On International Women's Day these reads about the Xinjiang crisis are especially relevant: thechinaproject.com/2019/05/14/sav… tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

In celebration of the anniversay of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Nobel Prize, here are some of the songs about him that I've translated (be sure CC is on for English subtitles):

From the China Islamic Association’s #Uyghur language official imam manual: imams must advise the people to avoid weeping loudly and shedding tears at the cemetery. Why this instruction exposes CCP hypocrisy on “extremism”. A thread. First, some background. The book, A Handbook for Imams of the New Era, was published in 2005 and republished at least once in 2009 by the China Islamic Association and #Xinjiang University Press. It was originally written in Chinese and translated into Uyghur.

In celebration of HHDL's @DalaiLama's 87th birthday, here is a list of songs I've translated in which brave musicians in Tibet take serious risks making tribute to him

The headshots are unnerving...very important collection indeed. but these are not the first photos inside detention/re-education centers w/o official authorization. I've made images public for several years now @ProjectXinjiang.

https://twitter.com/scilla_alecci/status/1529073394985095168

Also need to be precise w/ terms. although detention centers 看守所 are part of the "re-education" process (and one facility for the three-types people 三类人员)--and some may pass through them before re-education or prison--they aren't "transformation through education" centers

Today, I'm shining @NBCOlympics #OlympicGames spotlight for the first time @shahitbiz on my friend Ekber Ebeydullah, who has been detained since 2016 I met Ekber in Beijing in 2010. He was studying at university after four years in the Xinjiang Class boarding school. He is extremely bright, fluent in four languages (Uyghur, Turkish, Chinese, and English).

Today's #Olympics2022 hero spotlight is placed on #Uyghur scholar Adil Ghappar [Kariz] whose condition and well-being have been unknown since 2017. I met Adil in 2014 having been introduced to him by Rahile Dawut. I was under his wing at Xinjiang Normal University as I taught a short-term course in his department.

Today @pen_int highlights detained Prof. Rahile Dawut--one of the world's foremost scholars on Uyghur religious cultures. This thread begins to show just how important her work is (and why the CCP feels so threatened by this scholarship) Prof Dawut's scholarship reaches many corners of Uyghur pious expression, but she is perhaps best known for her trailblazing work on sacred shrines, which are called mazar in Uyghur

Twitter is buzzing about Jiang's interview with @CNN. I've never interviewed Jiang, but here is what I can corroborate by the Chinese sources. 1: police were sometimes armed, and detainees were commonly hooded during transport Some officers reported that they assisted in the detentions of hundreds of people each day

@GFPhilosophy I’m not sure who you are. But my wife’s sister is here so I’m kinda doing my own thing. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. What would you like me to explain? Why 土炕改造 is different in Uyghur communities from neidi? @GFPhilosophy it's late, i want to go to sleep, so I'm going to assume that is the question. First, we cannot equate سۇپا with 土炕, although Chinese conflates the two. Supa is often the site for religio-social rites such as name-giving ceremonies and circumcisions. not the case in 内地

What the Chinese gov't/and cadre social media sources tell us about the crisis occurring in Uyghur and Kazakh communities (all sources/photos can be found at @ProjectXinjiang) Thread 1a: Mass detentions



1.b Starting in 2016 (photos from 2017) law enforcement, several hundred of whom came from China Proper as part of the Xinjiang Aid program (援疆) detained Uyghurs and Kazakhs en masse

After pausing for May [sorry, just ran out of gas], Scholar Profiles is back! This month: David Stroup @davidstroup, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Chinese Politics at @UoMPolitics who specializes in #Hui (i.e., Chinese Muslim) ethnicity. Stroup earned his PhD in 2017 from @OUPoliSci and has published in leading journals such as @NationalitiesP, @AsianSurvey, and @ERSjournal. He’s also provided commentary for @BBCWorld, @washingtonpost and many others. bbc.com/news/world-asi…

This month’s spotlight is being sent not a moment too soon. So much attention is being directed at undeserving "scholarship" on the #Uyghur region, that groundbreaking work is (maybe) going unnoticed. Enter Sär Tynen @sbtynen, a post-doc @Akademie_ved_CR colorado.edu/geography/sara… Tynen received their PhD in geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has published in several peer-reviewed journals including @Pol_Geog_Jl, @Geopolitics_Jl, @spaceandculture as well as edited volumes on urbanization Asia. Their book is under contract @ibtauris

Let’s continue. To be honest, I’m not sure if this is a take on banknotes/nods to indigenous groups or language policy, but I’m going to treat it as an uninformed attempt to create a mirage hiding current language policy. Fact: Uyghur will, at best, become a “kitchen language” The Party’s goal has been clear: all schools in Xinjiang are expected to adopt “mode 3” delivery—i.e., Chinese as the language of instruction (and using native languages only if necessary). (from Zuliyati Simayi, yes, this Zuliyatyi)

Chinese media, CCP leaders, and apologists have been recycling the official number of mosques to convince you that Uyghurs and Kazakhs can freely express piety. This number is meaningless. Here are the facts (from Chinese sources): Minors, college students, and anyone who is employed by the government cannot attend mosque. Period. It is stated explicitly outside many mosques (my photo from Pichan which says no minors can enter).

March’s second scholar spotlight features Andrew Grant @angrant_1 and what will surely be his seminal work on urbanization, infrastructure, and #ethnicity in western China/eastern #Tibet, esp. Xining. Currently, Andrew is a VAP at @BostonCollege's International Studies Program. Grant’s research provides sparkling examples of the cutting-edge work on Sino-Tibetan studies produced by geographers. Thorough, balanced, and with nuanced application of theory, his publications appear in @Pol_Geog_Jl, @CriticAsianStds, and Eurasian Journal of Geo and Econ.

I’m excited to feature two scholar spotlights this month. Guldana Salimjan @YXiaocuo kicks off March and #internationalwomensday with cutting edge work on indigenous knowledge of land and dispossession in nomadic communities of the Junggar Basins (i.e., northern #Xinjiang). Dr. Salimjan is the Ruth Wynn Woodward Junior Chair at @SFU where she teaches in the Department @SFUGSWS
Guldana’s research includes #Kazakh relationships to their land, CCP discourse and implementation of “ecological civilization,” and Kazakh oral poetry.

This month features the work of Yang Yang @yyang3076_yang, a postdoc researcher at @nus_ari of the National University of Singapore @NUSingapore. Yang Yang researches ethnic & religious politics & transnational religious networks, especially among #Hui (Chinese Muslim) in Xi’an. Yang Yang is becoming a prolific scholar. Her work appears in @Pol_Geog_Jl, @IJCS_journal, & several edited volumes, most recently @UHPRESSNEWS Ethnographies of Islam in China uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/ethnogra…. I met Yang Yang at a conference hosted by @Rachel_A_Harris & Ha Guangtian @SOAS

This second installment profiles Ian Rowen @iirowen. Ian is an assistant professor of Geography and Urban Planning at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His work examines the interplay of travel, politics, protest, and state building, mainly in the PRC and Taiwan. He has published extensively in prestigious academic journals and more public-facing forums including @jas_tw, @AASAsianStudies, @AnnTourRes, @nytimes, @bbcchinese, and @guardian. His work has also received support from @FulbrightPrgm and @NSF.

My first (of hopefully) many installments of graduate student/early career academic profiles highlights an old friend and classmate: Kenny Liden. @Kenny_Linden is a PhD candidate in @iu_ceus who researches environmental and animal history in #Mongolia. #enviormentalism #Fulbright Specifically, Kenny is examining how the socio-political structures and new knowledge brought forth by Soviet-style socialism (especially collectivization) and veterinary science shaped and reshaped human interactions with their living environments.