Aziz Isa Elkun

Aziz Isa Elkun, Poet & Writer
Researcher at SOAS, University of London

Published by Brussels Morning Newspaper 26 June 2024 11:27 Am

The Uyghurs love writing and reading poems; it is an essential part of Uyghur cultural expression and plays a vital role in the continuation of creativity and development of the Uyghur language, literature, and culture.
 
Since 2016, over three million Uyghurs and other Turkic people in the Uyghur homeland in China have been collectively persecuted and sent to the notorious Chinese internment camps in the Uyghur Region. Soon after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, with the political and military support of the Soviet Union, the so-called Chinese Liberation Army illegally occupied the Uyghur homeland of East Turkistan, also known as Uyghuristan. In 1955, it announced the founding of the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.” As a Uyghur living in exile, and a poet and advocator for freedom of speech and writing, my conscience forbids me from calling our Uyghur homeland, “Xinjiang”, which means “New Territories” in the Chinese language. In spite of ongoing persecution under Chinese rule, Uyghur writers sustained their rich cultural legacy, and Uyghur poetry played a significant role in keeping Uyghur language and literature alive, and expressing criticism of the oppressive Chinese regime.

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Aziz Isa Elkun
Research affiliate, SOAS, University of London

The Chinese government said this was done in order to modernize us, but their true aim was to destroy Uyghur ethnic, cultural and religious identities. I felt as if my father’s body had been brutally torn out of its resting place in our ancestors’ land.

Over the past century, countries have used the tool of nationalism to pursue their own interests. Nationalism is about people, land and the relationship between them. Nationalist propaganda creates a special relationship between a unique people and a particular territory.

The Uyghurs are one of the many peoples who have been left out of this tidy calculation. We are labelled as an “ethnic minority” that suits Chinese version of statehood. China’s policies aim to cut our ties to our land. Uyghur pilgrims are cut off from their places of worship; villages are uprooted from their fields, and families are torn apart. Islam and Uyghur culture are none separated identities of the Uyghurs, therefor they regard the burial place – gravy yard as a holy place that connects the sprits of the generation past and today. Plus, Uyghur graveyard is a symbol of belonging to each other in the Uyghur community that keep connects Uyghurs spiritually, culturally and politically.

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Chinese colonialism in translation: Translation of Uyghur names into mandarin under communist China 

Aziz Isa Elkun

Chinese colonialism in translation

In this paper I focus on the historical and contemporary context and conception of Uyghur names and places in translation under the Manchu Qing dynasty, Chinese Nationalists and Chinese communist rulers of the region in the last two centuries. More recently this has combined with the current so called ”Bilingual education” policies that have unofficially abandonned Uyghur language instruction in Uyghur education to produce a real threat to Uyghur identity and sense of ownership over this territory.

It is useful to remind ourselves that similar procedures and methods were applied by the British and Russian empires during their vast colonial exapnsion over the last three centuries, and it is now aggressively copied and implemented by China in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

I ask whether the Chinese state can ultimately achieve its Sinification of Uyghur geographical place names, or whether Uyghurs will be able to preserve the Uyghur language names that currently co-exist with the Chinese names in the Uyghur region.  

With the lack of Uyghur language representation in the Chinese official press and in international media, will there be any future change in the current understanding, usage and representation of Uyghur language names and Mandarin names in the Uyghur region. It is likely that the situation will become still more problematic after China’s recent more agressive implementation of Chinese language usage among the Uyghur people.

If we look at history we can see that western colonial powers were able to obtain the wealth by depending on their warship and cannons. In return they introduced their own culture and languages to the the local inhabitants and even renamed the indigenous peoples names and their towns. This all ultimately helped to achieve a full colonization of the subject countries.  

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