Category Archives: uighur
Boycott Mulan
I wrote a piece on Disney’s terrible new film for the LRB Blog.
Bloomsbury podcast
You can hear me talking to Rebecca Morofsky about Xinjiang (and China in general) on the Bloomsbury podcast (also on Spotify).
South China Morning Post Review
Thanks to Dan Eady for a long review (and a fair summary) of the new edition of China’s Forgotten People.
The first edition had a very different reception in SCMP – that reviewer lamented that ‘the book does little to bring to life the exotic and enchanting characteristics of Xinjiang’. Though that was by a different reviewer, the difference in tone seems indicative of a shift in the global perception of Xinjiang, and perhaps also of the very different situation in Hong Kong now compared to that in 2015.
Mosque destruction in Xinjiang
I wrote a piece for Apollo magazine about the recent destruction of shrines and mosques in Xinjiang.
Rear Vision
What’s often lacking in news stories about Xinjiang is context, especially of the region’s complex history, so I’m glad that the excellent ABC radio program Rear Vision focuses this week on the wider issues behind the concentration camps. The program features contributions from myself, the historian David Brophy, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Josh Chin, and Omer Kanat of the World Uyghur Congress. You can listen/download here.
Along the Ili River
I wrote about the arrest of the Kazakh activist Serikzhan Bilash and the links between the Uyghur and Kazakh communities in the region for the LRB Blog.
New edition of China’s Forgotten People
Bloomsbury will be publishing a new, updated edition of China’s Forgotten People in June. The update consists of a foreword and afterword that deals with the camps in Xinjiang – their origins and their rationale, what we know and what we don’t, and why this is such a terrible new chapter in the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to control and shape the region and its peoples.
Piece for Zocalo Public Square
Internees at a ‘de-extremification’ event in Lop county
I wrote about the camps in Xinjiang for Zocalo Public Square.
Xinjiang for Francophones
Glad to see Xinjiang getting coverage for Francophone audiences on National Radio in Canada- and I’m grateful to them for featuring my book China’s Forgotten People (segment starts around 13h 9m) https://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/plus-on-est-de-fous-plus-on-lit/episodes/427176/audio-fil-du-lundi-18-fevrier-2019 …
BBC Today Programme
I spoke briefly about the Xinjiang camps on the BBC Today program. They got my name wrong. Oh well! You can listen here
Xinjiang Camps ‘Legalised’
I spoke about the legalisation (and thus official acknowledgement of) the re-education camps in Xinjiang on the BBC last night. Segment begins at 24.49.
The World Tonight
I spoke about Xinjiang and Theresa May’s visit to China on The World Tonight on Radio 4 last night. That segment starts at 12:52.
The ‘perfect police state’
Two very good pieces from Xinjiang this week – one, a look at the securitisation of Xinjiang by Tom Philips in The Guardian (in which I am quoted), the other a nice piece of reporting from Bortala in Xinjiang by Edward Wong from the New York Times.
TLS review of ‘Uyghur Nation’
I wrote a piece on David Brophy’s remarkable book for the Times Literary Supplement.
Audio from Asia House event
Here’s some audio recording from my event with Michael Dillon and Ablimit Baki Elterish at Asia House last year.
Time Out Shanghai
There’s a Q and A about China’s Forgotten People in the new issue of Time Out Shanghai.
Reviews for China’s Forgotten People
Some thoughtful reviews from Kerry Brown at Open Democracy, Tom Miller at The Spectator, and Jonathan Mirsky at Literary Review (click here for pdfs LR CFP 1 LR CFP 2). Thanks to these experienced China commentators for taking the time to write such considered pieces.
There’s also a good overview of some of the book’s issues by Joshua Bird at Asian Review of Books and by Paul French at China Rhyming.
Thanks also to Ian Johnson of the New York Times for his incisive Q and A on the book.
‘181 Terrorist groups’
Anti-terror drill in Xinjiang
My latest piece on the LRB Blog about China’s dubious claims about the extent and nature of ‘terrorism’ in Xinjiang.
Islamic State piece on Vice News
Iraqi sources claim to have caught a Chinese citizen fighting for the Islamic State militant group.
My piece on China’s recent claims that fighters from Xinjiang are training with IS is up at Vice News.
What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘the Uyghurs’
Back street in Urumqi, September 2013
Firstly, apologies to Raymond Carver for being yet another desecrator of his great title.
Secondly- this is the title of my latest piece on Xinjiang, which is in the Summer issue of Dissent mag.
Talk on Xinjiang in Chinese and Western Media
I’ll be talking at Westminster University, London, on March 19th about how Western and Chinese media tends to represent the Xinjiang issue in different yet equally distorting ways – details here.
After Kunming
I attempt to make sense of the horrible killings in Kunming on the LRB Blog
Free Ilham Tohti
Ilham Tohti, the respected Uyghur economist, has been charged with separatism and faces ten years to life in prison in China. It’s the kind of thing that’s a reminder of how China’s judicial and political system hasn’t made the same kind of progress as its economy. I wrote about the case on the LRB Blog.
The Death of Old Kashgar
I went back to Kashgar, in southern Xinjiang, in September last year for the first time in 13 years. In 2000 it was a place that I was sorry to leave; I didn’t feel the same this time. More words and pictures about that can be found at Unmapped, a new travel magazine that’s publishing the kinds of pieces that are in short supply: well-written, insightful reports from places that the news agenda doesn’t seem concerned about.
Behind the Dunes
My piece on Lisa Ross’ exhibition in London of photos from Xinjiang is up on the London Review of Books Blog.
My interview with her earlier this year is at the Los Angeles Review of Books.
‘Terrorism’ in Tiananmen Square
There was an explosion in Tiananmen Square last week. On the LRB Blog I write about why it wasn’t terrorism.
Travelling the Silk Road of Pop
Verbally, that is. My Q and A with the director of this wonderful documentary about Uyghur music is now up at China File
Trailer:
Learning the Wrong Lessons in Xinjiang
A show of force in Urumqi this week
My piece for the 4th anniversary of the Urumqi riots is at Dissent magazine.
Living Shrines
My interview with Lisa Ross on Uyghur shrines in the desert is at the Los Angeles Review of Books– thanks again to her for answering my questions in such a thoughtful manner.
