MEMORABLE MEDIATED EXPERIENCE - Uighurs

The mediated experience that immediately comes to mind is the unrest in Xinjiang. I first heard of this group through a joke on the David Letterman show. He was relating the fact that four Uighers from Guantanamo had been moved to Bermuda and were 'out fishin'.

I had never heard of the mostly Muslim area of Xianjang in China and as a result of the Letterman reference had looked up their history. A few days after this, massive protests in China came to light. I was at home alone when I read about the Uighurs revolt on July 5. It was all over the news, both online and on the TV. Back stories about the people that the Chinese government sees as rebels and their reticence to appreciate Chinese ‘progress’ began appearing all over the media.

I am not sure how the media shaped my experience, other than to make me curious to find out more on my own. Following the news in articles from Le Figaro, The Economist, BBC, El Tiempo, The New York Times, etc filled out different points of view on the riots and conflicts, but didn’t give me an understanding of the people and/or their experiences as a minority under Chinese governance. When there are clashes of this intensity, there are usually economic underlying reasons and the Uighur claims of being ‘frozen out’ of jobs and opportunities seemed more real to me than their looking for further autonomy or separation based on religious differences.

In retrospect, my understanding of the event has changed some because of my own desire to research the people and their history more in depth. When I first began hearing about the problems it seemed like just one more separatist group in the immensity of China. The disruptive presence of the Uighurs at the Beijing Olympics, or involvement in the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) are negative ways these people are highlighted. I read an article by Rebiya Kadeer in the Wall Street Journal called "The Real Story of the Uighur Riots" (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124698273174806523.html) . She spoke there about how the “Han Chinese took to the streets in Urumqi seeking revenge by carrying out acts of violence against Uighurs.” This was on the 6/7th July. Just a week later on 14 July, supposed authorities from the “North African wing of Al Qaeda (had) threatened to attack Chinese workers in Africa in revenge for the deaths of Uyghurs in East Turkestan”. Where and how this can escalate does not just matter to those in China – it matters globally as do the issues of ethnic violence, religious suppression, and minority rights.