It is known that since 2014, the Chinese government has demoted hundreds of thousands of Chinese cadres under the name of "Al-Rai work", and has put Uyghurs under surveillance at every level of their personal lives. According to "Tangritag Network" from Chinese government media, on June 8, with the organization of special working groups, Uyghur residents in the towns and villages of Hotan city organized to celebrate the Chinese "Tangzongza Festival". The Chinese media reported on the matter, calling it "the promotion of the ``traditional culture of the Chinese nation'' by the Khotan people."
According to the report, the members of the "work group" taught the Uighurs in the village how to make tanzongza, and taught them about the origin of the "Tangzongza Festival", the "Duanwu Festival" ( Dragon Boat Festival ) and the related Chinese customs. The report said that this "allowed the villagers to have a deeper understanding of the traditional culture and traditional festivals of the Chinese nation."
Responding to this, political analyst Ilshat Hasan first noted that the Tangzongza festival is originally a traditional festival of ethnic groups in the East Asian cultural circle. He emphasized that the Chinese government would not turn the "Tangzongza Festival", which even some Chinese people do not welcome and do not want to celebrate, into a tool for the assimilation and Chineseization of Uyghurs.
Mr. Ilshat Hasan also said that the Chinese government organizes a so-called "task force" before the start of any political repression, and before the large-scale kidnapping and detention in camps in the Uyghur region in 2017, the so-called "three-way work" He emphasized that he brought the "working groups" named "Delivery and Favor" to the grassroots level and took control of the daily life of Uyghurs.
In the video and photos in the news, Uyghur children are dressed in traditional Chinese clothes and made to dance in Chinese; Instead, Chinese female cadres dressed in traditional Uyghur satin shirts and taught Uyghur men, women and children how to shoot tanzongza. However, in this series of vivid scenes in the video, the Uyghur students are seen lying and looking in amazement at the Chinese female cadres who are teaching the tanzongzi, as well as the feeling of discomfort when they take the tanzongzi in their mouths.
Mrs. Ortinur Siddiq, a witness of the camp in the Netherlands, mentioned that the "Tangzongza Festival" was not a cultural festival celebrated by Uyghurs as it is being promoted in the Chinese media, and that Uyghurs would never celebrate this festival. He also shared with our radio listeners his feelings after seeing the video and photos in the news.
Ms. Orinur Sidiq said that it is a very dangerous trend for working groups to take drastic action in densely populated areas of Uighurs and try to popularize traditional Chinese holidays. He also argued that this type of assimilation policy has a negative impact on Uyghur Sabians recognizing and maintaining their national identity.
Henry Shajewski, a researcher at the Uyghur Human Rights Foundation, interviewed us and shared his views with us. He said that China's "Tangzongza Festival" is an unfamiliar festival for Uyghurs in the region, and the Chinese government's attempt to popularize this festival by forcing Uyghurs to age is essentially part of their colonial policy towards Uyghurs:
“Of course, what I mean is that in general, any immigrant who moves to another place and lives will carry their cultural traditions with them. This enhances the cultural diversity of the area. Although they are a minority, they can freely express their culture there. However, the situation is completely different in China. Of course, this holiday has become popular as a result of the Chinese government's long-standing policy of national assimilation. Some of these policies of the Chinese government have been implemented brutally, and the detention of Uyghurs in prison camps since 2017 is an example of this.
Henry Szajewski, in his response to this, also emphasized that the Chinese dress of Sabi Uyghur children is a typical expression of Chinese assimilation policy towards Uyghurs, that is, the overt Chineseization of Uyghurs. He went on to say:
"In Chinese propaganda, these festivals have been praised as enriching the spiritual world and cultural life of the residents in the region, as well as creating a festive atmosphere. However, these statements are truly disturbing. I think it is very difficult to accept such words. Because the Chinese government has been suppressing Uyghurs on a large scale for five or six years, sending them to camps, separating children from their parents and grandparents, and separating them from all social ties that should be normal in society. The first step taken by the Chinese government was to break up the Uyghur families, carrying out a cultural genocide on them. Then he imposed a foreign culture on those people who had no other choice. Of course, this is a big problem. However, in terms of rights and actual power, the Chinese and Uighur-based local ethnic groups are not at all equal there.
Indeed, the Chinese government's re-sending of "task forces" to the Uyghur region, especially the villages where the Uyghur population is the absolute majority, to force the assimilation of Chinese culture on the local Uyghurs is attracting the attention of observers. They are currently promoting that they are using all means to dissolve the Uyghurs in the China region and make them fully Chinese
Attempts to erase Uyghur identity.
ReplyDelete