The New Dominion

Those of you interested in the various ways Uyghurs get depicted outside of the PRC should visit this recent post by Davesgonechina at his blog, Mutant Palm. DGC’s friend discovered a manga called Eden where a Uyghur character is not only introduced as a key participant in the manga’s storyline but also delivers a crash course” in Uyghur… hm, shall we say… “alternative opinions” to the manga’s readers.

Introducing “Marihan Isaku.” She’s a Uyghur. And she’s serious business. If you’re curious, you can check out more excerpts and find a direct link to the full manga at Mutantt Palm.

Marihan Isaku is also the creative product of a Japanese manga artist. On one hand, this particular sample of waiguo depictions of Uyghurs falls within what I’ve identified as two standard, contrasting overseas understandings of the Uyghur people. One image involves darling Uyghur women garbed in atlas silk and Uyghur men either thrusting their shoulders in the general direction of the women or wielding a dap or dutar or other musical instrument. The other image is of the struggling, David-vs-Goliath Uyghur[s], the genre to which this manga belongs. In this sense, the image being presented in this manga is nothing new or special.

On the other hand, the way it is being presented is new. First of all, the fact that this is creative literature, that is, fictional, is pretty fresh. As far as I know, most depictions of Uyghurs, be they dancing Uyghurs or scowling Uyghurs, tend to be quite worldly and rooted in “reality.” This effort, however, resides within an entirely fictional world and has only tentative connections with the non-fictional plane. The author therefore has a lot more leeway, more creative license, in shaping his story to serve a particular agenda or to bring about a particular result among his readers. Of course, Davesgonechina observes, and I concur, that this, after all, is a manga, so in this particular case the creative license is exploited to place the Uyghurs as pawns in a struggle between a panoptic world-government and an underground mercenary resistance. The author wants to make money. But I’d like to observe the power of taking a modern social situation, such as the Uyghurs in the PRC, and placing them in a partially fictional context does grant any author or creative writer some leg room to drive a point home to his readers, less so through a listing of facts and more so through an emotional, propagandistic appeal. I think this sort of approach has been largely unexplored. For now.

Secondly it’s interesting to note that this manga is aimed at a different audience than most conventional portrayals of Uyghurs. I hate to succumb to stereotypes, but I think there’s an inkling of truth in saying that Marihan Isaku’s world is going to be consumed by younger males in Japan and by even more dedicated fans seeking out fan-translated material in other countries. Both in my personal experience and through conversations with other Xinjiang-enthusiasts, I’ve come to the conclusion that most people end up studying Xinjiang and Uyghur culture through rather unconventional means – I have yet to meet someone whose interest was sparked by their 4th grade geography teacher or a relative who swooned at the thought of a romantic vacation to Urumqi. Who knows if there may be a reader or two who may be compelled to do a little further research into Marihan Isaku’s words? From there, it’s only a half-step before being sucked into the awesomely awesome vortex of Xinjiang Studies.