While spring has arrived in the northern hemisphere, Uyghurs in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region are still waiting for spring to come, when they will be freed from the Chinese government’s repression.
That’s the main sentiment expressed in a new online collection of 15 poems and short stories by writers with connections to East Turkistan, the Uyghurs’ preferred name for Xinjiang.
Asian American Writers Workshop Launch “Spring Will Come: Writings from Eastern Turkistan” on March 20, the eve of the Nowruz Festival, when Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang celebrate the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one on the day of the vernal equinox, which usually falls on March 21.
The writings reflect the impacts of colonialism, the lessons learned from the failures of the past, and the warnings for the future. They also deal with spiritual resistance, determination, adherence to one’s own goals, and the hope of freedom.
“(Through) the title ‘Spring will come,’ we express our wish and belief that we cannot live in a cruel winter forever and that spring will finally come to our land,” said Munawwar Abdulla, a researcher at Harvard University. who translated some of the contributions.
The “cruel winter” he is referring to is China’s crackdown on Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang since 2017. At that time, authorities began detaining Uyghurs in “re-education” camps where they were forced to learn Chinese. Mandarin and sometimes tortured them. , sexual assaults and forced labor.
Despite the evidence and witness testimony about the abuses, Beijing has vehemently maintained that the camps were vocational training centers to prevent religious extremism and terrorism in the troubled region.
“Spring is the message of hope, resistance, resilience and everything good.” Abdullah said.
When will winter end?
The collection begins with the famous Uyghur poet Abdurehim Ötkür’s poem “Calling Spring”, the first stanza of which reads:
When will this bitter winter end?
I call spring with every breath.
Like a lion that roars in pain at night,
I scream for spring to come.
The publication comes as calls are mounting for the international community to take concrete steps to hold China accountable for what the US government and several Western parliaments have said amount to genocide and crimes against humanity.
The works also serve as a rebuttal to the Chinese government’s efforts to eliminate Uyghur culture, language, and religion in an effort to sinicize the region.
Amid the crackdown in recent years, the authorities have detained Uyghur intellectuals, including writers and artists, prominent businessmen, prominent sports figures, Islamic clerics and academics, in camps and prisons.
“As more people in the world recognize that the Uyghur people have become victims of genocide, it is important for the world to know that the Uyghur people are a civilized people with a unique culture,” said Rahima Mahmut, a UK-based artist. Kingdom who also translated some of the pieces in the collection.
“They have talented writers, poets, artists and people in all fields,” he told Radio Free Asia. “China has portrayed the Uyghurs as uneducated and uncivilized people who must be ‘re-educated.’ They have been making such efforts to paint the Uyghurs in a negative light for many years. That is the main purpose of publishing this collection.”
Diaspora voices
The collection includes poems written in the 1940s in Xinjiang and others written in English by the Uyghur diaspora up until last year, said Mahmut, who also serves as the UK director for the World Uyghur Congress, a Uyghur rights group. uyghurs
“It manifests the connection that Uyghurs in the diaspora have with their homeland,” he said.
The poem “My Plea” by Ilminur, known among diaspora Uyghurs as Efvan, is based on the 2017 crackdown on his relatives. The first stanza says:
O Heavenly Mountains,
Behind you there are corpses,
Before you there is a disturbed silence.
How many rivers flow dark red
Within your valleys?
O wild wolves,
Will your howl save the world?
Chinese authorities took Ilminur’s parents to the camps and sentenced other relatives to prison terms of 10 to 18 years, he said.
“These events shocked me deeply and I wrote this poem in the hope that our land under the heavenly mountain will be free,” Ilminur told RFA.
Ilminur, who illustrates books and magazines for Uyghur children in the diaspora, provided brilliant sketches for the collection of works that evoke a sense of home and hope.
Her favorite drawing depicts three Uyghur women making round flatbread, or naan, by hand and placing it in an envelope. The drawing accompanies Abdushukur Muhammet’s poem “The Way Home”.
“I feel good every time I see this photo because I immediately think of my home and my mother,” said Ilminur. “Any sensible person will remember his mother, her home, when she sees it and feels the warmth.”
‘Light in the darkness’
Mahmut, the UK-based artist, said she was particularly moved by Ilminur’s poem and Abdurrahim Imin’s poem, “The Beloved Will Come”.
Efvan’s poem “represented the reality that our people are suffering tremendously and the world has gone deaf,” Mahmut said.
Meanwhile, Imin’s poem expresses the hope that despite hardships and oppression, there must come a beautiful time when the Uyghurs are free.
“That poem gives hope to our readers and tells them that there is a light in the darkness, and that one day we will get our freedom and we can be free,” Mahmut said.
Mahmut and Abudulla were involved in the project from start to finish, collecting writings, translating them into English, and editing them after they were first contacted about the compilation by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in June 2022.
Other works in the collection are Muyesser Abdulehed’s “If Needed,” Munawwar Abdulla’s “Elegy for a Home Sieged,” writer Zunun Qadiri’s short story “The Edict,” and contributions from Uyghur writers currently imprisoned in Xinjiang, including Abduqadir Jalalidin’s “Boredom” and “Boredom by Perhat Tursun. Guest.”
The collection also includes pieces by two Kazakh writers.
“The global community must not only see our cries for help, our misery and suffering,” Mahmut said. “I hope that they too feel when reading the writings of our poets that we are brave and resilient people.”
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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