Recently, the following post, once found at this address, was passed on to me by a friend. It seems to have circulated on the Web since perhaps early November. It is a lengthy and impassioned plea for, at the very least, some respect and hope for the people of Xinjiang of all stripes, who, the author argues, have endured countless hardships for the benefit of their fellow citizens in the East. The author expresses despair at the dashed hopes of the Opening Up of the West and anger at the cancer left by atomic bomb tests in Lop Nor.

The whole document has a feeling of the old Yip Harburg song, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” “Once I built a railroad…”

My English translation is a little hurried. Comments are welcome.

Also, does anyone else think that the author must be from Korla?

今天的十大头条： 新疆人，对不起，谢谢你

Today’s Top Ten Leading Stories: Xinjiang People, I’m Sorry, Thank You

对不起，谢谢你
新疆的石油运走了，
新疆的天然气运走了，
新疆的棉花运走了，
新疆的钾盐运走了，
新疆的黄金运走了，
新疆的和田玉运走了
……

I’m sorry, thank you

Xinjiang’s oil was transported away,

Xinjiang’s natural gas was transported away,

Xinjiang’s cotton was transported away,

Xinjiang’s leopoldite was transported away,

Xinjiang’s gold was transported away,

Xinjiang’s Khotan jade was transported away

…

原子弹却降临在新疆了
……

The atomic bomb was indeed tested in Xinjiang

…

新疆，一百六十万平方公里的土地，一千九百万各族人民.我们世世代代生活在那片土地
上.我们骄傲，我们自豪.没有理由，就因为那片土地叫新疆.

Xinjiang, an area of 1 600 000 square kilometers, 19 000 000 people of every ethnic group. We have lived on that patch of earth for generations. We are proud, we feel proud. There is no reason, just that that patch of earth is called Xinjiang.

这片占祖国六分之一版图的土地，承载着什么，又蕴藏着什么.这里有四十七个民族的儿
女，或耕耘，或牧羊，或买卖，或采矿.千年的腥风血雨，早已被坎儿井的清清流水洗得
干干净净；千年的历史沧桑，早已被天山上的雪莲花薰陶得浓郁幽香.新疆人，无论什么
民族什么宗教信仰，都渴望自己的家乡能够拥有平等的发展机会与空间.

This patch of earth that occupies one-sixth of the area of our ancestral country, what does it contain, and what does it hide. Here there are the sons and daughters of forty-seven minzu, working the fields, or shepherding sheep, or buying and selling, or mining. One thousand years of bloody history have long since been washed clean by the clear flowing waters of the karez; one thousand years of great historical changed have long since been purged by the snow lotuses and Coumarouna odorata of the Tianshan until they are sweetly fragrant. Xinjiang people, no matter what their minzu or religious beliefs, all hope that their home can have the opportunity and time to develop fairly.

西部大开发，一个曾经让我们振奋不已的口号.一时间，就连塔克拉玛干边缘的万年荒山
上，也用白色的石头拼出了大字：西部大开发，新疆是重点，巴州要大干！

The Great Opening Up of the West, a slogan that once endlessly inspired us. At one time, even upon the mountains around the edge of the Täklimakan, uncultivated for untold ages, we used white stones to spell out big characters: The Great Opening Up of the West, Xinjiang is the focus, Bazhou will make a big effort!

曾经告诉过我们，创世未有的发展机遇降临在了我们的头上；曾经告诉过我们，克服与忍
受暂时的损失与困难，因为长远的幸福是属于我们的；曾经告诉过我们，资源埋在地下永
远变不了金钱；曾经告诉过我们，大型基础设施建设会带动新疆人的就业；曾经告诉过我
们，长长的管子把石油天然气送到了内地，长长的管子还会将大把大把的税收送到新疆人
的手中……

Once they told us, an opportunity for development the likes of which the world had never seen had fallen on our heads; once they told us, endure and withstand temporary loss and hardship, because long-term fortune belonged to us; once they told us, resources buried underground would never become money; once they told us, the construction of large-scale basic-level facilities would spur the employment of Xinjiang people; once they told us, long pipes would take oil and natural gas to the Interior, long pipes might still bring piles of tax revenues to Xinjiang people’s hands…

曾经……

Once…

新疆是一个什么样的地方？涓涓细流会将天山与昆仑山的雪水送到牧区农场，一眼望不到
边的大草原，遍布着牛羊……新疆，就是这样一个地方，绿洲农业，咱不靠天吃饭，旱涝
保收；高山草甸牧业，咱不愁一个月不下雨草场就会旱死.新疆没有发生过饥荒，三年自
然灾害时期，内地人就是扒在火车车厢底下也要来新疆，就算是在星星峡被当作盲流拦住
遣返回原籍，也要在半道上跳下火车徒步进新疆.新疆，就是这样，那里有土地，那里有
雪水，那里，有希望.

What kind of place is Xinjiang? Brooks and streams may carry the meltwaters of the Tianshan and Kunlun Mountains to pastures and fields, a grassland the edge of which the naked eye cannot see, covered in cows and sheep… Xinjiang, it’s just this kind of place. Oasis agriculture, we don’t depend on Heaven to eat, the harvest is protected through draught and flood. Animal husbandry in the mountain grasslands, we don’t worry if the ranges dry out after a month without rain. Xinjiang has never had a famine, a three-year period of natural disasters. People from the Interior even want to cling to the bottoms of train cars to come to Xinjiang. Even treated in the Starry Gorge [a gorge in the Hexi Corridor] as aimless migrants, barred, and made to return to their place of origin, they want to jump out of the train on the way and walk into Xinjiang. Xinjiang, it’s like this. There is land there, there is meltwater, there is hope.

我们觉得自己生活得很幸福.

We felt that we lived happily.

可是，突然有一天，人家告诉我们，人家来帮咱们了，咱们的生活会更好更好了！这个时
候，我们心存感激，我们同样被从那种平静的生活中唤起而后振奋，因为我们被告知
，会有更大的希望！

But, suddenly one day, someone told us, there’s someone coming to help us, our life is going to be better, better! At this time, we felt appreciative. We, too, were stirred up and excited out of that peaceful and tranquil kind of life of ours, because we were signaled, we may have even more hope!

……

…

一晃八年了.

All of a sudden, eight years passed.

当初为我们憧憬过美好蓝图的人啊，你们在哪儿呢？

Those of you who looked forward to a beautiful blueprint for us, where are you?

请来看看我们的新疆.

Please come and look at our Xinjiang.

西部大开发，究竟是什么？

The Great Opening Up of the West, what is it really?

资源，包括那些具有战略意义的能源，被那条长长的管子送到了沿海地区.这，我们不计
较.可是我们又得到了什么？就业机会吗？看看那些从事新疆能源开发的企业，不都是内
地的大型企业吗？咱们新疆人的孩子，又何曾享受过这样的就业机会.西安石油学院毕业
的新疆孩子，想要进新疆的石油单位工作那是难上加难.因为这些待遇优厚的工作岗位，
全部都被这些内地企业自身的员工所占据.你可以随便去一家石油石化单位听听，遍地北
京口音、东北口音、山东口音，就是没有新疆口音.那咱们新疆的孩子能在石油单位找到
工作吗？不是不可以，而且还基本专业对口：加油站给汽车加油.带动相关产业的发展吗
？要知道，西气东输的管道，是在宝鸡生产的.高水准的生活吗？你知道在上海一方天然
气是多少钱吗？一块二；你知道在新疆一方天然气是多少钱吗？一块二毛五.而你知道新
疆人的工资水准是多少吗？一个教龄三十年的中教高级教师，月薪不过两千五，这还是
06年加薪后的工资；一个五十岁的正厅级干部，月薪加补贴不过三千块.那么普通老百姓
呢？工人、农民、一般公务员呢？我们在消化着巨大的剪刀差，我们在默默无闻得为东部
的大发展埋单.

Resources, including those power sources which hold a military significance, have been taken away by those long, long tubes to the coastal regions. This, we don’t bicker about. But what have we then received? Employment opportunities? Look at those enterprises that handle the exploitation of Xinjiang’s resources, aren’t they all big companies from the Interior? The children of we Xinjiang people, how then have they enjoyed these kinds of employment opportunities[?] Xinjiang kids who graduate from Xi’an Oil Institute, if they want to enter a Xinjiang oil work unit, that’s harder than hard. Because these generously-paying work positions, all of them have been taken by those big companies from the Interior’s own employees. You can go to any oil work unit and have a listen, it’s all Beijing accents, North-Eastern accents, Shandong accents, but there are no Xinjiang accents. So can kids from our Xinjiang find work in an oil work unit? It’s not that they may not, and what’s more they are proficient in the most basic profession: putting gas in cars at gas stations. Does this spur the growth of related industries? You have to know, the pipe that take Western gas to the East, this was built in Baoji [a city in Shaanxi with an amusing name]. And a high standard of living? Do you know how much a cubic meter of natural gas costs in Shanghai? 1.2 RMB. Do you know how much a cubic meter of natural gas costs in Xinjiang? 1.25 RMB. And do you know how much the standard salary of a Xinjiang person is? A high-level middle-school teacher with thirty years’ experience, his or her monthly salary is not above 2500, and this is after the pay raise in ‘06. A fifty-year-old main-office-level [正厅级?] cadre, his or her monthly salary is not above 3000 RMB. So what about regular everyday people? Workers, peasants, normal service personnel? We are digesting an enormous disparity. Unknown to the public, we are paying the bill for the great development of the East.

乌鲁木齐与库尔勒，一北一南，南北疆的领头城市.让我们来听听这两个城市老百姓的故
事.

Ürümchi and Korla, one in the South, one in the North, the leading cities of North and South Xinjiang. Let us listen to the stories of the everyday people of these two cities.

乌鲁木齐，一个人口二百万的大城市，却拥有着一个长期困扰老百姓生活的难题：打车难
.上下班的高峰期，老百姓往往站在零下二十多度的严寒里，半个小时打不上一辆车.你要
问出租车都到哪儿去了？问一百位司机九十九个都会告诉你：加气站排队加气呢！乌鲁木
齐的出租车烧液化气，新疆是产油的地方，怎么会缺液化气呢？独山子石化的同志们会耐
心的告诉你：新疆同胞们，咱们忍忍吧，新疆的石油和天然气得保证西气东输和内地大城
市用油的需要……当北京的出租车换上了大排量的伊兰特时，当上海居民的厨房里冒出了
纯蓝的灶火时，请想想，生产石油与天然气的新疆人民，还在寒风里站着；新疆的司机，
还排在一眼望不到头的长队里焦急的等待，而这些司机，也得吃饭也得买房也得供孩子上
学，他们本来可以拉活的时间，白白的耗在了等待上……

Ürümchi, a city with a population of 2 000 000 [actually around 3 500 000, now], indeed has a difficult long-term problem for the lives of everyday people: it’s hard to get a cab. At rush hour when people get on and off work, everyday people often stand in the more-than-negative-twenty-degrees bitter cold. Even after half an hour, they cannot get a cab. Want to ask where the cabs have gone? Ask one hundred drivers and ninety-nine will tell you: they’re in line at the gas station to get gas! The cabs of Ürümchi have been converted to run on natural gas, but Xinjiang is a place that produces oil, so why convert them to run on natural gas? The comrades at Dushanzi Petroleum will patiently tell you: Xinjiang siblings, let’s sit tight, eh? Xinjiang’s oil and natural gas have to guarantee the transportation of Western gas to the East and the oil-use needs of the big cities in the Interior… When the taxis of Beijing are traded for great lines of Elantras, when in the kitchens of Shanghai a pure blue stove-flame is lit, please think, the people of Xinjiang who manufacture oil and natural gas are still standing in the bitter wind. Xinjiang’s drivers are still waiting impatiently in a line, the end of which cannot be seen, and these drivers, they also have to eat and give their children schooling. When they could be making a living, they are wasting their time pointlessly waiting…

库尔勒，一个新兴的石油城市，南疆经济的桥头堡，塔里木油田指挥部所在地.石油人来
了，我们端着哈达欢迎您！指挥部建设需要用地，可以！您知道现在塔里木油田指挥部的
所在地过去是什么吗？是上千亩的良田，是库尔勒的各族人民世世代代耕作的良田.祖国
需要，石油人需要，我们无怨无悔，献出了这片沃土.可是，时至今日，塔指的一栋栋高
楼大厦建起来了，五星级公寓建起来了，塔里木油田的一口口油井喷油了，塔里木大气田
的天然气送到东方了，有谁想过那些失去土地的农民现在在干什么？那么请到库尔勒的街
头看看吧.扫大街的环卫工人，清一色的少数民族职工，问问他们原来是干什么的？他们
会遥望一片繁华的塔里木油田指挥部，告诉你，那里曾是我的家.这还是解决了就业的，
那些数以千计的失去土地的农民呢？他们没有技术没有知识，库尔勒的环卫战线也不可能
安排那么多的人.请到库尔勒河的葵花桥头看看吧.每天早晨，都有黑压压一片的壮劳
力，集中在这里，被需要临时工的老板们挑来挑去，幸运的，被挑中，干一天临时工，挣
些前，第二天早晨继续到这里来撞运气；不幸的，过了中午还没有被挑走，就只好回家饿
肚子，祈祷真主明天能赐给他一个临时工的机会……

Korla, an up-and-coming oil city, the bridgehead of the Southern Xinjiang economy, the place of the headquarters of Tarim Oilfields. The oil men came, we welcomed you with qadaqs! [a blue scarf given by Mongols to guests] The Headquarters needed land to be constructed, sure! Do you know what the current location of the Headquarters used to be? It was thousands of mu of good farmland, the good farmland worked by generations of the people of Korla of all kinds. The ancestral countries needs, the oil men need. We didn’t complain or regret. We gave up this patch of fertile land. But, up until the present day, the big buildings and towers of the Tarim Oilfields Headquarters were built, five-star apartments were built, the oil wells of the Tarim oilfields spurted oil, and the natural gas of the Tarim natural gas fields was sent to the East. Has anyone thought of what those people who lost their land are doing now? Then please go to the streets of Korla and have a look. The sanitation workers who sweep the streets, all of them minority workers, ask them, what did they used to do? They may look at the glorious Tarim Oilfields Headquarters in the distance and tell you, that was once my home. Is this solving the employment problem, those thousands of workers who lost their land? They have neither craft nor knowledge, nor can Korla’s Sanitation Front arrange so many people. Please go to the head of the Kuihua Bridge over the Korla River and have a look. Every day in the early morning, there are endless and dense mobs of strong laborers. They concentrate there, picked out by bosses in need of temporary labor. The lucky ones, picked out, do a day of temporary work, earn some money, and, on the next day, return here to try their luck. The unlucky ones, who have not been picked out by after noon, have to go home hungry and pray that, tomorrow, they will be granted a temporary work opportunity.

这还只是能源.其他资源呢？黄金呢？钾盐呢？玉石呢？

This is all still just energy. What about other resources? Gold? Leopoldite? Jade?

大规模的开发，富起来的到底是谁？

Large-scale exploitation, who’s really getting rich?

西部大开发，过了八年了，我们为什么只看到一个个资源项目上马，却很少看到科教文化
卫生人才方面的扶持与投资？要开发一个地区，资源是一条路；可是资源开采完了呢？我
们还能拥有什么？没有科教与人才的积累，到底还有多大的发展空间？

The Great Opening Up of the West, it’s been eight years. Why have we only seen a few resource projects get going, but not seen any assistance or investment in terms of popular science, culture, sanitation, or training? In order to open up a region, resources are one road, but what about when the resources are all exploited up? What can we have? Without an accumulation of popular science and talented people, how much room is there then for development?

你可曾知道，堂堂新疆大学历史系的学生们在校图书馆里竟然找不到《万历十五年》这样
非常普遍的书籍？你可曾知道，堂堂华夏第一州–巴音郭楞蒙古自治州，竟然没有一所
正规的图书馆、博物馆？大城市如此，小城市与农村又是怎样？西部大开发，为什么我们
很少见到这样的项目与投资？

Are you aware that the students of the great Xinjiang University’s History Department cannot find extremely common books like Wanli Shiwu Nian in their library? Are you aware that the great First Prefecture in China, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, still has not a single regular library or museum? Big cities are like this, so what can small cities and villages be like? The Great Opening Up of the West, why do we so rarely see projects and investment like this?

新疆人，老实巴交的新疆人，被内地人动不动就称作野蛮人的新疆人……就这样默默无闻
的承受着一切……换个角度思考，如果北京的出租车司机成天排队加不上油，会是怎么样
？如果山东的农民成批成批的失去土地，就像库尔勒的农民那样，还会不会如此沉默的承
受一切？

Xinjiang people, honest Xinjiang people, Xinjiang people who cannot move for the Interior people are who are called barbarous… Unbeknownst, they have borne all of this… Thinking about it from another perspective, if Beijing’s taxi drivers were in line all day and could not get gas, what would it be like? If the peasants of Shandong lost their land bit by bit, just like the peasants of Korla, would they still quietly bear all of this?

前两天，把原子弹空投到日本领土的美军飞行员去世了.又一次引发出关于核武器的大规
模讨论.在一次次的讨论中，你们可曾想过，在遥远的罗布泊，曾经露天爆炸过原子弹？
在美丽的孔雀河－塔里木河流域，曾经无数次的进行过地下核试验？当看到新疆刮起沙尘
暴的新闻后，你们第一个想到的肯定是：新疆那个荒凉的地方……有谁想过，从罗布泊刮
来的沙尘暴，会给世世代代居住在那里的老百姓吹来什么？

Two days ago, the American pilot who dropped the first atomic bomb on Japanese soil passed away. [The pilot, Paul Tibbets, died on 1 November 2007, dating this document to perhaps 3 November.] This once again attracted a large-scale discussion of atomic weapons. In the course of one such discussion, did you perhaps think how, in distant Lop Nor, an atomic bomb was once tested in the open? How, in the beautiful Kongque River - Tarim River Basin, there were once conducted countless underground nuclear tests? After seeing the news of the sand storms in Xinjiang, what you first thought was certainly: Xinjiang, that desolate place… Who thought, the sands that storm from Lop Nor, what will they blow to generations of people who live in that place?

一个个身边的亲友倒下了……问问原因，不是肺癌就是食道癌.新疆是著名的长寿之乡，
祖祖辈辈生活在辽阔农村的百姓，呼吸着新鲜空气，吃着五谷杂粮，周围没有任何现代工
业的痕迹，怎么会一个又一个的患上癌症呢？你们可曾知道，就在罗布泊地区的巴音郭楞
蒙古自治州，进入八九十年代以来，已经成为癌症重灾区.胡总去探望艾滋病人了，温总
去河南艾滋病村了，这是时代的进步，这是party和go-vern-ment的关怀.可是，一个因为
长期受到核辐射而成为癌症重灾区的地区，却为何从来没有被报道过，从来没有人正面回
答这个问题？

Some close friend or relative has fallen… You ask the reason, and, if it’s not lung cancer, it’s esophageal cancer. Xinjiang is a place of famed longevity, and the generations of everyday people that live in the expansive villages, breathing fresh air, eating fresh grain, with no traces of modern industry around them, how does one after another get cancer? As you may know, in Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in the area of Lop Nor, since the beginning of the eighties or nineties, it has already become a cancer disaster area. President Hu always goes to visit AIDS patients, Premier Wen goes to AIDS Village in Henan. This is a generational improvement, this is the party and go-vern-ment showing they care. But, a place that has long received nuclear radiation and become a cancer disaster area, but why has it never been reported, why can no one ever answer this question directly?

一次核试验，中国人民从此站起来了，不用受纸老虎的威胁了；可是千千万万个无辜又无
知的新疆人却倒下了，可悲的是，就连他们自己，也并不知道这究竟是为了什么，更何况
他人？

One atomic test. The people of China from this point on stood up. They no longer had to accept the menace of the paper tiger. But countless poor and ignorant Xinjiang people fell. What is lamentable is that, even they themselves did not know why this was, much less anyone else?

新疆的石油运走了，
新疆的天然气运走了，
新疆的棉花运走了，
新疆的钾盐运走了，
新疆的黄金运走了，
新疆的和田玉运走了
……

Xinjiang’s oil was transported away,

Xinjiang’s natural gas was transported away,

Xinjiang’s cotton was transported away,

Xinjiang’s leopoldite was transported away,

Xinjiang’s gold was transported away,

Xinjiang’s Khotan jade was transported away

…

原子弹却降临在新疆了
……

The atomic bomb was indeed dropped in Xinjiang

…

新疆，是祖国版图不可分割的一部分；新疆人，是十三亿中国人的一部分.我们渴望祖国
的富强，我们祝福兄弟省市人民的富足，但，我们也是人，我们也有不高的要求：新疆与
新疆人，能够得到公正与公平的发展机遇，能够从这片土地所赐予我们的宝藏中得到实惠
的利益，能够有一个更为美好的明天，和祖国人民一样，在资源枯竭之后，仍然留有希望
.

Xinjiang, it is an inseparable part of the map of the ancestral country; Xinjiang people, they are part of the 1.3 billion Chinese people. We hope for the fortune and strength of the ancestral country. We congratulate the people of our brother provinces and cities on their wealth. However, we are also people. We also have requirements that are not high: Xinjiang and Xinjiang people, if they are able to receive an equitable and fair opportunity for development, if they can receive some practical benefit from the treasures of ours that are taken from this patch of land, if they can have a better tomorrow, as the people of the ancestral country, and after the resources are exhausted, yet leave behind a little hope.

朋友们，无论你在祖国的何处，当你享受这阳光下的和平的时候，请你想想那些为祖国的
和平而无知的承受着原子辐射的新疆人，对他们说一声：对不起……

Friends, no matter where you are in the ancestral country, when you share in this peace in the sunlight, please think of those Xinjiang people who, unbeknownst, for the peace of the ancestral country received radiation from the atomic bomb, and say to them, I’m sorry…

朋友们，无论你在祖国的何处，当你享受充足的能源供应与高速经济发展带来的实惠的时
候，请想想那些为另一部分人先富起来而默默承受着所有阵痛的新疆人，收起曾经对新疆
人的种种歧视与不屑，收起那些”援助新疆，支援边疆”得了便宜还卖乖的”豪言壮语”，对
他们说一句：谢谢你！

Friends, no matter where you are in the ancestral country, when you share in the practical benefit that comes from the sufficient provision of resources and the high speed of economic development, please think of those Xinjiang people who, unbeknownst, endure pains for another group of people to become wealthy first. To those who have received all kinds of discrimination and disdain against Xinjiang, who have been cheated and bamboozled by the “grandiloquence” of phrases like “assist Xinjiang, support Xinjiang”, say to them, thank you!

我们的要求并不高，一千九百万新疆人民，在无力改变现状与全局时，在仍然需要长时间
为东部的发展做出牺牲时，只需要得到别人真诚的尊重，只想听到一句诚心的：

Our requirements are not very high. 19 000 000 people, at a time when they are powerless to change the present and overall situation, at a time when they still need to sacrifice for a long time for the development of the East, only need to receive others’ sincere respect. They only need to hear one sincere:

新疆人，对不起，谢谢你.

Xinjiang people, I’m sorry, thank you.

And thus drug smuggler joins terrorist, AIDS kebabs vagabond, and thief on the “ways in which Uyghurs are spoiling the harmony of New China” list. Granted the article referenced above didn’t mention Uyghurs in specific, but let’s face it, for the Chinese reader the modus operandi of carpet smuggling will give it all away (even if it turns out that the operation was run entirely by Han Chinese). But as tourism drops rapidly in the months before the 2008 Olympics, perhaps a story like this one will increase carpet sales in Xinjiang, which is rapidly ousting Yunnan as the drug capital of the People’s Republic.

In summary, the poster, herself a minkaohan, found herself despairing of the conflicts that erupted when refugees from the closed Uyghur On-Line site moved onto the forum. Coming face-to-face with the strong minzu (ethnonational or racial) feelings of other posters, as well as her own, she tells some stories from her own life to illustrate the changes in ethnic relations in Xinjiang over the past sixty years. She ends with a heartfelt appeal for mutual understanding, which was well-received by other posters.

This is one of a few examples I have seen on-line recently of appeals made in the name of a pan-ethnic Xinjiang identity. Another of them will soon be translated and available on this site.

Of course the answer is obvious: Uyghur terrorists!

So Mr. Sun,  23, Mr. Wu, 25, and Mr. Wang, 41 (Good Uyghur names, ah-yep) called in to an as of yet unamed company posing as East Turkestan terrorists and demanding that the above amount be wired to their bank account, or else! Or else they would blow up something. The conclusion hardly need be stated: the police were notified and the unlucky idiots were immediately identified by the personal information attached to the provided bank accounts and quickly arrested.

And that’s pretty funny. It’s funny because the guys put some effort into concocting the appropriate alternate identity without bothering to wonder if their bank accounts would give them away. It’s funny because when in April details about alleged foiled terrorist plans emerged, it really seemed crystal clear from the terrorists’ purported arsenal - athletes as hostages, poisoning foodstuffs, suicide bombers - that money really wasn’t a top priority for the phantom ETIM villains.

But in spite of everything our Chinese Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe got wrong, I think they got one tiny thing right, and that’s if there’s one costume to adopt that while cause people to sweat under the collar, if there’s one shadowy specter that will get give cadres the heeby-jeebies and get the armed police moving, it’s the Muslim Uyghur Terrorist. With the silly Olympic Mind Games occuring with the torch in Xinjiang and Tibet (China gets gold for the Fool-The-Terrorist-Switcheroo event) and ghost plots that may or may not have been real appearing and disappearing into the pre-Olympic haze, I think it’s becoming clear that the image of Uyghurs is evolving in the Han popular imagination. Sure, the dancing and singing part is there, but that’s only one half the dual mold that Uyghurs and jammed into - the other half, most readres will know, was “theives.” We saw it a few weeks ago when we looked at some joke maps circulating on the internet. And anyone who has told Han friends that they’re going to Xinjiang undoubtedly was told to watch out for pickpockets. But for the sake of building the foundation of a secure and stable Olympics, a new domestic enemy has been fabricated - no longer Uyghur the theif, now its Uyghur the terrorist. And even a few dumb saps in Shandong “know” that.

Updates: Reuters has an informative article on the broken promise of press freedom in the Xinjiang and Tibet torch relays, part of a series on the Olympic flame. The New York Times also has an interview with noted Tibet scholar Dr. Robert Barnett on the relays in western China.  Here’s a quote: “[W]hat you tend to see is sullen resentment of these major government-organized activities. They’re just huge inconveniences and nuisances for everyone who isn’t a Chinese patriot.”

The Olympic torch has passed through Urumchi and gone. The flame was carried from a quiet, orderly official ceremony — described by XJTV news as renao (lively!) — at 9/7:35 AM yesterday morning. It passed from torch to torch between 209 runners, including members of 47 minzu, famous athletes, a famous dancer (Rena Abdukerim, who did not “sway her hips“), and several pudgy middle-aged men.

A couple of days ago, I wrote of my sincere hope that someone in Urumchi would actually be able to see the Olympic torch relay. Rumors abounded that the whole city would be on lock-down for the day. My hopes were not fulfilled. (See a piece by the BBC’s James Reynolds, which I think is right on the money.)

The vast majority of spectators were danwei-organized official cheering teams, no more than two rows deep, wearing matching outfits and sporting the official cheer and its accompanying arm movements. They arrived at their designated areas by 7/5:30 AM or so and dispersed in an orderly fashion following the torch’s passing. They were not allowed to leave their spots until that time. The crowds were monitored by rows of police, soldiers, and volunteer community deputies, who also watched the roads the previous nights. Many people reported seeing snipers at major intersections. All windows along the route were kept closed — open windows were shut by police.

I will grant that, for reasons certainly unknown to me, such security measures may have been entirely necessary. However, they gave Urumchiliks a pretty negative impression, especially to the few unofficial spectators. These people had to stand further away from the relay route, beyond specially-erected barricades.

The majority of people were, indeed, completely unable to see the torch relay in person, even as it passed by their homes. Even individuals who lived along the torch route were told to sit inside and watch it on television — and, indeed, they mostly did, though some, it seems, peeked out from their locked gates. Many people tried to stay in hotels along the route, which, by police decree, were not allowed to rent out rooms facing the route itself. Luckily, due to bureaucratic oversight, rooms slightly to the side were available. Hotels on the route were locked from around 8/6:00-11/9:00 AM or later, depending on their location. Shops and apartment complexes were likewise kept closed. Of course, the flame steered clear of the Uyghur part of town, where its reception would have been, perhaps, less warm.

We can compare the Urumchi relay, perhaps, to other Olympic relay events in China so far. From what I am told, many cities have seen what appear to be campaigns of misinformation — much as in Urumchi, people receive many conflicting reports of where the torch might be and at what times. Specific groups, mainly consisting of students and members of favored danwei, have been invited and organized, as in Urumchi. However, I am not aware of any previous official warnings to stay inside and actually avoid the event, as in Urumchi. The result is, in any case, more or less the same. History passes on by, and many people are left with a distinct feeling of anticlimactic disappointment and resignation.

The flame has proceeded today to Kashgar (referred to on this map as “Kashen”, an incorrect reading of 喀什), and it will be in Shihezi and Changji (”pearl of the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains”) tomorrow.

After the end of the Urumchi torch relay, the torch will proceed to Kashgar, Shihezi, and Changji. The cities on the torch’s route have been chosen as “the center of Asia” (Urumchi), “an important town on the ancient Silk Road” (Kashgar), “the Republic’s first military land reclamation city” (Shihezi), and “the pearl of the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains”, which is an awfully nice way to refer to Changji. The first of the 209 athletes to carry the torch, including ten foreign nationals, will be Uyghur boxer Abdushukur Mijit.

Here is the rough schedule for the torch relay in Urumchi: the opening ceremony will be at People’s Square (Renmin Guangchang) at 9/7:30 AM. The closing ceremony is to be at the Xinjiang Athletics Center West Square (Xinjiang Tiyu Zhongxin Xi Guangchang) at 11/9:55 AM. (The site also has times for the relay in other cities.)

For those who want to try to see the torch, it is meant to run down Youhao Lu, I believe from south to north, between these times. The road has been under renovation since April in preparation for the event, and it has now been decorated from end to end with Olympic-theme topiary.

To get a better idea of where the torch might actually be, it is useful to look at what roads will be closed off and when. There have been many rumors circulating in Urumchi today about a total freeze on traffic all day throughout the entire city. The actual regulations, as released by the City Transportation Department on Sunday evening and reported in the Urumchi Evening News today, are as follows:

From 7/5:00 AM to 2/12:00 PM, the following roads, mostly located in the southern-central part of the city (around Bingtuan Headquarters and Nanmen), will be experiencing rolling closures: Guangming Lu, Dongfeng Lu, Jiefang Bei Lu, Heping Bei Lu, Renmin Lu and Xinhua Bei Lu.

From 8/6:00 AM to 2/12:00 PM, the following roads, mostly located in the northern-central part of the city (around Xinjiang Normal University, the Sheraton, and the Xinjiang Library), will be experiencing rolling closures: Youhao Lu, Xinyi Lu, Beijing Lu, and Hebei Lu.

From 7/5:00 AM to 10/8:00 PM, all roads within the Waihuan “ring road” will be inaccessible to medium and large automobiles, though it is not clear if this includes buses. (I am told that most, if not all, buses will not be running.) Starting tonight (Monday 16 June) at 10/8:00 PM, police have been conducting screenings of cars within this area.

Good luck, however, actually getting a glimpse of the torch or its journey down Friendship Street. In Urumchi, unlike in other Chinese cities, residents have been told to stay inside and watch the torch relay on television, rather than watch from the barricades erected along the road. (Indeed, who is meant, then, to fill these barricades? Will government-organized cheering throngs fill the sidewalks? Will there be one token group of “ethnics”, smiling and sweating in nylon costumes? But I digress into cynicism.) Many foreigners staying in hotels, so it seems, have been told to stay inside all day “for their own safety”. Those staying in hotels along the route are meant to keep their windows shuttered, as well. This has not been reported, it seems, in any Chinese news sources, but the rumor seems highly pervasive and is backed up by (annoyed) personal testimony from locals and foreigners alike.

And so it seems that tomorrow will witness a Potemkin torch relay. Now, we should not kid ourselves by imagining that the Olympic torch, nor the Games themselves, have always been some symbol for global harmony, democracy, human rights, or any such thing. They are predicated, after all, upon the idea of the primordial nation-state, and they have often been used to advance some political purpose. However, the Olympics in Xinjiang, which I, for one, previously found merely chintzy and tacky with a cast of nationalism, have become downright Orwellianly creepy, and it is bothering a great many people, not just spoiled expatriates with internet access. Again, a random, last-minute bit of inconvenience has been unleashed on this city “because of the Olympics”, and it is getting somewhat farcical. I wonder how the workers who sweat day and night to build the shining new Youhao Lu ahead of schedule will feel when they cannot witness that event for which they labored so long.

Of course, they may not care at all either way. Urumchiliks seem to be of two minds about the Olympics. For the past few days, uniformed schoolchildren everywhere, it seems, have been running around carrying a little Chinese flag in one hand and a little Beijing Olympics flag in the other. They are excited, even if they do not fully understand what they celebrate. Adults seem rather less ready to cheer, though teenagers and students have been wearing Olympic gear with greater frequency. Most non-Han seem especially underwhelmed by the Olympics, which, despite their tremendous geographical and psychological distance, have been constantly invading everyday life here for the past several months. As noted in a previous post, the Games seem to be, at least partly, an excuse to make life more difficult out here.

I hope that the dear reader will forgive my anxiousness when it comes to the Olympics’ presence in Xinjiang. It seems that something meant to be fun for everyone — “One World, One Dream” and all — is being constantly politicized in one way or another, handled with the black leather kid gloves of an underconfident regime. I hope that the rumors are wrong, and that everyone who wants to and who can get off work will have the chance to go out and cheer for the torch. Since no one knows for sure when it will arrive, however, (despite the news) and since the route will be under lock-down, a fine opportunity to show off the genuine pride and enthusiasm that people all around the world feel for the Olympics, no matter where it is held, will be lost in favor of the world’s largest photo-op.

A new book is to be published on the history of and discourse surrounding the muqam, a Turkic musical form with Arabic roots, in Xinjiang. The Uyghur Twelve Muqam were declared a “masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity” by UNESCO in 2005. The author of the book, Nathan Light, is a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale, Germany, and has conducted research on the muqam for over a decade. Sections of his 1998 PhD dissertation on the Twelve Muqam are available for reading here.

The book’s abstract (after the break and also posted here) indicates that Light has taken a broad and multidisciplinary approach to research on the muqam in Xinjiang, incorporating musicological, historical, and ethnographic data to come to some interesting conclusions. I find particularly interesting his assertion that, in the process of further preparing and refining the Uyghur muqam over the past fifty years, the historical and ethnic consciousness of the editors has played a more powerful role than that of the state censors. Subaltern discourses appear in such interesting places. Light also looks at the way the Twelve Muqam, too often regarded as a fixed, formalized collection of “folk classical” music and an unchanging symbol of a transhistorical Uyghur identity, have changed in recent history in response to other social factors.

But perhaps the abstract should speak for itself. I look forward to reading this book as soon as it becomes available.

Abstract:

In 2005 UNESCO declared the Uyghur “Twelve Muqams” a Masterpiece of
the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This event was preceded
by more than fifty years of work behind the scenes to record,
transcribe, research, edit and reorganize the Uyghur muqams into a
symbolic form representing the history and culture of the Uyghur
ethnic collectivity.

This study describes the present structure of the Uyghur muqams and
shows how it emerged from the lives and work of performers. It
presents and analyzes the Turkic poetry of the muqams in historical
and cultural contexts, and shows how traditional performers created
their oral versions from mostly written texts. The analysis of muqam
culture and history is combined with ethnographic study of editing the
canonical muqam songs and of the role of the muqams in ongoing
negotiations over identity, culture and history within Uyghur society.

Editing the muqams became a process of Uyghur self-examination and
self-definition. To create positive public representations, the
performers, scholars and politicians who edited the muqams carefully
investigated and interpreted culture and history. The variety of
discourses about the Uyghur past that emerged during editing reflect
the plurality of local ideas and goals. In studying how the muqams
were reworked, Light investigates the social organization of cultural
reflexivity within Xinjiang Uyghur society, and finds that the present
Chinese political context had less influence and importance than
editors’ concerns about Central Asian cultural history and spiritual
practices over the past 1500 years.

Conforming to widespread ideas about representing modern national
cultures on stage through systematic, monumental performances, Uyghur
editors sought to shape the “folk classical” muqams into a source of
ethnic pride. In so doing they confronted many cultural
intimacies–aspects of collective and personal life that undermined
public self-images and disrupt public values and official ideologies
about language, gender, love, and spirituality. Through backstage
discussions in largely Uyghur contexts, the editors and performers
negotiated solutions and rehearsed the framing of public muqam
performances. Light explores the ways past and present cultural
dynamics interact to create contradictions between public and intimate
practices: for example, Central Asian ghazal poetry uses esoteric
images and terms drawn from Sufism to express personal spiritual
quests and critique society, but in the modern Uyghur Twelve Muqams
these same ghazals are sung as love songs in public celebration of the
ethnic collective and its shared culture. Influenced by secular and
national ideologies Uyghur cultural elites have tended to reject the
spiritual, the foreign, and the ecstatic in muqam performance, but
over the past ten years they have begun to integrate these into new
understandings of local heritage.

Contents

1 - Introduction
1.1 - Editing the Muqams
1.2 - International Muqam Scholarship and Local Goals
1.3 - Compromising Culture and Identity
1.4 - History and Geography

2 - Uyghur Performing Arts and the Muqams
2.1 - Muqams and Dance
2.2 - Muqam Discourse, Ideology, and ‘Modernization’
2.3 - The Structure of the Muqams
2.3.1 - First Section: Co? N?gm?
2.3.2 - Second Section: Dastan
2.3.3 - Third Section: M?r?p
2.4 - Muqam Rhythm and Song Meters

3 - The Poetics and Politics of Literary Sufism
3.1 - Sufi Poetry
3.1.1 - Images and Ideas
3.1.2 - Gender in the Poems
3.1.3 - Thematic Unity
3.2 - Ahmad Yasavi
3.2.1 - The Divan-i Hikmat
3.2.2 - Yasavi’s Verses in the Muqams
3.3 - Classical Turkic Poets: Lutfi, Navai, and Fuzuli
3.3.1 - Maulana Lutfi
3.3.2 - Mir ‘Ali-Shir Navai
3.3.2.1 - The Mahbub ul-Qulub
3.3.2.2 - Navai’s Poetry in the Muqams
3.3.3 - Muhammad Fuzuli
3.4 - Muqam Poets after Fuzuli: Mashrab and Huvayda
3.4.1 - Mashrab as Antinomian Hero
3.4.2 - Huvayda’s Didactic Poetry

4 - Give and Take: Genealogies in Music and Art
4.1 - Culture and History as Homelands
4.2 - Creating Autochthonous Uyghur Music History
4.3 - Muqam History on Film
4.4 - Genealogy and Identity
4.5 - Music in Chinese Ideologies and International Relations
4.6 - Foreign Music in China
4.7 - Farabi as Philosopher of Music and Turkic Culture Hero
4.8 - The History of Music in Central Asian Cultural History
4.9 - The Uses of the Narrative of Amannisa Khan

5 - ?m?r Akhun’s Muqams
5.1 - Becoming a Muqamci
5.2 - Learning and Creating Song Lyrics
5.3 - Religion and Love Songs
5.4 - Performance and Audience
5.5 - The Aesthetics of Muqam Sound
5.6 - Other Views on the Muqam Scales and Modes
5.7 - Only Rabbit Meat Remains

6 - Performing, Editing and Publishing the Muqam Songs
6.1 - Rescuing and Publishing the Muqam Texts
6.2 - Editing the Muqam Texts
6.3 - Poetry in Manuscript
6.4 - Come, O Beloved (K?l ?y m?hbub): Language and Ethnicity
6.5 - Mashrab’s Satar Ghazal (Satarim Tariga)
6.6 - Songs in the Repertoires of Turdi Akhun and ?m?r Akhun
6.7 - To the Valley of Madness (Junun vadisiga)
6.8 - From the People of the World (Al?m ?hlidin)
6.9 - In the Garden (Bag icr?): ?m?r Akhun’s Uaq T?z?
6.10 - O Early Spring (?y n?v bahar)
6.11 - O Seven Worlds (?y y?tti m?nz?r)
6.12 - ‘Folk’ Texts in the Co? N?gm?
6.13 - Single Couplets

7 - Dastan and M?r?p Songs in the Muqams
7.1 - Written Dastan Texts
7.2 - The Distribution and Variation of Gherip-S?n?m
7.3 - The Structure of Gherip-S?n?m
7.4 - Formulas in Other Dastans
7.5 - Comparing the Ili and Kashgar Versions of Gherip-S?n?m
7.6 - Gherip Tested by Shaykh Junayd
7.7 - The Resolution of Gherip-S?n?m
7.8 - Turdi Akhun’s M?r?p Songs

8 - Conclusion
8.1 - Cultural Power
8.2 - Offstage
8.3 - Cultural Purity and Working on the Collective Self

Appendix: A Brief Introduction to Uyghur Musical Instruments
Bibliography
Index

(All GoogleDitu maps now automatically focus at the all-China level. Please scroll west.)

According to sparse reports from the international press, a police station was assaulted last week in Sangong Hui Village by a group of Uyghurs. The Uyghurs are said to have used rocks and gasoline bombs in their attack. Several dozen people may have been arrested in connection with the attack. The attackers may have been protesting crackdowns on civil liberties in the run-up to the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing in August. No more details are known at this time. Although the incident has not been reported upon in the Chinese press, the Epoch Times, which I cannot for the life of me access from China, appears to have picked up the story. Michael Manning’s The Opposite End of China has some commentary.

Sangong Hui Village (三公回族乡) is a small village, encompassing nearby Upper and Lower Sangong Villages in Huocheng (霍城) County, 53 kilometers from Ghulja (Yining) and near the border with Kazakhstan. It is situated between the 218 and 312 highways, the latter of which leads west to Qorghos and Kazakhstan.

Thus far, the only source of this information has been Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress. If the story receives further press, we will comment on it here.

The idea that Uyghurs lashed out in protest over an increasingly harsh pre-Olympic crackdown makes some sense. Indeed, the restrictions imposed on life in Xinjiang, especially since the Khotan (Xotän) protests in March, have been sudden and without a satisfactory explanation: curfews of 11/9:00 PM have been imposed in many towns, especially in the South. It is now illegal to remove a knife from Khotan (and only Khotan) by post, bus, or plane, a law in effect since March but only under active enforcement in the last few weeks. Identification checkpoints and roadblocks are ubiquitous. For the last three weeks, the passports of non-Han citizens in Xinjiang (with, of course, certain exceptions for well-placed individuals) have been collected by government officials, to be returned after the Olympics are over. Supposedly, these are being held so that their possessors “will not lose them”. In some areas of Urumchi, including very “safe” neighborhoods, I have myself witnessed groups of “community volunteer police” (社区义务治安联防): ten to thirteen middle-aged, mostly Han, men walking in a bored single file, waving nightsticks. Besides their volunteer arm bands, they wear a uniform of a red Olympic hat and a t-shirt emblazoned with the Beijing Olympics logo on the front and the words “Welcome the Olympics, protect safety” (迎奥运，保平安) on the back. Given that Xinjiang hasn’t seen an ethnic riot on the scale of those seen in most of the rest of the world for many years – except, perhaps, for the skirmish between Han and Uyghur police academy students some time back – the sudden switch to a bunker mentality has left many law-abiding private citizens more than a little upset, and the explanation “It’s because of the Olympics” does not seem satisfactory. The implication, it seems, is that this is just what you do when there’s a hint of political jitters on the air: make things feel a little tenser in Xinjiang.

If I may editorialize further, it seems to me that, first of all, there is no large and active threat to public security and safety in Xinjiang. Ethnic and religious tensions are rampant and tangible in the everyday, but they are not, for the majority of people, violent, organized hatreds equipped with hair triggers. To lump, to take a hypothetical example, a law-abiding, China-loving ethnic Kazakh businessperson planning a business trip to Almaty in with a suspected sympathizer of the Islamic Party of Turkestan and revoke both their passports (how did the latter individual get a passport to begin with?) is to undo some of the work that economic development in Xinjiang has done to create a class of wealthy non-Han loyal to China. In the case of my Kazakh example, the better life to be had on the Chinese side of the border is what keeps such a person from asking for – and certainly receiving – a Kazakhstani passport. The sullen men with their big, black sticks just put the people around them on edge. The net result of all of this is an increasingly cynical attitude, as I see it, towards the Olympics out in Xinjiang, largely among non-Han who previously either did not care about the event or who held some hope that its light might shine out West. Suddenly, “One World, One Dream” sounds less inspiring when accompanied by jeeploads of angry young men in forest camouflage, a peculiar and jarring sight in the quieter corners of a grey city. It seems that China is having a dinner party, and non-Han are to be made to sit in their rooms upstairs and listen, the unwanted and twisted children. It is unwise to nurture resentment. Does the Chinese government want to make its own people angry?

The following is a serial translation of Abdurehim Ötkür’s 1985 historical novel Oyghanghan Zemin, Chapter Two, pp. 54-60. New readers are encouraged to start from the beginning, Chapter One, Part One. This translation is presented for information and entertainment purposes only. New sections will be posted every Sunday, pending their completion and the satisfaction of the translator. It is also a work in progress - comments are welcome, especially on the (questionable) quality of the translation.

When we last left Xojiniyaz Palwan, he was about to explain how he ended up at the home of Alipbay…

2

This is what happened up until then in a place in Altay called Chinggil seven months after Tömür Xälpä was killed. As the reader may remember, when Tömür Xälpä went to Ürümchi in anticipation of Li Shufu’s deception, Xojiniyaz, sensing the tragedy of his end, has hurried off into the mountains [near Qumul] and lived in refuge in the dark valleys. Only one person, his brother-in-law Qurban, communicated with him. His mother and father, too, kept aware of his situation through this young man. However, King Shamäxsut’s notice concerning Xojiniyaz’s capture was spread all over the land of Qumul, so greedy people were on his heels, and, in the end, even the mountains of Qumul began to feel crowded. In the meantime, King Shamäxsut, saying “You have not found your son for me,” threw his father, Iminniyaz, in the palace’s dungeon. Iminniyaz was originally one of the simple shepherds in the palace’s service who took care of the “iron livestock” [breeding stock]. Because he was, himself, a clever, strong, and reputable man in that country, Shamäxsut took him in as his own hired hand, intending to take advantage of him. Not only had he been separated from his son while still alive, finally, Iminniyaz’s imprisonment caused pain like that of kicking the dead to Aysä Appaq, who came to be bedridden. Hearing this grave news, Xojiniyaz, his patience spent, said, “I am what I am” and came to desire to go before Shamäxsut himself. As his [Xojiniyaz's] son came to hear of these intentions through Qurban, Aysä Appaq said, “He should never think this way. What if he is discovered, then, fine, he will never stay alive. We’ve eaten what we had to eat, we’ve worn what we had to wear, now we’ll see the completion of our fates. Xojiniyaz is still young; wherever he goes, he should protect himself. We are content with him.”

After this, Qurban went into the mountains and invited Xojiniyaz to leave for Altay or Inner Mongolia. Xojiniyaz went to the country of Altay and found a place to be among the Kazakh people. He wanted to exchange his horse and head to Altay be way of Bariköl. Qurban had been his companion all the way up to the mountain slopes layered with ice all year around.

“Goodbye, younger brother, and peace until we meet again,” said Qurban at the base of a slope, wiping a tear from his eye. “My advice to you is, once again, once you have reached the interior of this country, leave that sticker [Qumul dialect slang, "rifle"] behind, that it won’t cause you trouble again.”

“Goodbye, older brother, don’t worry about me,” said Xojiniyaz, mounting his horse. “The say God loves the lonely.” Then, saying, “Place one kiss on the forehead of my son, Sädänsha,” he spurred his horse. A slender-footed, long-necked red-black wolf followed in his tracks. Finally, Xojiniyaz came to be traveling straight west on the footpath on the northern side of Bariköl. Although he had just told Qurban not to worry about him, that God loved the lonely, but, it must be because he had left his mother and father, his blood relations and homeland, part of his heart wanted to cry. Thinking of his own fate to come, tied up in thoughts from which he could not untangle himself, he did not sense how long a road he traveled. Even the soul-cutting early spring wind was unknown to him. Riding on like this, just as he was climbing a small hill, he saw a lone rider up ahead, came to his senses as if suddenly waking up, and began to observe the rider carefully. That lone rider was wearing a Kazakh tumaq pushed low on his head and a knotted leather cord tied around his waist. His emaciated brown horse seemed to be limping. He was, in any case, an observant man, as he turned around, sensing Xojiniyaz riding two hundred paces behind, became alarmed and stopped his horse.

“What kind of person could this be, traveling alone in the wilderness?” thought Xojiniyaz. “So, what should I do? Should I go to his side? Or…”

As though Xojiniyaz’s red-black horse was glad to have found such a companion at last, she neighed and quickened her steps. The rider greeted Xojiniyaz from a distance. He was a strong young man, about twenty-three or twenty-four, light-haired, with deep-set eyes, and he must have been afraid of the rifle on Xojiniyaz’s shoulder, as he tried to make himself appear extremely helpless. After Xojiniyaz saw this, without falling to excess suspicion, he began to converse with him in a friendly manner. The close relationship between the Uyghur and Kazakh languages was of great assistance to them. According to this young man, his name was Qamza, and he has come, it seems, from Altay to Bariköl to visit relatives. His work complete, he has returned to his native land. Xojiniyaz introduced himself with the name Ishaq and said that he had an older brother in a place called Chinggil and that, though he had never been there before, he was trying his luck at visiting him. In his own heart, he was glad that, having come to this Kazakh land that he had never before seen, he had ended up being a companion with a man of that very land. This happiness was reflected in his smiling face and gentle voice. Qamza, too, seeing this situation, felt at ease. Even when Xojiniyaz confessed that he had feared him to be a road-blocking highwayman, he laughed and said:

“I’m glad, too, to be a companion to a good man such as you. I’ll take you where you’re going myself. Come, let’s get out your näshwal [a form of narcotic].”

Xojiniyaz said he did not smoke näshwal.

“Do you have toqach [a small, round, hard loaf of bread]?” asked Qamza.

“Yes, but, if you eat it hard, it’ll get caught in your throad. If there was somewhere to bed down ahead of us, we could boil some tea and then eat it. I’m hungry, too,” said Xojiniyaz light-heartedly.

“Alright,” said Qamza, agreeing. “Behind that ridge, there’s a spring. Let’s boil some tea there and drink.”

Qamza’s brown mare was truly lame. So, Xojiniyaz was forced to reign in his red-brown horse as they rode. Qamza, riding one or two paces behind, ruminated as he looked at the dark red-brown horse. One of his eyes was on the horse, and the other was on the rifle. This rifle was a short five-barrel taken from the soldiers of Jian Daren in the war in the Aqchuq Valley [?], and it was the first time Qamza had seen such a rifle.

“Hey, Ishaq, you’ve got a nice rifle there. We won’t go hungry on the road, now,” said Qamza without taking his eyes from the rifle.

Xojiniyaz lied and said that he had borrowed the rifle from a relative to take it on the road and asked:

“Is there anything to shoot and eat on the way?”

Qamza said that there were game animals, such as deer, mountain sheep, and goats along the way and that even ferocious beasts like wolves, foxes, bears, and leopards were very many, and he fell into a long discussion of the Altay Mountains. The discussion became more lively as they came to the spring Qamza had mentioned and as they sat drinking the thick tea boiled in the kettle and eating the buttery toqach. The important this was, Qamza, as it turned out, was very familiar not only with Altay, but with Chöchäk. This was exactly what Xojiniyaz had been waiting for. In his turn, he persistently put forth questions, asking about that land’s climate, terrain, towns, and routes of travel in detail, and learned many things about the habits and traditions of the Kazakh people.

They traveled a few days along the road in this manner, with warm conversation and entertainments, and came to not even notice their tiredness. However, the way Qamza would steer away from places where people collected was suspicious. This tendency of Qamza’s seemed a bit strange to Xojiniyaz. On the other hand, he was happy that it was helpful to him, as well.

“Another half-day and we’ll reach the territory of Chinggil,” said Qamza when they had come to a thick woods. He then suggested that they sleep there that night and, the next day, travel on. Xojiniyaz acceded to this suggestion. Then, after they had lit a large campfire and fed themselves excellently on kebabs of roasted meat and strongly-infused tea, they staked their horses well and fell asleep, contented, by the fire. Only the calls of near and distant birds and Qamza’s snores broke the nighttime silence.

In the middle of the night, Xojiniyaz was suddenly awakened. Qamza, who had lain snoring at his side, was no longer in his place. “Qamza, Qamza,” called Xojiniyaz, but there was not a sound from anywhere. He stepped out of his bed and looked around. The dark red-black horse that had been tied to Qamza’s lame mare seemed to have disappeared. He also found that the rifle he had placed under the saddle upon which he had rested his head was gone.

“Hey, bastard, you ran off with my horse and rifle! They say, if you travel with evil, you’ll get stuck halfway down the road, and, oh my goodness, now what do I do?”