The New Dominion

I’m just going to have to run through this since I’ve been pretty busy recently.

Uighurbiz, an online forum and community for Uyghurs based in China, whose observations on racism in China figured prominently in a post here, has been shut down. According to one of our commenters, this could be permanent, and apparently the founder, Ilham Tohti, an outspoken activist, has dropped off the radar.

A man surnamed "Ya" was arrested about a week ago for posting false stories online fabricating a racially motivated murder and race riots in Xayar County. The China Daily writes about it in English, saying that Ya was motivated to post the fabrications after witnessing a brawl at a recreation center between Uyghurs and Han. Naturally, the China Daily makes it clear that this original brawl was entirely the Uyghurs’ fault. Fights between Uyghurs and Han at Internet bars and recreation centers are common in Xinjiang, though the reasons for these fights are usually more complex than the China Daily lets on. As for Ya, I speculate he’s a Uyghur given his intent and the strangeness of a surname "Ya," which could very well be the first syllable of a Uyghur name in pinyin.

The Washington Post writes of the latest governmental plan in Kashgar to spend $448 million to move 50,000 residents out of Kashgar’s old city into modern apartment buildings. Officials say that the current residences in old Kashgar are fire hazards and are too much of a risk should an earthquake strike the area, so the plan entails demolishing parts of the old city that gives Kashgar both its charm and its status as the center of Uyghur history and culture. Uyghur residents are extremely unhappy with the arrangement, with one woman spurning the compensatory apartments as unacceptable.

Adam Schokora at 56minus1 shares some observations on parkour in China, and includes one video of parkour enthusiasts practicing their art in Xinjiang. Parkour, also known as free running, is a type of "urban acrobatics" where participants use the city landscape to perform gravity-defying leaps and maneuvers. Based on the credits at the end of the video, most of the participants of this Xinjiang parkour club are Uyghur.