/ Jake Yong, a Han Chinese who grew up in Xinjiang, told Hyun Oh, a producer and director of photography at KBS America, that the social stigma of being born in the province is a handicap in China's fast-moving culture, where Western influence continues to spread. Kung Fu English, which is part of a longer documentary made about Yong, is a testament to his irrepressible can- do spirit as he converts his own experience into seminars and boot camps for his equally enthusiastic fans.
XINJIANG ON A REGULAR DAY – CURRENT MEDIA 08.05.2009 http://current.com/items/90613809_xinjiang-on-a-regular-day.htm Recent riots in Xinjiang have made this far western region of China increasingly inaccessible. An area that has a predominant Muslim influence on its way of life, Xinjiang looks and feels entirely different from the rest of China. This is a video diary of a trip to Xinjiang while visiting the famous tightrope walker and Guiness World Record holder, Adili Wuxor. It provides a glimpse of the people, food, and culture of this region under normal conditions.
KASHGAR ANIMAL MARKET – UNCORNERED MARKET 2008 http://www.uncorneredmarket.com/2008/10/kashgars-animal-market-video/#more-438 Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll serve up a scatter plot of observations from rapidly changing countries on their journey around the world. Tune into Uncornered Market for human stories, engaging travel photography, street food reportage, and insights into personal growth. This video is features a procession of wooly camels, stubborn donkeys, cowboys, and sheep at an old world Sunday livestock market in Kashgar.
THE MUSIC OF CHINA’S NOMADS: REVIVING TRADITIONAL MUSIC IN XINJIANG PROVINCE – EURASIANET 2008 http://www.eurasianet.org/music/intro.shtml Music has become a main avenue for cultural revival efforts for ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz in China. The Kazakhs’ musical tradition centers on a two-stringed instrument called the dömbra. In this photo slideshow, ethnomusicologist, Zhou Ji, a leading expert on the music of Xinjiang Province’s ethnic communities, discusses the importance of the dömbra for the Kazakh community.
DANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT: UYGHUR WOMEN IN THE CHINESE DIASPORA CREATING SELF-EMPOWERMENT THROUGH DANCE – KRISTIE SMITH 2006 http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/3303/1/IGSCwp025.pdf As performing arts, especially dance, are essential components of Uyghur culture, Uyghur women employ dance as a reaction to reaffirm cultural identity. Through dance, women send messages of cultural survival, enabling them to negotiate positions of power for themselves. Their negotiation through dance has resulted in a unique form of self-empowerment, cultural revival, and pride. This paper analyzes the dialectics of the dance revealed through interviews conducted with Uyghur women in the diaspora.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 32
RESOURCES ON XINJIANG CULTURE & ARTS
FROM LONDON UYGHUR ENSEMBLE: MUSIC OF THE UYGHURS http://www.uyghurensemble.co.uk/en-html/nf-research-article1.html Uyghur music embraces several distinct regional styles, product of the geography and complex history of the region, whose oasis kingdoms, separated by mountains and deserts, have been subject through the course of history to rule by many different outside forces. The musical traditions of the southern oasis towns of Khotan and Kashgar are more closely allied to the classical Central Asian traditions of Bukhara and Samarkand, while the music of the easternmost oasis town of Qumul has closer links to the music of Northwest China. Each of the region´s oasis towns have to this day maintained their own distinctive sound and repertoire, but they are linked by a common language and overarching culture, maintained by constant communication through trade and movement of peoples. Musically there is much to link these local traditions, in terms of instruments, genres, styles and contexts. The most prestigious and well-known genre of Uyghur music are the large-scale suites of sung, instrumental and dance music known as muqam. In addition to the muqam the Uyghurs maintain popular traditions of sung epic tales (dastan) and other forms of narrative song (qoshaq, leper, eytshish and maddhi name), suites of dance music (senem,) instrumental music, musical genres linked to the rituals of the Sufis, and a large repertoire of folk songs.
UYGHUR ART MUSIC AND THE AMBIGUITIES OF CHINESE SILK ROADISM IN XINJIANG – THE SILK ROAD FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/vol3num1/3_uyghur.php What stirs the greatest global interest in the Silk Road is not so much military exploits or even commerce along its length, but the cultural exchanges and continuities across vast tracts of inner Eurasia that it represents. The author, James A. Millward, is Associate Professor of History and a member of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. A specialist on Qing China and Inner Asia, he also teaches courses on “Steppe Empires and Silk Roads,” and on “The Mongol World.”
GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING AND ENDOWMENT OF XINJIANG – WORLD SECURITY INSTITUTE http://www.wsichina.org/%5C13ener.html The World Security Institute (WSI) is a non-profit organization committed to independent research and journalism on global affairs and security. Given the extraordinary growth of global interdependence, the Institute provides innovative approaches to communication, education, and cooperation on social, economic, environmental, political and military components of international security . This report covers the geographical setting and natural resource endowment of Xinjiang.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 33
NGOS WORKING IN XINJIANG
AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org.au The Australian Red Cross (ARC) began operations in China in the mid 1990s delivering a program through the provision of technical assistance and some financial support to Provincial Red Cross branches that include the Xinjiang and Yunnan Red Cross.
CARE FOR CHILDREN http://www.careforchildren.com/ Care for Children exists to relieve hardship, distress and sickness in abandoned and orphaned children in China by the introduction of strategic initiatives in child care practice, at the request of, and in cooperation with, the Chinese national and local authorities.
CHINA DEVELOPMENT BRIEF: DIRECTORY OF INTERNATIONAL NGOS http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.com/dingo/ China Development Brief offers a database of over two hundred International NGOs operating in China, organized by province and by sector. Eighteen of those NGOs operate in Xinjiang.
FRIENDS OF NATURE (FON) http://www.fon.org.cn/channal.php?cid=774 Friends of Nature is a Chinese environmental NGO, formally registered in March 1994 as the Academy for Green Culture, an affiliate to the non-governmental Academy for Chinese Culture. FON is the first membership-based non-profit, public welfare NGO in China, and is funded wholly by membership fees and public support.
GOOD ROCK FOUNDATION http://www.goodrock.org.uk/ Good Rock Foundation was established by a British woman who had adopted a Chinese daughter and seeks to assist orphaned, abandoned, and disabled children in China. The Foundation has so far worked exclusively in Xinjiang, opening an office in Urumqi in 2003.
GREENPEACE http://www.greenpeace.org/china/en/ China’s phenomenal economic growth in the last two decades has brought unprecedented environmental threats to the country and to the world. Greenpeace believes that development should not come at the expense of the environment, and is committed to seeking and building a green growth pattern, together with the people of China.
HEIFER PROJECT INTERNATIONAL http://www.hpichina.org/en/index.asp To the poor farmers in China, poverty does not only mean the lack of money, but also means an inability of controlling their own destinies and the deprivation of opportunities to make a better living. Since the implementation of the first project in Turpan Prefecture of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 1,581 poor families in 22 poor communities have become self-reliant and sustainable over the last 17 years.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 34
NGOS WORKING IN XINJIANG
HONG KONG SOCIAL WORKERS ASSOCIATION http://www.hkswa.org.hk/en/node/1 Social workers in Hong Kong extend their help and support to their counterparts in the Mainland and Taiwan through visits and donation.
HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA http://www.hrichina.org/public/index Human Rights in China is a New York-based international, Chinese, NGO with a mission to promote international human rights and advance the institutional protection of these rights in the People's Republic of China.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: CHINA http://china.hrw.org/ Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, HRW gives voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. This database has a current focus on the 2008 Olympics.
INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE http://www.ifaw.org/ IFAW’s work in China began with a campaign to draw attention to the suffering of Asiatic black bears -- or ‘moon bears’ – which are farmed for their bile, a substance used in traditional Chinese medicine. Since then, IFAW’s China programs have expanded to cover a wide range of animal welfare and conservation issues throughout the country.
INTERNATIONAL UYGHUR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY FOUNDATION (IUHRDF) http://www.iuhrdf.org/ IUHRDF was established in 2005 by former political prisoner Rebiya Kadeer and Uyghur intellectuals in the United States. The main purpose of UHRDF is to promote human rights, religious freedom, and democracy for the Uyghur people. It places a special focus on the rights of Uyghur women and children.
ISLAMIC RELIEF http://www.islamic-relief.org.uk/ Islamic Relief made an exploratory mission to China in 2001 and, the following year, provided assistance for rehabilitation of communities struck by flooding in Shaanxi Province. It has since carried out a number of water supply projects in China’s arid northern regions. Work has included rainwater harvesting in Gansu, and a well digging programme in Xinjiang.
MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES http://www.msf.org/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian aid organisation that provides emergency medical assistance to populations in danger in more than 70 countries. MSF has advocated to the Chinese government for quality and affordable generic HIV/AIDS medicines.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 35
NGOS WORKING IN XINJIANG
ORBIS INTERNATIONAL http://www.orbis.org/ ORBIS works with its local partners to establish comprehensive, affordable and sustainable eye care in developing countries. ORBIS capacity-building projects in rural China focus on cataract, childhood blindness, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. Two eye care centers are being built, in Yunnan and Xinjiang, two provinces with a high prevalence of childhood eye diseases.
PACIFIC ENVIRONMENT http://www.pacificenvironment.org/section.php?id=19 Pacific Environment protects the living environment of the Pacific Rim by promoting grassroots activism, strengthening communities, and reforming international practices.
PROJECT TRUST http://www.projecttrust.org.uk/ Project Trust’s projects are education-related and currently are in the rural northwestern province of Gansu and the most westerly region of China, Xinjiang. Most volunteers work in state-funded secondary schools teaching spoken English.
UN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM http://www.undp.org.cn/ In China, UNDP fosters human development to empower women and men to build better lives. As the UN’s development network, UNDP draws on a world of experience to assist China in developing its own solutions to the country’s development challenges.
UYGHUR AMERICAN ASSOCIATION (UAA) http://www.uyghuramerican.org/ The Uyghur American Association works to promote the preservation and flourishing of a rich, humanistic and diverse Uyghur culture, and to support the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, democratic means to determine their own political future.
UYGHUR HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT http://www.uhrp.org/ UHRP was established by the Uyghur American Association and is dedicated to researching and exposing human rights abuses committed against the Uyghur people in East Turkistan.
VOLUNTARY SERVICE OVERSEAS http://www.vso.org.uk/ Since its founding in 1958, VSO has sent more than 30,000 volunteers overseas to work in 70 developing countries, and it is now the world’s largest international volunteer agency. China has been one of VSO’s largest program countries, with more than 100 volunteers in place at any one time. The majority of these work in education, notably in training of English language teachers in colleges that supply teachers to schools in the poorest areas of China.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 36
NGOS WORKING IN XINJIANG
XINJIANG SNOW LEOPARD PROJECT http://www.xinjiangsnowleopards.org/ Working closely with the Xinjiang Government and local communities the XSLP is undertaking a responsive research program, to assess the current status of snow leopards and their prey within the Taxkurgan area of West Xinjiang.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 37
CURRICULUM MATERIALS
EAST ASIA RESOURCE CENTER: JACKSON SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES – UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON http://jsis.washington.edu/earc/downloads/earc_resource_library.pdf The East Asia Resource Center invites K-12 educators to explore the wealth of opportunities available to them to deepen their knowledge of East Asia. There is a 49-page list of resources available to educators for loan, free of charge.
INTERACTIVE MAP OF MINORITIES IN CHINA – NEW YORK TIMES 07.10.2009 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/10/world/20090711-xinjiang.html China’s ethnic minority groups are concentrated in inland border regions, far from economically prosperous areas to the east.
SOUNDSCAPE OF CHINA: INTERACTIVE MAP– PBS http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/865/preview/ Explore China, its diversity and peoples through the extraordinary field audio recordings captured by sound recordist, Peter Eason with photos taken by filmmaker, Jonathan Lewis. Listen to over twenty scenes that include busy city streets, musical performances, sounds of nature, religious ceremonies and people going about their lives inside China.
CHINA’S ETHNIC MINORITIES – YALE UNIVERSITY http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/pier/resources/lessons/SMaloney.htm The purpose of this lesson module is to help students understand and become aware of and sensitive to the many ethnic minority groups that live in China. Students will discover the geographic conditions that might influence an ethnic minority group’s way of life and their communication with others.
CULTURAL UNIVERSALS: A LOOK AT ETHNIC MINORITIES IN CHINA – YALE UNIVERSITY http://eastasianstudies.research.yale.edu//pier_china/Curricular%20Materials/Lesson%20Plans /Krenicki/krenicki_lesson.pdf / This lesson is designed to introduce students to cultural universals in the ethnic minority regions of China. The intent is to focus on groups in various regions, and have students compare their understanding of universals by examining the customs of several Chinese groups.
ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS IN CHINA – STANFORD UNIVERSITY SPICE PROGRAM http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/20202/Ethnic_Minority_Group_in_China.pdf In addition to learning about the variety of conflicts that surround being a minority in China, students will learn about the geographic distribution, history, language, and culture of various ethnic minority groups in China. The four minority groups chosen for this unit are the Hui, Tibetans, Mongols, and Miao. This lesson is available for purchase on the website.
EXPLORING CHINESE MINORITIES – OUTREACH WORLD http://www.outreachworld.org/resource.asp?curriculumid=210 As a follow-up of a Yale Summer Institute 2002, an online course was offered to all participants to assist them in completing a final course assignment: designing and publishing lesson plans on a theme, an area and an ethnic minority of their own choosing. World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 38
CURRICULUM MATERIALS
GUESS WHO? – YALE UNIVERSITY http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/pier/resources/lessons/ward.htm This lesson introduces students to the idea that China’s population is rich and varied with many different minority groups. This study will introduce the top six most populous minority groups to students and will cover topics such as their geographical location, religious beliefs, customs, dress, and way of life.
GEOGRAPHIC AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY OF CHINA – CORNELL UNIVERSITY http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/curriculum/monkey/geographic/ The Monkey King’s quest in “Journey to the West,” with his different stops along the way, teaches students about the geographic and ethnic diversity in China.
FOOD IN HISTORY: REGIONAL CUISINE PROJECT – GLOBAL ED http://www.globaled.org/chinaproject/lesson1.htm This lesson consists of a plan for a research, and a reading on the theme of Chinese Cuisine. There is also a list of supplemental bibliography on the topic. The aim of the research is to explore how geography affects specific aspects of Chinese culture, such as cuisine. This can be adapted to focus on Xinjiang cuisine.
HAS GEOGRAPHY CONTRIBUTED MORE TO UNITING OR DISUNITING CHINA? – GLOBAL ED http://www.globaled.org/chinaproject/silkRoad/docs/lesson1Plan.html This lesson describes major geographic features of China, determines the effects of geography on the social, political and economic elements of China, and examines the impact of geography in uniting and disuniting China up to the present time. It offers a well-structured lesson plan and follow-up questions.
EYES WORLDWIDE ON THE PRIZE – NEW YORK TIMES http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/eyes-worldwide-on-the-prize/ In this lesson, students learn about the production of “Passages of Martin Luther King Jr.” at the National Theater in China, and the ways in which the words of Dr. King have impacted the Chinese people and government.
LESSON ON ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION – UNITED NATIONS CYBERSCHOOLBUS http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/discrim/ethnicity1.asp This lesson explores discrimination based on ethnicity.
ONE FAMILY’S STRUGGLE FOR UIGHUR RIGHTS – PBS NEWSHOUR EXTRA http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/speakout/world/july-dec09/kekenus_07-17.html Kekenus, 19, was born in the region's capital, Urumqi, and moved to the U.S. at the age of eight. She writes about her experiences. Her mother is Rebiya Kadeer, a prominent Uighur democracy leader. A good discussion piece.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 39
CURRICULUM MATERIALS
HUMAN RIGHTS BASICS – PBS WIDE ANGLE http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/classroom/2lp3.html This lesson is designed to help children conduct a human rights discussion; understand the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to explore both their similarities and differences.
INTRODUCTION TO DIASPORAS IN THE UNITED STATES – STANFORD UNIVERSITY SPICE PROGRAM http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/20130/Diasporas_.pdf This unit introduces students to the topics of diasporas, migration, and the role and experience of diasporic communities in the United States. Students learn about five diasporas in the United States - the Armenian, Chinese, Cuban, Iris, and Yoruban - from their development as diasporas to their contemporary identities, roles, and remaining homeland ties.
PERCEPTIONS OF MINORITY CULTURES IN CHINA AND THE U.S. – GLOBAL ED http://www.globaled.org/chinaproject/teachingmaterials/lesson_64_china.php Using a single, simple artifact from contemporary China, students will be asked to speculate about what can be learned about a large and complex culture.
REPRESENTATION OF CHINESE MINORITY GROUPS IN PROPAGANDA ART – GLOBAL ED http://www.globaled.org/chinaproject/teachingmaterials/lesson_57_china.php How have Chinese minorities been represented through propaganda art?
RELIGION AND BELIEF SYSTEMS IN ASIA – NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/10/g68/religion.html In this lesson, students will conduct an in-depth review of one of the major world religions by focusing on its origins, beliefs, and history. They will then explore reasons for the spread or decline in Asia of each of the major world religions. Finally, students will predict the continued spread of religions based on current events in Asia.
RELIGIONS ALONG THE SILK ROAD – CHINA INSTITUTE http://www.chinainstitute.org/_data/n_0002/resources/live/fromsilktooil_pdf6.pdf Students will learn about (1) the life of the Prophet Muhammad (c. 570-632) and the establishment of the Muslim community, and (2) the 'Five Pillars' which comprise the basic religious practices of Islam."
MUSLIM HISTORY AND THE SPREAD OF ISLAM – ISLAM PROJECT http://www.islamproject.org/education/B04_SpreadofIslam.htm The purpose of this activity is to provide students with knowledge of how and when Islam spread to various regions, and to locate regions where Muslims form a demographic majority or significant minorities, from the 7 th to the 21 st centuries.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 40
CURRICULUM MATERIALS
ART ALONG THE SILK ROADS: MOSQUES IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD AND CHINA – CHINA INSITUTE http://www.chinainstitute.org/_data/n_0002/resources/live/fromsilktooil_pdf7.pdf "Students will look at mosques in Central Asia, Iran, and North Africa, and study some of their basic architectural features. They will also compare them with two mosques, one ancient and one modern, in Xi’an, China. They will see how the appearance of a mosque can reflect changing views of what it means to be a Muslim in contemporary China."
DRAGON SCIENCE: TIME TRAVELERS – PBS http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/2220/preview/ Scientists were astonished when they realized that mummies found in Xinjiang Province might be of Caucasian origin and not ethnic Chinese. In this activity, students will build a 3-D representation of a human skull that teachers can use to teach skull anatomy.
XINJIANG: A BI-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE – YALE UNIVERSITY http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/pier/resources/lessons/strelau.htm Students will develop an understanding of how the Chinese nuclear testing program and the environment and health of the Uighur minority are interrelated.
TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA – NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/10/g35/tgbattuta.html In this lesson, students will work in groups to research the different areas that the 14th century Islamic traveler Ibn Battuta visited. They will review some of the basics of Islam, and create posters illustrating what they have learned about Ibn Battuta.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 41
BOOKS
MUSLIMS ON THE EDGE OF CHINA: RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE AND AUTHORITY AMONGST THE UYGHURS OF XINJIANG – EDMUND WAITE (2010) http://www.amazon.com/Muslims-Edge-China-Religious- Knowledge/dp/0415480744/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267552173&sr=1-1 This book fills a gap in the literature by offering a detailed understanding of how Islam is enacted on the ground. Based on long-term anthropological fieldwork, the author explores the interplay between state policies and the enactment of religion at the local level.
THE UYGHURS: STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN LAND – GARDNER BOVINGDON (July 2010) http://www.politicos.co.uk/books/459480/Gardner-Bovingdon/The-Uyghurs/ For close to half a century, the Uyghur people of Xinjiang, in northwestern China, have struggled to achieve autonomy and independence. As reflected by recent events, however, their efforts have been met mostly with violent resistance, matched by a sophisticated strategy of state-sanctioned propaganda, dissident broadsides, and viral ethnonational rhetoric. Nevertheless, this Muslim minority remains passionate about establishing and expanding its power within government, and China's leaders continue to push back, refusing to concede any physical and political ground. Beginning with the history of Xinjiang and its unique population of Chinese Muslims, Gardner Bovingdon follows fifty years of Uyghur discontent, particularly the development of individual and collective acts of resistance since 1949, and the role of various transnational organizations in cultivating dissent. Bovingdon's work provides fresh insight into practices of nation-building and nation-challenging, not only in relation to Xinjiang but also in reference to other regions of conflict, highlighting the influence of international institutions on growing regional autonomy. He takes on the function of representation in nationalist politics and the local, regional, and global implications of the "War on Terror" on antistate movements. While both the Chinese state and foreign analysts have portrayed Uyghur activists as Muslim terrorists, situating them within global terrorist networks, Bovingdon argues that these assumptions are weak, drawing a clear line between Islamist ideology and Uyghur nationhood.
CHINA, XINJIANG, AND CENTRAL ASIA: HISTORY, TRANSITION, AND CROSS-BORDER INTERACTION IN THE 21 ST CENTURY – COLIN MACKERRAS (2009) http://www.amazon.com/China-Xinjiang-Central-Asia- Contemporary/dp/0415453178/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267552031&sr=1-2 This book explores the effect of global and local dynamics across the region: global influences include the ‘War on Terror’ and international competition for energy resources; local dynamics include Islamic revival, Central Asian nationalism, drugs trafficking; economic development and integration.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 42
BOOKS
DOWN A NARROW ROAD: IDENTITY AND MASCULINITY IN A UYGHUR COMMUNITY IN XINJIANG, CHINA – JAY DAUTCHER (2009) http://downanarrowroad.com/ The best way to read Down a Narrow Road is as a vindication of the value of ethnography for cross-cultural understanding. So much of the anthropology done in the People's Republic, particularly in minority communities, is rather thinner description than most of us authors would like to admit. Doing real ethnography in China is a challenge. Neither the state nor the academic establishment is very comfortable with the "intensive hanging out," the year-long or longer residence in a community observing and participating in everything one can, taking notes on home life, street life, work, play, and all else that crosses one's consciousness. Most research is much more directed, both by the requirements of visas and academic affiliations and by the dictates of doctoral committees and granting agencies. But Jay Dautcher somehow managed to combine the scholarly and the quotidian, to make the quotidian the basis of the scholarly, not to separate analysis from real life, but to make real life the basis of analysis. This is the first real ethnography of a Uyghur community, and we learn so much while entertaining ourselves with the account. The reader is, without doubt, "taken on a journey of discovery." Bon Voyage! (Excerpted from the Forward by Stevan Harrell)
See a music video of the Uyghur song Narrow Road , written by Yasin Muhpul. http://downanarrowroad.com/
DISLOCATING CHINA: MUSLIMS, MINORITIES, AND OTHER SUBALTERN SUBJECTS – DRU GLADNEY 2004 http://www.amazon.com/Dislocating-China-Minorities-Subaltern- Subjects/dp/0226297756/ref=pd_sim_b_3 Until quite recently, Western scholars have tended to accept the Chinese representation of non-Han groups as marginalized minorities. Dru C. Gladney challenges this simplistic view, arguing instead that the very oppositions of majority and minority, primitive and modern, are historically constructed and are belied by examination of such disenfranchised groups as Muslims, minorities, or gendered others...In the end, Gladney argues that just as peoples in the West have defined themselves against ethnic others, so too have the Chinese defined themselves against marginalized groups in their own society.
INVISIBLE CHINA: A JOURNEY THROUGH ETHNIC BORDERLANDS – COLIN LEGERTON (2009) http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-China-Journey-Through- Borderlands/dp/1556528140/ref=pd_cp_b_1 Students of Chinese and other Asian languages, Legerton and Rawson took their linguistic skills to the geographic periphery of China in 2006 and again in 2007. They sought members of the country’s non-Han minorities to learn about their lives, paying attention to their attitudes toward the majority Han.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 43
BOOKS
COMMUNITY MATTERS IN XINJIANG – ILDIKO BELLER-HANN (2008) http://www.amazon.com/Community-Matters-Xinjiang-1880-1949- Anthropology/dp/9004166750/ref=pd_sim_b_4 Based on a wide range of Western and local materials, this book offers an introduction to the historical anthropology of the Muslim Uyghur of Xinjiang from the late 19th century to 1949. The author argues that social relations in this era were shaped at all levels by the principles of reciprocity and community.
SITUATING THE UYGHURS BETWEEN CHINA AND CENTRAL ASIA – ILDIKO BELLER- HANN (2007) http://www.amazon.com/Situating-Uyghurs-Anthropology-Cultural-Indo- Pacific/dp/0754670414 This volume offers a unique insight into the social and cultural hybridity of the Uyghurs, an officially recognized minority mainly inhabiting the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, with significant populations also living in the Central Asian states.
UNDER THE HEEL OF THE DRAGON: ISLAM, RACISM, AND THE UIGHUR IN CHINA – BLAINE KALTMAN (2007) http://www.amazon.com/Under-Heel-Dragon-Racism-Uighur/dp/089680254X/ref=pd_cp_b_2 Under the Heel of the Dragon: Islam, Racism, Crime, and the Uighur in China offers a unique insight into current conflicts resulting from the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the Chinese government’s oppression of religious minorities that have heightened the degree of polarization between the Uighur and the dominant Chinese ethnic group, the Han. EURASIAN CROSSROADS – JAMES MILLWARD (2007) http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-13924-3/eurasian-crossroads Eurasian Crossroads is the first comprehensive history of Xinjiang. Drawing on primary sources in several Asian and European languages, James Millward presents a thorough study of Xinjiang's history and people from antiquity to the present and takes a balanced look at the position of Turkic Muslims within the PRC today.
GOVERNING CHINA’S MULTIETHNIC FRONTIERS – MORRIS ROSSABI (2004) http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/ROSGOV.html Seven essays focus on the Muslim Hui, multiethnic southwest China, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Together these studies provide an overview of government relations with key minority populations, against which one can view evolving dialogues and disputes.
CHINA’S MUSLIM BORDERLAND – FREDERICK STARR (2004) http://www.amazon.com/Xinjiang-Borderland-Studies-Central-Caucasus/dp/0765613182 The volume surveys the region's geography; its history of military and political subjugation to China; economic, social, and commercial conditions; demography, public health, and ecology; and patterns of adaption, resistance, opposition, and evolving identities.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 44
BOOKS
WILD WILD WEST CHINA: THE TAMING OF XINJIANG – CHRISTIAN TYLER (2004) http://www.amazon.com/Wild-West-China-Taming-Xinjiang/dp/0813535336/ref=pd_sim_b_2 "Following in the footsteps of Peter Fleming, Tyler paints a vivid portrait of Xinjiang and reminds us of another of the immense problems facing China’s new leadership. A fascinating book."—Chris Patten, former governor of Hong Kong.
MUSLIM CHINESE: ETHNIC NATIONALISM IN THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC – DRU GLADNEY (1996) http://www.amazon.com/Muslim-Chinese-Nationalism-Republic- Monographs/dp/0674594975/ref=pd_sim_b_7 "Gladney locates the significance of the Hui (and the study of minorities) in their challenge to the dominant Chinese and Western perceptions of China...[A] fine, pioneering work." -- Journal of Asian Studies
CHINA’S MUSLIMS: IMAGES OF ASIA – MICHAEL DILLON (1996) http://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Muslims-Images-Michael- Dillon/dp/0195875044/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265404191&sr=1-32 Muslim communities are found in every Chinese province and Muslims play a prominent part in the modern Chinese state. In an illustrated book directed at scholars and travelers alike, Dillon examines each of the country's ten Muslim group: he sketches the history of its arrival in China, explains its languages and customs, and describes the work and daily life of its members.
DRAGON FIGHTER: ONE WOMAN'S EPIC STRUGGLE FOR PEACE WITH CHINA – REBIYA KADEER http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Fighter-Womans-Struggle-Peace/dp/0979845610 A remarkable autobiographical journey from humble beginnings to a position as a powerful world figure fighting for her nation’s self-determination. Along the ancient Silk Road where Europe, Asia, and Russia converge stands the four-thousand-year-old homeland of a peaceful people, the Uyghurs. Their culture is filled with music, dance, family, and love of tradition passed down by storytelling through the ages. For millennia, they have survived clashes in the shadow of China, Russia, and Central Asia. Rebiya Kadeer’s courage, intellect, morality, and sacrifice give hope to the nearly eleven million Uyghurs worldwide on whose behalf she speaks as an indomitable world leader for the freedom of her people and the sovereignty of her nation.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 45
BLOGS
FAR WEST CHINA http://www.farwestchina.com/ It all boils down to the fact that I have come to love this province and want desperately to help overcome the misunderstanding that both China and the world have of Xinjiang and it's people. Most news that makes it out of China about this area is negative, so I want to use FarWestChina to present a side of western China that is (mostly) free from political commentary and focused on the lighter, more common side of surviving out here in the land of huge mountains and vast deserts.
ISLAM IN CHINA http://islaminchina.wordpress.com/ Islam in China is a blog that seeks to cover all things Chinese and Islamic. Additionally my aim is also dispel some myths about Islam and also about China.
THIS IS XINJIANG http://blogs.princeton.edu/pia/personal/xinjiang/ "This is Xinjiang" chronicles a year of adventures by a foreign university teacher in China's western frontier. I am not an expert on Xinjiang, nor on China, though I hope my blog can address some of the misrepresentations and realities of this supposedly restive region. I left Xinjiang in July 2009 to pursue graduate work in East Asian history, but I plan to return soon. Since my departure, the blog has evolved into a site devoted to the history and culture of Xinjiang and its surrounding regions.
UYGHUR BLOG http://uyghurblog.com/ This site is the result of years of academic research, which has culminated in frustration, hope, and the desire to do more. The design is simple, it will serve as a place where you can come and catch up on all things Uyghur.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 46
ISLAM IN CHINA
GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY RESOURCES
CHINA’S MUSLIM MINORITIES: UPRISING FROM THE ASHES OF HISTORY – RADIO CANADA 08.11.2008 http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/08/11/f-china-islam.html Travelers in today's China are often surprised to discover that the country has a sizeable Muslim population. According to the Chinese government, there are more than 20 million Muslims who live in all parts of the country. Others say the number may even be higher...Muslims have lived in the Middle Kingdom from just after the death of the Prophet Muhammed in 632 AD. They came as traders and missionaries from Arab states, and later from Islamic Persia and Ottoman Turkey.
CENTRAL ASIA: REGION RETURNS TO MUSLIM ROOTS – RADIO FREE EUROPE 08.04.2005 http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1060413.html Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian republics have seen a revival of Islam. The process kicked off quickly as Islam has always had deep roots in the region and missionaries and funds arrived from other Muslim countries to help rebuild schools and mosques. Nowadays, most Central Asians consider themselves Muslims. Still, many observers say that there are differences between the identity and religious practices of Muslims in Central Asia and those in other parts of the Islamic world. In the first part of a four-part series on Islam in Central Asia, RFE/RL looks at how Muslims in the region view themselves.
ISLAM IN CHINA – AL JAZEERA ENGLISH 08.09.2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUSIsjrCyC0 Islam is still establishing itself in China under Beijing's watchful eye and decades have been spent building a fragile trust between the country's Muslims and the Communist central government. People & Power profiles two key Chinese imams who walk a fine line between their followers and the political authorities.
ISLAM AND MUSLIMS IN CHINA – ISLAM AWARENESS http://www.islamawareness.net/Asia/China/ The Islam Awareness Homepage is the home of the fastest growing religion worldwide. This is an endeavor at a comprehensive but not complex information resource for Dawah and Islah. The objectives of the Homepage are simply to counteract the many lies and defamations that Islamophobes have polluted the Net with and arm Da`ees with knowledge and understanding. May Allah forgive our mistakes and make us successful in our good intentions.
A GUIDE TO CHINA’S ETHNIC GROUPS – WASHINGTON POST 07.08.2009 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070802718.html Since the Communists gained power in 1949, minority ethnic groups have repeatedly come to odds with the dominant Han Chinese, which compose more than 90 percent of the Chinese population. Here's a look into some of the largest of the 56 ethnic groups that populate the biggest country in the world.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 47
GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY RESOURCES
FAMILY PORTRAITS OF ALL 56 ETHNIC GROUPS IN CHINA – CHINA HUSH 12.06.2009 http://www.chinahush.com/2009/12/06/family-portraits-of-all-56-ethnic-groups-in-china/ This is a “Family Portrait” of China’s 56 ethnic groups. Chen Haiwen, a photographer, recently lead a team of 14 photographers to create a book entitled, “Harmonious China: A Sketch of China’s 56 Ethnicities.” The team spent one year travelling all over China to complete the project. They ended up taking over 5.7 million photographs.
CHINA’S TWO VERY DIFFERENT MUSLIM MINORITIES – AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 08.16.2008 http://www.amnesty.org.au/china/comments/16885/ Al Jazeera English has put out a new short documentary about the Hui and Uighur. It includes interviews with exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, as well as Professor Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat who had several postings in China.
IT’S ONLY A RELIGION, SAY ‘THE OTHER’ CHINESE MUSLIMS – NEW AMERICAN MEDIA 08.30.2005 http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=f0ca791eb07721774d858 0f3f8bdb74c At a time when Islamic populations around the world are under increased scrutiny, the Chinese Hui are often confused in the Western media with China's second-largest Muslim minority, the restive Uighurs, an ethnically distinct group concentrated in China's Central-Asian Xinjiang province. Chafing under Chinese rule, the Uighurs have given the Chinese government the opportunity to claim its own front in the War on Terror. It is the relationship between the Uighurs and the Chinese state that has dominated most international coverage of Chinese Islam. By contrast, the Hui, although no strangers to political unrest, have maintained a relatively balanced relationship with the secular Chinese state. With the hurtling pace of change in China today, the question now is whether the Hui's relationship with Beijing will remain stable.
ISLAM IN XINJIANG: AN ANCIENT RIVAL FOR YOUNG CHINA – THE GUARDIAN 07.14.2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/14/uighur-china-islam Historically, Islam has provided the framework for countless social and political movements in Xinjiang since it came to the region in the 10th century. Islamic institutions have provided education, morality, community cohesion, and political legitimacy. Friday prayers have been the site of sermons that have inspired rebellions and revolutions. Islam is an integral part of Uighur life in Xinjiang. Today, even the most secular Uighur, who do not adhere at all strictly to Islamic law, identify strongly as Muslims.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 48
GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY RESOURCES
ISLAM’S PATH EAST: CHINA – ISLAMICITY 04.15.2008 http://www.islamicity.com/Articles/Articles.asp?ref=SW0206-1661 Contacts between Muslims and Chinese began very early. Arab merchants traded in silk even before the advent of Islam, and tradition has it that the new religion was brought to their port- city trading colonies by Muslim missionaries in the seventh century.
IN THE ARMS OF ALLAH – TIME ASIA http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501030310/ Left on the margins of economic development, forced to confront their own piety in the face of backlash against the Sept. 11 attacks and Bali bombings, and threatened by the seemingly unstoppable onslaught of Western culture, many Muslims are turning to Islam for both political and religious answers.
ISLAM IN CHINA: BEIJING’S HUI AND UIGHUR CHALLENGE – DRU GLADNEY 2007 http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=403 Since the First World War, China has been engaged in an unremitting nationalist project that includes emancipation from its imperial past, engagement with Western political institutions, and the establishment of its sovereignty over its bounded territory. One recent challenge to this nationalist project, with roots in the early twentieth century, is a widespread separatist movement among a Muslim group known as the Uighurs, an ethnic Turkic people that inhabits China’s vast western province of Xinjiang. That the largest Muslim group in China, the Hui, have neither participated in nor been sympathetic to such a movement speaks volumes regarding the diversity of Islamic identity and practice in China
ISLAM, RELIGIOUS REVIVAL, AND THE SOVEREIGN STATE – BRYAN TURNER 2007 http://www.insct.syr.edu/Projects/islam- ihl/research/Turner,%20BS.Islam,%20Religious%20Revival,%20and%20Soverign%20State..pd f “Globalized Islam” creates a situation where Muslims have to live in many secular societies as minority groups, but they also live in a world where the non-Muslim minority populations are on the rise. The globalization of religion is producing a “marbling effect” that creates conditions conducive to interreligious conflict and civil strife.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 49
MUSLIMS IN CHINA TODAY HUI By the middle of the seventh century, Arab and Persian traders and merchants traveled to China in search of riches. In addition, in the thirteenth century the Mongols turned people into mobile armies during their Central Asian conquests and sent them to China. These civilians were expected to settle down at various locations to farm while maintaining combat readiness. As artisans, scholars, officials, and religious leaders, they spread throughout China. These people are the ancestors of today's Hui. One of the worst cases of genocide in history took place against the Hui in Yunnan from 1855 to 1873. One million Hui people were massacred.
To outsiders the Hui are virtually indistinguishable from Han Chinese, although many Han will say they can spot a Hui and Hui say they can recognize each other. Unlike the Turkic communities, the Hui are not concentrated in one part of the country but are spread throughout the whole of the PRC with substantial communities in the major cities. Although they are so numerous and accessible, they have been the subject of considerable controversy and it is still not possible to say with any degree of certainty precisely how many Hui there are in China. There has been much dispute over whether the Hui are simply Han Chinese who adhere to the Islamic faith. The Hui are also found in Myanmar, Taiwan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Thailand. In these countries, they are known by different names such as Dungan, Pathay and Khotan. 1
Map source: www.joshuaproject.net
HUI OF CHINA – JOSHUA PROJECT http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php?rop3=103896&rog3=CH Joshua Project is a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the least followers of Christ. Accurate, regularly updated ethnic people group information is critical for understanding and completing the Great Commission.
1 http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 50
SALAR Although the Salar hold the distinction of being one of China's official nationalities, they are very similar to the Uygurs of Xinjiang. Their language is virtually the same as Uygur. One expert lists Salar as a Uygur dialect, and notes that "The main difference between the Salar and the Uygurs of Xinjiang is geographical."
The Salar have a colorful tale of their history. They say they originated in the famous city of Sarmarkand, located in today's Uzbekistan. In the eleventh century a tribe known as the Salor fled persecution in their homeland. They were forced to migrate across the mountains of Central Asia. Not knowing where they were going, the Salar strapped a Qur'an to a camel's head and asked Allah to guide them to wherever he wanted them to settle. After many months of travel, a Salar Imam had a vivid dream of a beautiful waterfall. The next day the travelers came to the same waterfall. The camel stopped to drink and turned into a large white stone. Taking it as a divine sign, the tribe stopped there and began to build a community. In 1781 the Qing armies crushed a Salar uprising. The Salar suffered massive losses. As many as 40% of their entire population were obliterated in the battle.2
SALAR ETHNIC MINORITY – CHINA.ORG http://www.china.org.cn/e-groups/shaoshu/shao-2-salar.htm There have been different theories put forward on the origin of the Salars. The prevalent view held at the moment is that the ancestors of the Salars came from the region of Samarkand in Central Asia during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
SALAR PROFILE – ASIA HARVEST http://asiaharvest.org/pages/profiles/china/chinaPeoples/S/Salar.pdf Asia Harvest is an inter-denominational Christian ministry working in various countries throughout Asia to see effective churches planted among unreached people groups. We work alongside Asian church leaders, helping and equipping them to focus on reaching the lost. Our main focus is China, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Bhutan, and northern India. Within these seven countries are approximately 1,000 unreached tribes and ethnic groups.
2 http://www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile.php
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 51
TAJIKS The Tajik nationality in China speaks two distinct languages: Sarikoli and Wakhi. The Tajik are probably the one group in China most unlike the Han Chinese. They are a Caucasian people with light skin. Many have green or blue eyes and fair hair. They speak a Persian (Iranian) language which is part of the Indo- European language group. The term Tajik is applied to various Iranianspeaking groups of Central Asia in differing ways.
Three quarters of China's Tajiks speak Sarikoli. It is described as "a language entirely different from the majority language spoken in Tajikistan." The Tajik in China do not have their own written script, but some use the Uygur orthography. The two Tajik languages in China are reportedly different enough that speakers from each group must use Uygur to communicate.3
TAJIKS – CHINA.ORG http://www.china.org.cn/e-groups/shaoshu/shao-2-tajik.htm Standing at China's west gate in the eastern part of the Pamirs on the "roof of the world" is the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in Xinjiang, a town built up since 1950s. It is the place where the ancient Tajik ethnic group has lived generation after generation.
TAJIK PROFILE – ASIA HARVEST http://asiaharvest.org/pages/profiles/china/chinaPeoples/T/TajikSarikoli.pdf
3 http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 52
UZBEKS
The Uzbek are one of China's 55 official minority groups. Their numbers have varied greatly over the course of recent decades. In 1953 there were more than 13,600 Uzbeks in China. By the 1964 census, however, their numbers had dwindled to only 7,700: many Uzbeks chose to flee to the Soviet Union to escape from Mao Zedong's extreme policies.
Uzbek history in China dates back to the time of the Mongol hordes who dominated Central Asia and China in the thirteenth century. The Uzbek in China are descended from traders who traveled along the Silk Road. Others arrived in the 1750s after the Chinese armies defeated the Jungars. The name Uzbek probably came from Ozbeg Khan, a Mongol ruler of the Golden Horde who spread Islam throughout many parts of the Empire in the fourteenth century. Those who remained in the area under Ozbeg Khan's rule became known as Uzbeks. Previously, they were called Kazaks.
The Uzbek's Islamic faith permeates every area of their daily lives. Funerals are major events in Uzbek society. The dead person's children stay in mourning for a full seven days. Forty, 70, and 100 days after a death, Muslim priests are called to chant portions of the Qur'an inside the home of the grieving family.
For centuries the Muslim clergy have been responsible for the religious and secular education of Uzbek children. When the Chinese announced that all children in China were required to attend a state school, the Uzbek were outraged and refused to send their children to be educated by an atheistic regime. The Uzbek are committed Muslims, perhaps more so than any of the other Muslim peoples in Xinjiang.. 4
UZBEK PROFILE, ASIA HARVEST http://asiaharvest.org/pages/profiles/china/chinaPeoples/U/Uzbek.pdf
4 http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 53
KAZAKHS The Kazaks are one of China's official minority groups. The name Kazak means "the breakaways" or "secessionists". Chinese publications, however, not wanting to flame the Kazaks desire for independence, claim their name means "white swan".
Over the centuries the various Islamic groups in northwest China have attempted to establish their own homeland. Several brutal massacres have reinforced Chinese rule and the deep hatred the Kazaks have for the Han. At least 100,000 Kazaks migrated into China from Russia between 1916 and 1920, after the Tsarist government imposed conscription on them.9 In the early 1950s the Kazaks in China were forced into a communal society and were forbidden to enjoy the nomadic lifestyle their ancestors had enjoyed for over a thousand years. In 1962, 60,000 Kazaks decided to cross back into the Soviet Union. The massive migration represented more than one tenth of the entire Kazak population in China at the time.5
THE LAST HERDSMEN, CHINA’S KAZAKHS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYjrxiAQhw8 This is a video about the herding culture of the Kazakhs.
KAZAKH PROFILE, ASIA HARVEST http://asiaharvest.org/pages/profiles/china/chinaPeoples/K/Kazak.pdf
5 http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 54
KIRGIZ In the 1950s the Kirgiz were granted status as one of China's official minority groups. The name Kirgiz means "44 lasses." The Kirgiz believe they are descended from 44 maidens. The Kirgiz in China still retain their tribal identities. "To this day one can distinguish the following tribes: Kipchak, Naiman, Taiyit, Kaisaik, Chongbash, Qielik, Kuqu, Salu, Salbash, Mengduzi, Mengguldar, Ketay, Buwu, and Sayak."
In AD 751 the Chinese armies were defeated by the Arabs in a significant battle at Talas, in what is now Kyrgyzstan. One historian wrote, "This encounter was one of the most fateful battles in history. It marked the end of Chinese control over Central Asia. It also marked the beginning of Arab conquest of Central Asia. Soon the area was permanently converted to Islam." By the early 830s the Kirgiz had clashed with the Uygurs for control of Central Asia and defeated them. In 1944 the Chinese Nationalist government ordered the closure of many Kirgiz pasture lands, under the pretext of "border security." The Kirgiz, outraged at losing their livelihood, formed a government that gave birth to the Puli Revolution. 6
THE KIRGIZ IN CHINA, CULTURAL CHINA http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/Traditions/en/127Traditions827.html An overview of the Kyrgyz in China
KIRGIZ PROFILE, ASIA HARVEST http://www.asiaharvest.org/pages/profiles/china/chinaPeoples/K/Kirgiz.pdf
6 http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php?rop3=105550&rog3=CH
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 55
TATARS The Tatar are the fourth smallest of China's 55 officially recognized minorities. The name Tatar appears to have originated during the Mongol Empire of the thirteenth century. As the Mongol hordes pillaged their way across Asia, the terrified Europeans called them "The People from Hell." The Latin word for hell is Tatarus.
The Tatar were known in China in the eighth century as Dadan. In the ensuing centuries after the collapse of the Mongol Empire, it seems to have been a favorable practice for various tribes to call themselves Tatar. Because of this, there are many Tatar throughout Russia and Central Asia who should be viewed as separate ethnolinguistic groups.
When a Tatar dies, relatives wrap the body in a white cloth and place a knife or rock on it. The corpse is then placed on a platform and removed from the house, head first. Tatar wedding ceremonies are usually held at the bride's home. The newly married couple drink sweet water from the same cup, to show they will remain a devoted couple to the end of their lives. The bridegroom often lives in his father's home for a time after the marriage, and some do not live with their wife until their first baby is born. Forty days after the birth of a child, the baby is bathed. The water for the bath is fetched from 40 places, representing as many good wishes for the baby's growth.7
TARTAR PROFILE, ASIA HARVEST http://asiaharvest.org/pages/profiles/china/chinaPeoples/T/Tatar.pdf
7 http://iel.cass.cn/english/Detail.asp?newsid=4567
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 56
DONGXIANG The Dongxiang are one of China's official minority groups. They were called Mongolian Huihui prior to 1949, when their name was changed to the Dongxiang (East District) people. They call themselves by the Islamic term Santa….
The Dongxiang speak a Mongolian language. "Quite a few words in the Dongxiang lexicon resemble words of the same meaning in Modern Mongolian, and some are even identical to words presently used in Inner Mongolia. Many other words are close to the Middle Mongolian spoken in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries." Only 12% of the Dongxiang are literate in Chinese.
The Dongxiang are primarily employed as farmers. Their main crops are potatoes, barley, millet, wheat, and corn. They are also renowned across China for producing traditional rugs. 8
DONGXIANG PROFILE, ASIA HARVEST http://asiaharvest.org/pages/profiles/china/chinaPeoples/D/Dongxiang.pdf
8 http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php?rog3=CH&rop3=114044
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 57
THE SILK ROAD The historical Silk Road was a series of trade routes that crisscrossed Eurasia for almost two- thousand years, until about the year 1500 C.E. While its name suggests routes over land, Silk Road sea routes were also important for trade and communication. The extent of exchange of art, ideas and innovations between cultural groups trading on the routes is illustrated by the eighth-century Shôsôin collection of artifacts. Culled by a Japanese emperor, it contains luxury goods from the Mediterranean, Persia, India, Central Asia, China, Korea and Japan. By the 16th century Europe was trading along the Silk Road routes as well.
Over the centuries, many important scientific and technological innovations migrated to the West along the Silk Road, including gunpowder, the magnetic compass, the printing press, silk, mathematics, ceramic and lacquer crafts. Eastern and Western string, wind and percussion instruments also traveled between regions and had strong influences on one another over time. Among other instruments, the Shôsôin collection contains lutes from India and Persia. The Persian mizmar, a reed instrument, appears to be an ancestor of the European oboe and clarinet. Cymbals were introduced into China from India, and Chinese gongs made their way to Europe.
Resources, information and innovations were exchanged between so many cultures over so many hundreds of years that it is now often difficult to identify the origins of numerous traditions that our respective cultures take for granted. In this way, the Silk Road created an intercontinental think tank of human ingenuity.
Note: The Silk Road Project is a not-for-profit artistic, cultural and educational organization with a vision of connecting the world's neighborhoods by bringing together artists and audiences around the globe. Founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, the Silk Road Project takes inspiration from the historic Silk Road trading route as a modern metaphor for multicultural and interdisciplinary exchange. The Silk Road Project provides a gateway to greater understanding of the world through active educational programs and resources and multidisciplinary explorations of topics inspired by the Silk Road. For Educational Resources see: http://www.silkroadproject.org/Education/EducationOverview/tabid/170/Default.aspx Silk Road Connect , a multi-year, multidisciplinary educational program for middle school students, being piloted in the 2009-2010 school year in New York City Along the Silk Road , an interactive curriculum The Road to Beijing , a Silk Road Ensemble DVD with lesson plan “The Silk Road: A Musical Journey,” a live introduction to the instruments and music of the Silk Road Ensemble
Excerpted from: http://www.silkroadproject.org/Education/TheSilkRoad/tabid/175/Default.aspx
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 58
SILK ROAD MAPS
(Taken from: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.orexca.com/img/silk_road.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.orexca.co m/silk_road.html&h=665&w=1000&sz=238&tbnid=Q5oWEgB_aIU8cM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=149&prev=/images%3Fq% 3Dsilk%2Broad%2Bmap&hl=en&usg=__La19YzfEZeEmj1K3zw4XNMu1s9Y=&ei=-r3- S7afHoz2Mu_cwDs&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=2&ct=image&ved=0CBsQ9QEwAQ )
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 64
Map A Inner Asia’s Major Ecological Zones Map A Inner Asia’s Major Ecological Zones Inner Asia’s
Redrawn after Thomas J. Barfield. 1989. The Perilous Frontier. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
PART II Curriculum Units—From Silk to Oil: Maps—The Silk Roads 39 Map D From Chang’an (Modern Xi’an in China) to the Middle East—Places Along the Silk Roads Map D From Chang’an (ModernFrom Xi’an in China) to the Middle East—Places Along Silk Roads
Source: From Judy Bonavia. 1988. The Silk Road—From Xi’an to Kashgar. Odyssey Publications Ltd.
42 PART II Curriculum Units—From Silk to Oil: Maps—The Silk Roads SILK ROAD FOUNDATION SILK ROAD TIMELINE
5000-500 B.C 3200 Horse domesticated on south Russian steppe. 3000 Silk first produced in China. 2500 Domestication of the Bactrian and Arabian camel, vital for desert travel. 900 Spread of mounted nomadism. 753 Rome founded. 400 B.C. Empire of Alexander the Great expands into Asia. 300 B.C. Parthians establish their empire in Iran. Qin dynasty unites the entire China for the first time. Chinese complete Great Wall as defense against the northern nomads' invasion. Han dynasty overthrows Qin and develops its vast empire. Paper first made in China. 200 B.C. The Xiongnu, later called Huns rise to power in Central Asia and invade Chinese western border regions. Han Emperor, Wu-ti's interests in Central Asia cause him to command the Chang Ch'ien expeditions to the West, (Fergana and the Yueh-chih). Celestial Horses introduced to China. Han power reaches Tarim region. The Silkroad under China's control and the route to the West now open. 100 B.C. Mithridates, Parthian king, sends ambassadors to both Sulla and Wu-ti to provide an important link between Rome and China. Egypt under Roman rule. Gives Rome access to Red Sea and Spice Route trade. Rome officially becomes an empire. 1 A.D. Silk first seen in Rome. Buddhism begins to spread from India into Central Asia. Kushan Empire of Central Asia. Sogdians trading on Silk Route. Chinese General Pan Ch'ao defeats Xiongnu and keeps the peace in the Tarim Basin. The stability of the Silkroad popularizes the caravan trades into two routes - north and south. China sends the first ambassador to Rome from Pan Ch'ao's command, but he fails to reach Rome. Graeco-Egyptian geographer, Claudius Ptolemy, writes his Geography, attempts to map the Silkroad.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 65
SILK ROAD FOUNDATION TIMELINE
100 A.D. Rome sends the first Roman envoy over sea to China. Roman empire at its largest. A major market for Eastern goods. Buddhism reaches China. For the next few centuries, Buddhism flourishes, becoming the most popular religion in Central Asia, replacing Zoroastrianism. The four great empires of the day - the Roman, Parthian, Kushan, and Chinese - bring stability to the Silkroad. 200 A.D. Silk is woven into cloth across Asia, but using Chinese thread. Han dynasty ends. China splits into fragments. Sassanians rise to power from Parthians. Strong cultural influence along the trade routes. Barbarian attacks on the Roman Empire. 300 A.D. Stirrup introduced to China by the northern nomads. Xiongnu invade China again. China further dissolved into fragments. Constantinople becomes Rome's capital. Huns attack Europe. Roman Empire splits into two. Fa-hsien, one of the first known Chinese Silkroad travellers by foot and a Buddhist monk, sets out for India. 400 A.D. A Chinese princess smuggles some silkworm eggs out of China. Silkworm farms appear in Central Asia. New techniques in glass production introduced to China by the Sogdians. Western Roman Empire collapses. 500 A.D. Silkworm farms appear in Europe. Nestorian Christians reach China. Split of the Turkish Kaganate into Eastern and Western Kaganates. Western Turks move to Central Asia from Mongolian plateau. At the Chinese end of Central Asia, the Eastern Turks or Uighurs are in control. Sui dynasty reunites China.
600 A.D. Roman Empire becomes Byzantine Empire. Tang dynasty rules in China. For the first two centuries, the Silk Road reaches its golden age. China very open to foreign cultural influences. Buddhism flourishes. The Islamic religion founded. Death of Muhammad. Muslim Arab expansion begins. Muslims control Mesopotamia and Iran, along with the Silk and Spice routes.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 66
SILK ROAD FOUNDATION TIMELINE
700 A.D. Arabs conquer Spain in Europe, which introduces much Eastern technology and science to Europe. Arabs defeat Chinese at Talas and capture Chinese papermakers, which introduces paper making into Central Asia and Europe. Block printing developed in China. Tang dynasty begins to decline, and with it, the Silkroad. 800 A.D. First porcelain made in China. Gunpowder invented in China and spread to the West by the 13th century. All foreign religions banned in China. Compass begins to be used by Chinese. 900 A.D. Kirghiz Turks in control of Eastern Central Asia, establish kingdoms at Dunhuang and Turfan. Tang Dynasty ends. China fragmented. Playing cards invented in China and spread to Europe toward the end of 14th century. The Islamic Empire divides into small kingdoms. Sung Dynasty reunites China. Porcelain exported to western Asia. 1000 A.D. First Crusade. Exchange of technology between Europe and Middle East. 1100 A.D. China divided into Northern Sung and Southern Sung. Genghiz Khan unites Mongols. Expansion of Mongol Empire begins. Silk production and weaving established in Italy. Paper money, first developed in China. 1200 A.D. Death of Genghis Khan. Mongols invade Russia, Poland, and Hungary. The Europe's first envoy to the East, Friar Giovanni Carpini leaves Rome for Mongol capital at Karakorum. Seventh, and last, Crusade. Mongol control central and western Asia. Silk road trade prospers again under the "Pax Mongolica." Kublai Khan defeats China and establishes the Yuan dynasty. Paper money introduced to Central Asia and Iran by Mongols. Marco Polo leaves for the East. 1300 A.D. Turkish Ottoman Empire in power. Third Silkroad route appears in the north. Ibn Battuta, the first known Arab travels on a 750,000 mile journey to China via the Silkroad. Paper made across Europe. Mongol Yuan Dynasty collapes. Chinese Ming Dynasty begins.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 67
SILK ROAD FOUNDATION TIMELINE
1400 A.D. Chinese explore the Spice Routes as far as Africa. China closes the door to foreigners. Fearing the power of Uighurs, Ming China reduces the trade and traffic dramatically in the Silkroad. The Silkroad comes to an end for purposes of silk. Lyon becomes the new center of the silk trade. 1600 A.D. Uzbek Turks appear from the north, settle in today's Uzbekistan. Manchuria rises and invades China. Qing Dynasty established. 1700 A.D. Numbers of severe earthquakes in Central Asia damage some of the great monuments. Porcelain produced in Europe. The Manchus, a Tungusic people from Manchuria, absorb the Gobi and Altai districts. 1800 A.D. German scholar, Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen uses the term "Silkroad" (Seidenstrasse) for the first time. Xinjiang Province created under Qing Dynasty. Younghusband crosses the Gobi Desert, pioneering a new route from Peking to Kashgar via the Muztagh Pass. Hedin explores the Kun Lun and Takla Makan desert, unearthing buried cities along the old Silkroad. 1900 A.D. Chinese revolution; end of Chinese dynasties. Europeans begin to travel in the Silkroad. Tibet under China's control. Karakoram highway from Islamabad to Kashgar built by China and Pakistan.
Excerpted From: http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/toc/index.html Permission Pending.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 68
SILK ROAD OVERVIEW
THE GEOGRAPHIC SETTING OF THE SILK ROAD – ASIA SOCIETY 08.18.2008 http://www.asiasociety.org/countries-history/trade-exchange/geographical-setting-silk-roads In thinking about the Silk Road, one must consider the whole of Eurasia as its geographical context. Trade along the Silk Road waxed or waned according to conditions in China, Byzantium, Persia, and other regions and countries along the way. There were always competing or alternative routes, by land and sea, to absorb long distance Eurasian trade when conditions along the Silk Road were unfavorable. For this reason, the geographical context of the Silk Road must be thought of in the broadest possible terms, including sea routes linking Japan and Southeast Asia to the continental trade routes.
IMAGES OF THE SILK ROAD – UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/geography/china/china.html This site features a collection of photographs taken on the Silk Road.
SILK ROAD TRADE ROUTES – UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exhibit/trade/trade.html The network of routes commonly known as the "Silk Road" resulted from an expansion of commercial and cultural exchanges between China and the Tarim Basin.
SILK ROAD FOUNDATION http://www.silk-road.com/toc/index.html While we invoke the historic "Silk Road" in our title, our view of the Silk Roads is an expansive one, encompassing pre-history, the era beginning with the establishment of trans-Eurasian trade and cultural interaction some two millennia ago, and the subsequent history of those interactions down through the centuries. Modern evocations of cultural traditions are of interest, especially in the areas which historically have been the domain of pastoral nomads. We publish articles by well-known scholars and those who have other expertise on the regions and material of interest. Where possible we are communicating the results of the latest research, including new archaeological investigations. The journal also serves as the means to alert readers about upcoming programs connected with Silk Road topics.
SILK ROAD PROJECT http://www.silkroadproject.org/ ThIs is the website for Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road musical project which includes teaching materials.
UNESCO http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001592/159291eo.pdf The UNESCO project on an Integral Study of the Silk Roads: Roads of Dialogue examines the various types of contact and exchanges which took place along these roads and their impact on the history and civilization of our modern world.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 69
THE NEW SILK ROAD
CHINA AND THE MIDDLE EAST – CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES http://csis.org/program/china-middle-east The CSIS Middle East program is studying the implications of China’s increasing role in the Middle East. As China becomes a global power and many Middle Eastern countries look for a counterweight to the United States, Chinese approaches to energy security, export markets and military ties have an important impact on global diplomacy.
CULTURE AND COMMERCE – CHINA ECONOMIC REVIEW 10.01.2007 http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/cer/2007_09/Culture_and_commerce.html On the surface, Yiwu looks like any other small, nondescript city in the southern Chinese countryside… But the engine driving Yiwu’s growth is unique. Featuring the largest small commodities market anywhere in the world, the city has drawn traders from all Muslim nations into a thoroughly commercial blend of pan-Islamic Chinese life. In the rural heart of Zhejiang Province, 300 kilometers southwest of Shanghai, Yiwu is the epicenter of China’s commodities trade with the Muslim world, mainly from Afghanistan and Pakistan of the Middle East.
THE NEW SILK ROAD – WASHINGTON POST 04.08.2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/08/AR2007040800923.html The new Silk Road is largely the result of the confluence of China's and India's economic growth and high oil prices… Key "caravan posts" on the new Silk Road are regional economic "winners" or rising stars: Dubai, Beijing, Mumbai, Chennai, Tokyo, Doha, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, Riyadh, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi. The old Silk Road civilization centers such as Persia (Iran), the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan) and Mesopotamia (Iraq) lag behind.
THE NEW SILK ROAD – BUSINESS WEEK 11.06.2008 http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_46/b4108046852388.htm?chan=globalbi z_europe+index+page_top+stories Today a new Silk Road leads from the busy ports of Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore to the Persian Gulf—and from sparkling airport lounges in Dubai and Riyadh back to Asia's bustling cities. The merchants on this new route are Arab investors looking for smart places to park their petrodollars and Asians seeking to lock up energy supplies and find markets for the goods churned out by their factories.
THE RACE TO BE KING OF THE NEW SILK ROAD – TIMES ONLINE 02.15.2010 http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/construction_and_property/arti cle7026733.ece As the New Silk Road binds Asian and Middle East growth more tightly, Samsung is getting ready to bid more ambitiously: projects in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait worth a combined $20 billion are on the table, and Korean contractors are no longer outsiders. But this does not mean that Samsung will let anyone take its place as master of the “supertall.” There are tower projects being discussed along the length of the New Silk Road, from China to Libya. “From a business point of view, the desire to build the world’s tallest building will never cease. And we can always build one higher than the last.”
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 70
SILK ROAD CURRICULUM MATERIALS
ALONG THE SILK ROAD: PEOPLE, INTERACTION & CULTURAL EXCHANGE - SPICE http://www.international.ucla.edu/eas/sum-inst/links/silkunit.htm A middle school unit provided by USC-UCLA Joint East Asian Studies Center which includes: Teacher Background Material, Change Along the Silk Road, Trade Along the Silk Road, Cultural Exchange Today Along the Silk Road.
ARTS OF THE SILK ROAD – SPICE DIGEST http://iis-db.stanford.edu/docs/114/ArtsofRoad.pdf The travel of artistic motifs, styles, and techniques along the Silk Road is closely bound up with the larger context of the travel of beliefs, ideas, and technology. For example, the art of the Silk Road includes the devotional art of Buddhism and Islam, the ideas behind certain styles of art such as narrative murals, and the technology to produce various works of art, including gigantic statuary and printed pictures. Religion is an important inspiration for art everywhere, and much of the art of the Silk Road was religious in origin.
TEACHING COMPARATIVE RELIGION – ASIA SOCIETY http://www.asiasociety.org/education-learning/resources-schools/secondary-lesson- plans/comparative-religious-teachings During the height of the Silk Road trades in the 7th century, Islam, Buddhism, and Nestorian Christianity were the most important. This activity asks students to reflect on similarities and differences between belief systems.
MARCO POLO – NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/10/marcopolo.html Retrace the steps of Marco Polo and discover what you can learn from the cultures you encounter along the way and what you might take home to share with your friends and family.
MARCO POLO TAKES A TRIP – EDSITEMENT http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=451 After completing this lesson, students will be able to Identify Marco Polo and understand why he took his trip, indicate on a map the routes Marco took to China and back, describe the challenges of traveling along the Silk Road, list several interesting aspects of 13th century Chinese culture, and explain the circumstances in which Marco's book was written and understand the influence the book had upon the European public.
MARCO POLO’S ROUTE TO CHINA AND BACK – EDSITEMENT http://edsitement.neh.gov/M_Polo_flash_page.asp This interactive map, from an EDSITEment lesson, traces Marco Polo's route to China and back.
ETHNIC RELATIONS AND POLITICAL HISTORY ALONG THE SILK ROAD – CHINA INSTITUTE http://www.chinainstitute.org/_data/n_0002/resources/live/fromsilktooil_pdf4.pdf "Students will learn about the spread of Islam in the context of the geography and history of West Asia in the seventh and eighth centuries CE."
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 71
SILK ROAD CURRICULUM MATERIALS
MONKEY, OR THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST – CORNELL UNIVERISTY http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/curriculum/monkey/geographic/lesson1.asp One of China's most popular series of stories, this novel recounts the legends of Monkey and his companions who accompanied the 7th-century Buddhist monk Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang) on his 16-year pilgrimage along the silk route to India to bring Buddhist sutras back to China. Filled with humor, wit, satire, and imaginative fantasy, the novel also suggests serious religious and human truth.
ON THE ROAD WITH MARCO POLO – EDSITEMENT http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=488 In this curriculum unit, students will become Marco Polo adventurers, following his route to and from China in order to learn about the geography, local products, culture, and fascinating sites of those regions.
PUPPETS ON THE MOVE: CHINA AND THE SILK ROAD – NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3887/ Through map-making, research, and class discussions, students will gain an understanding of the dynamics of trade in China along the Silk Road, and the role of trade in urbanization throughout the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties.
RELIGION AND BELIEF SYSTEMS IN ASIA – NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/10/g68/index.html In this lesson, students will conduct an in-depth review of one of the major world religions by focusing on its origins, beliefs, and history. They will then explore reasons for the spread or decline in Asia of each of the major world religions. Finally, students will predict the continued spread of religions based on current events in Asia.
THE SILK ROAD INTERACTIVE WEBSITE – STANFORD PROGRAM ON INTERNATIONAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL AFFAIRS (SPICE) http://virtuallabs.stanford.edu/silkroad/SilkRoad.html This great resource features Silk Road maps, a Silk Road timeline, sights along the Silk Road, and the music of the Silk Road, complete with audio samples
SILK ROAD ENCOUNTERS – SPICE http://www.silkroadproject.org/Education/Resources/SilkRoadEncounters/tabid/339/Default.as px As a symbol of the crossroads between civilizations, peoples, and cultures, the Silk Road offers rich materials for students to explore diverse but interrelated topics on geography, trade, art, music, religion and history. This free teachers guide and sourcebook supplements traditional classroom materials with interactive activity plans and reference materials. These materials are adaptable for students from elementary school through high school.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 72
SILK ROAD CURRICULUM MATERIALS
THE SILK ROAD: AN INTRODUCTION WITH A FOCUS ON CULTURAL DIFFUSION http://www.clemusart.com/educef/asianodyssey08/pdf/MikSilkMS.pdf This lesson is intended for students in grades 6-8. It introduces students to the Silk Road and how the ideas and technologies carried by travelers along this route made it an excellent vehicle for cultural diffusion.
SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE JEOPARDY – SPICE http://virtuallabs.stanford.edu/silkroad/silkroad_jeopardy.swf Test your knowledge of the Silk Road!
THE ROAD TO BEIJING – SILK ROAD PROJECT http://www.silkroadproject.org/Education/Resources/TheRoadtoBejing/tabid/338/Default.aspx The Road to Beijing , a 20-minute video produced by the Silk Road Project, was filmed during the Silk Road Ensemble’s October 2007 concert tour in China. The free video and teacher’s guide were released in May 2008 with a coordinating curriculum that addresses China’s quickly developing capital city.
THE SILK ROAD – COBBLESTONE PUBLISHING http://www.cobblestonepub.com/resources/cal0202t.html?x=15.3638205528260616562001141 400755 Cobblestone Publishing has been producing high-quality social studies and science magazines for young readers since 1980.This lesson plan aims to develop an understanding of what the Silk Road was and how it affected civilization, to increase understanding and appreciation of religious diversity, and to develop and enrich vocabulary.
WAS THE SILK ROAD THE INTERNET HIGHWAY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD? – GLOBALED http://www.globaled.org/chinaproject/silkRoad/docs/lesson2Links.html This is a well-structured lesson, which aims to explain to students the concept of Eurasia, examine the effects of geography and environmental factors on the movement of people, talks about the origins of and motivation behind the appearance of the Silk Road. It provides an excellent lesson plan, a reading and maps.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 73
SILK ROAD BOOKS FOR ADULTS
THE NEW SILK ROAD: HOW A RISING ARAB WORLD IS TURNING AWAY FROM THE WEST AND REDISCOVERING CHINA – BEN SIMPFENDORFER (2009) http://www.amazon.com/New-Silk-Road-Turning-Rediscovering/dp/0230580262 The rise of the Arab world and China are part of the same story, once trading partners via the Silk Road. It isn’t a coincidence that Arab traders have returned to China at the same time that China is fast regaining its share of the global economy.
SHADOW OF THE SILK ROAD – COLIN THUBRON (2008) http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Silk-Road-Colin- Thubron/dp/0061231770/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265239515&sr=8-1 In his latest absorbing travel epic, Thubron follows the course—or at least the general drift—of the ancient network of trade routes that connected central China with the Mediterranean Coast, traversing along the way several former Soviet republics, war-torn Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.
THE SILK ROAD: XI’AN TO KASHGAR – JUDY BONAVIA (2007) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9622177611/ref=nosim/thesilroapro-20 This beautifully photographed and intelligent book is the authoritative guide to travel in the region.
FOREIGN DEVILS ON THE SILK ROAD: THE SEARCH FOR THE LOST TREASURES OF CENTRAL ASIA – PETER HOPKIRK (2006) http://www.amazon.com/Foreign-Devils-Silk-Road-Treasures/dp/0719564484/ref=pd_sim_b_3 In the early years of the last century foreign explorers began to take interest in the region, and very soon an international race began for the art treasures of the Silk Road. Huge wall paintings, sculptures and priceless manuscripts were carried away, literally by the ton, and are today scattered through the museums of a dozen countries. Peter Hopkirk tells the story of the intrepid men who, at great personal risk, led these long-range archaeological raids, incurring the undying wrath of the Chinese.
SILK ROAD: MONKS, WARRIORS & MERCHANTS – LUCE BOULNOIS (2005) http://www.amazon.com/Silk-Road-Monks-Warriors-Merchants/dp/9622177212/ref=pd_cp_b_3 This illustrated history of the trade connections that linked the Mediterranean world with China is a must for those interested in the Silk Road as a travel destination and for those who love adventure.
THE SILK ROAD: TWO THOUSAND YEARS IN THE HEART OF ASIA – FRANCES WOOD (2004) http://www.amazon.com/Silk-Road-Thousand-Years-Heart/dp/0520243404/ref=pd_cp_b_1 Illustrated with drawings, manuscripts, paintings and artifacts, this historical journey through the byways of the old Silk Road is a beautifully rendered tribute to the thousands of years in which these routes served as the center of trade.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 74
SILK ROAD BOOKS FOR ADULTS
THE SILK ROAD: TRADE, TRAVEL, WAR AND FAITH – SUSAN WHITFIELD (2004) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193247613X/ref=nosim/thesilroapro-20 This new catalogue on the Silk Road is published to accompany a major exhibition at the British Library and contains high-quality reproductions of the exhibits with extended captions and essays by leading scholars presenting new research.
LIFE ALONG THE SILK ROAD – SUSAN WHITFIELD (2001) http://www.amazon.com/Life-along-Silk-Susan-Whitfield/dp/0520232143/ref=pd_cp_b_2 Each chapter introduces an inhabitant of the Silk Road at the end of the 10th century. Following the lives and stories of the Merchant, the Soldier, the Monk, the Courtesan, and others, Susan Whitfield brings the dramatic history of pre-Islamic central Asia down to a human scale, fleshing out the battles of conquest and trade with the details of everyday life.
FROM MANCHURIA TO TIBET – HOW MAN WONG (1998) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9622170986/ref=nosim/thesilroapro-20 More than a photo essay, this publication delves into the history, traditions, stories and dreams of colorful indigenous peoples and their surroundings, often in formidable terrain.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 75
SILK ROAD BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
WE’RE RIDING ON A CARAVAN – LAURIE KREBS (2005) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1841483435/ref=nosim/thesilroapro-20 Grade 1-4–One summer morning, a family of silk traders leaves Xi'an to begin their yearlong journey on the Silk Road in China… Told in pleasant, well-crafted verse with a chorus of two sentences at the bottom of each spread, the story is engaging and generally informative. The short descriptions of places visited are accurate, both in the story and in the appended information about the Silk Road and the making of silk. However, life in a caravan is romanticized, especially in the illustrations, and no dates are given for what is clearly a historical tale.
STORIES FROM THE SILK ROAD – CHERRY GILCHRIST (2005) http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Silk-Road-Cherry-Gilchrist/dp/1841488046/ref=pd_cp_b_3 Grade 2-4 – In seven stories, the lively Spirit of the Silk Road takes readers through the culture, history, and folklore of the ancient trade route that stretched from China to Persia and was used from 200 B.C. to the fourteenth century. The retellings, from humorous to creepy, feature an assortment of kind and vengeful gods, spirits, animals, and human travelers…The conversational tone of the tellings evokes a tourist's sight-seeing expedition, with brightly colored, intricately patterned illustrations of exotic places and characters providing visuals and context. An introduction gives general background about the Silk Road and traded goods; endpaper maps detail the route. A "Did You Know?" facts section and source notes are appended. This will be a good resource for storytellers, particularly those wanting material for international story times, and for individuals interested in Asian folklore.
THE SILK ROUTE: 7,000 MILES OF HISTORY – JOHN MAYOR (1996) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0064434680/ref=nosim/thesilroapro-20 Grade 4-8 – A history of the 7,000-mile trade route that developed between China and Byzantium for centuries is dramatized in a handsome picture book for older readers that combines a general overview with an account of one typical journey around A.D. 700. The paintings are filled with action, reflecting the diversity of places and cultures and people that were connected when the great silk trade flourished. The problem is that there's so much history to be explained that the narrative is dense and hard to read. A clear, colorful map does help, and the book has detailed notes at the back on everything from warfare to religion. This will get most use as curriculum support material in the middle grades.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 76
INTEGRATING STEM TOPICS INTO YOUR TEACHING
Global Classroom supports the Washington STEM Initiative which seeks to improve student achievement and opportunity in areas critical to our state’s economic prosperity: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The Initiative aims to catalyze innovation in the state’s K-12 education system, increase teacher effectiveness and student learning, and dramatically raise the number of Washington students graduating ready for college and work succeeding in STEM degree programs. These efforts are intended to benefit every student in the state, with particular emphasis on accelerating the achievement of low income and minority students.
Below are resources that might help you integrate STEM into you humanities/social studies classroom. We encourage you to pass these suggestions on to your colleagues in other subject areas.
DID CHINA’S NUCLEAR TESTS KILL THOUSANDS AND DOOM FUTURE GENERATIONS? – SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 07.01.2009 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=did-chinas-nuclear-tests A few hundred thousand people may have died as a result of radiation from at least 40 nuclear explosions carried out between 1964 and 1996 at the Lop Nur site in Xinjiang, which lies on the Silk Road. Jun Takada, a Japanese physicist, has calculated that the peak radiation dose in Xinjiang exceeded that measured on the roof of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor after it melted down in 1986. Most damage to Xinjiang locals came from detonations during the 1960s and 1970s, which rained down a mixture of radioactive material and sand from the surrounding desert. Some were three-megaton explosions, 200 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, says Takada, who published his findings in a book, Chinese Nuclear Tests .
DEMOGRAPHY OF HIV/ AIDS IN CHINA – CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 07.01.2007 http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/070724_china_hiv_demography.pdf A bipartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, CSIS conducts research and analysis and develops policy initiatives that look into the future and anticipate change. The level and growth of HIV infection will probably not present a major social or economic challenge to the PRC as a whole, but it will be damaging in certain communities, especially in Guangxi, Yunnan, southern Sichuan, and western Xinjiang provinces.
HIV/AIDS IN XINJIANG: A GROWING REGIONAL CHALLENGE – SILK ROAD STUDIES PROGRAM 2006 http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/docs/CEF/Quarterly/August_2006/GillGang.pdf Neither Beijing nor the international community has focused sufficient attention on the HIV problem in Xinjiang, and how it relates to broader transnational concerns of drug trafficking, the spread of infectious disease, and political discontent. To dig deeper into these issues, this article examines HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang and considers the transnational security threats it may pose to China and its neighbors in Central Asia.
TACKLING HIV AND AIDS IN CHINA – NPR 01.13.2006 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5156254 By the end of 2004, an estimated 78 million people worldwide were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. China is not immune to the epidemic. According to 2003 statistics compiled by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, as many as 1.5 million Chinese were thought to be infected with HIV. UNAIDS says China has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 77 world. Sarah Schlesinger, a research associate professor in the Laboratory of Cellular Immunology and Physiology at Rockefeller University and Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, talks with NPR.
A CHINA ENVIRONMENT HEALTH PROJECT RESEARCH BRIEF– WILSON CENTER 2008 http://wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/xinjiang_dec08.pdf Ecological and human health trends in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are grim. The growing negative impacts of air and water pollution, desertification, and overall ecological damage have turned Xinjiang into one of the unhealthiest regions in China. In a comprehensive assessment of environment and health done by scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinjiang was rated as having the fifth worst (out of 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions) environment and health indices based on indicators relating to population growth, health status, level of education, natural conditions, environmental pollution, economics, and health care resources.
CHINESE GROWTH PLANS STOKE FEARS OF CENTRAL ASIAN ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE – EURASIANET 08.17.2007 http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav081707.shtml Economic demands aside, environmentalists worry that if the Chinese continue to increase their diversions from the Ili and Irtysh, the damage to the regional environment will be irreversible. But as the rows of new apartment houses springing up in Yining and other parts of Xinjiang attest, China is unlikely to apply the brakes on western development. Most imperiled is Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan. The 15th largest lake in the world, it has an average depth of less than 20 feet. That combination of size and shallowness leaves it especially vulnerable to fluctuations in water supply.
GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING AND ENDOWMENT OF XINJIANG – WORLD SECURITY INSTITUTE http://www.wsichina.org/%5C13ener.html The World Security Institute (WSI) is a non-profit organization committed to independent research and journalism on global affairs and security. Given the extraordinary growth of global interdependence, the Institute provides innovative approaches to communication, education, and cooperation on social, economic, environmental, political and military components of international security . This report covers the geographical setting and natural resource endowment of Xinjiang.
DRAGON SCIENCE: TIME TRAVELERS – PBS http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/2220/preview/ Scientists were astonished when they realized that mummies found in Xinjiang Province might be of Caucasian origin and not ethnic Chinese. In this activity, students will build a 3-D representation of a human skull that teachers can use to teach skull anatomy.
XINJIANG: A BI-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE – YALE UNIVERSITY http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/pier/resources/lessons/strelau.htm Students will develop an understanding of how the Chinese nuclear testing program and the environment and health of the Uighur minority are interrelated.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – Xinjiang 78