Thread by @WilliamYang120

From @RadioFreeAsia: "A famous writer and illustrator in Japan has produced a new manga booklet portraying the experiences of an ethnic Uzbek woman forced to teach Mandarin to mostly Uyghur detainees in 're-education' camps in #China's #Xinjiang." rfa.org/english/news/u…

"Tomomi Shimizu's latest work builds on her success with her previous booklets on female detainees in Xinjiang, released in Japan to draw attention to the repression of the mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in northwest China."

"Shimizu has portrayed the experiences of female survivors of the vast network of detention camps in Xinjiang that are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in recent years."

"Her latest work focuses on Qelbinur Sidiq, 53, also known as Kalbinur Sidik, who taught Mandarin Chinese at an elementary school in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi for nearly three decades, ...

... and was forced by authorities in 2017 to teach the language in Xinjiang’s “re-education” camp system."

"Sidiq, who was born in Xinjiang, also underwent a forced abortion and sterilization as part of a government campaign to suppress birth rates of Muslim women in the region."

"Shimizu, who has published six other manga books detailing the persecution Uyghur women face in Xinjiang, including everyday repression and abuses in the camps, ...

... released her latest work in December 2022 based on Sidiq’s testimony at an independent people's tribunal in London in 2021."

“I was shocked when I learned of the Uyghurs' situation and thought it was important to let many people know of their situation to rescue the people in the [internment] camps,” she said.

“I also thought that if I illustrated their harsh experiences with easy-to-understand manga, the world would understand it better.”

Shimizu said she initially hoped that increased global attention to the situation in Xinjiang would make her work unnecessary.

“But after drawing this piece, I felt that the testimonies of these women’s souls needed to be drawn further,” she told RFA.

"Shimizu read Sidiq’s testimony at the time, and said she was shocked by it. She knew she wanted to draw it, but was busy at the time.

But when Sidiq visited Japan in 2022, Shimizu spoke with her about her plan to create a manga story detailing her experiences."

“She was the only one of the witnesses who saw the inside of the concentration camps whom I met and spoke to in person,” Shimizu said. “The others were scheduled to come to Japan, but canceled due to the coronavirus disaster.”

“It is necessary to disseminate an English version of the manga booklet and, if possible, publish it as a book,” she said, adding that she publishes her works free of charge and allows them to be used for educational purposes.