the native language ‘hello’

If you got into my blog for the wedding photos, you may not know about the Uyghur people. Most people don’t. If you know about this conflict, the beginning of this post might bore you.  Just a warning!

The Uyghur people are an Turkish ethnic group living in Central Asia, specifically the far west Chinese province of Xinjiang. They do not look Chinese & they do not act Chinese, but they are governed by the Chinese. As we all know about China, they do not give up land easily. Long story short, many Uyghur people want to govern themselves & there is no way that the Chinese government would let that happen. What use to be a province populated completely with Uyghur people & other central Asian minorities has become a province of 50% ethnic Chinese & 50% central Asian minorities. The Chinese are moving into Xinjiang in huge numbers (which actually means ‘the New Frontier’ in Chinese). They don’t mix or make friends with each other.

If you live in areas of China that are ethnically Chinese, you probably know the Uyghur people because of their kebabs. Uyghur migrants set up shop all over China to sell their famous kebabs on the streets. In many areas, the Chinese are just not that nice to them. They often get accused of things they didn’t do & BOY do many Chinese have mean things to say about them.

So as you can guess, the Uyghur people are starting to get a little mad. They are having their historic centers destroyed to build Chinese high rises, they have restrictions to practicing their Islamic faith, and Uyghur students are requred to learn Chinese but Chinese students are not required to learn Uyghur, etc.

So basically we have Tibet 2.0, without all the American hippies putting bumper stickers on their cars. It’s the same arguments. The Chinese argue it is for the Uyghur people’s own good & the Uyghur people do not buy it. There have been violent protests & riots.

In 2010 I had the pleasure to travel to Xinjiang & spend time there. It was one of the highlights of  my year in China! The food, ah! So good. And the people were insanely friendly, both the Chinese & the Uyghur people.

But it was weird at first. I went a year after the huge scary riots in the capital city. My Chinese friends warned me & were scared for me, even though I had no reservations about the trip at all. Tensions between everyone where still high. I didn’t speak Uyghur & many Uyghur don’t want to or can’t speak Chinese. It was the language of the opressor & I was trying to speak it to them. SO weird, right?

So I worked on learning a little bit of the Uyghur language. I learned simple phrases like “how are you?” & “how much is this?”. I had an absolute blast doing this. I learned that just speaking ONCE in Uyghur could completely open a person up. I’d speak as much as I could in Uyghur, then switch to Chinese, and people would open up to communicating with me in Chinese. All I had to do was recognize their language & their culture.

So my month in Xinjiang was awesome after I realized that little gem.

After my trip, every time I saw a Uyghur in ethnic Chinese areas I would say hello. I loved seeing them so surprised. An American speaking our language in a Chinese city?! Craziness.

So that was my pattern. When I visited China again in February, I found myself in my old ‘hometown’ & saw a familiar face. The same young Uyghur man with dyed hair selling kebabs in front of one of my favorite restaurants. Hello, I said. He smiled. Hello!

I can’t change Chinese policies. I can’t change the racism many Uyghur experience. But I sure as hell can say hello.