Category Archives: History of Xinjiang

Kahar Barat on Xinjiang History, Part 2: The History of the Han in Xinjiang

Uyghur Scholar Kahar Barat Wang Lixiong The Chinese government uses frequently-lampooned language when it comes to official rhetoric on Xinjiang’s historical relationship with the rest of China proper. As with Tibet, the CCP asserts that [...]

Uyghur Historian Kahar Barat Discusses Xinjiang History, Part 1

Uyghur Scholar Kahar Barat Wang Lixiong Two extremely compelling and intriguing voices on Xinjiang issues today are those of Wang Lixiong and Kahar Barat. Married to Woeser, an outspoken Tibetan blogger and rights advocate, Wang [...]

Pantusov’s introduction to Mulla Bilal’s Holy War in China

The following is a translation from Russian of Pantusov’s introduction to his printed text version of Mullā Bilāl’s 1876 Ghazāt dar mulk-i Chín (“Holy War in China,” Russian Война мусульманъ противъ китайцевъ). This version was [...]

Two Poems by Memtili Ependi

Muhemmet Éli (Memtili) Toxtaji (1901-1937), better known as Memtili Ependi or Tewpiq, is a singular figure in the history of Xinjiang. He came from a family of prominent businessmen and activists for modern education and [...]

Eighteenth-Century Map of Xinjiang

Dear readers, we interrupt your regularly schedule posting to bring you a neat old map. What you see below is the 新疆總圖 or “General Map of Xinjiang.” This particular version is from the work 欽定新疆識略 [...]

Madame Butterfly’s Son a Uyghur

On Tuesday, 30 June 2009, Shi Peipu, known to the world as “M. Butterfly,” died in Paris at the age of 70, The New York Times reports. The biologically male Chinese opera singer and spy [...]

Alright then, Xinjiang *is* that bad: A Place of Exile

Alright then, so in the last post I talked about what I perceived to be a media blitz by Xinhua and its ilk to sort of compensate for Nur Bekri’s gloomy forecasting last Friday. Xinjiang, [...]