The Uyghurs are a Turkic people, some twelve million of whom live in the Uyghur Region in the northwest of the People’s Republic of China. This archive collects essays on their history and culture, and on the policies to which they are subjected today — written plainly, documented carefully, and offered to any reader who wishes to understand.
The Essays
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Who Are the Uyghurs?
A short history of a people at the heart of the Silk Road: their language, their faith, and their place between empires.
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Words of the Oases: The Uyghur Language
Where the language comes from, the alphabet it lent to the Mongol and Manchu empires, and what makes it unique.
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Silk and Thread: Uyghur Dress
Atlas silk, the doppa cap, and the robes of the oases: how the Uyghurs have dressed, and what their clothing carries.
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Song and Step: Uyghur Music and Dance
The muqam, the dutar, the meshrep, and the dances of the oases: an introduction to the musical world of the Uyghurs.
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The Documentation
What the leaked files, satellite images, and survivor accounts establish, and how we know what we know.
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A Culture Under Pressure
On language, music, mosques, and memory: what is being lost, and what survives in the diaspora.
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Before the Camps: What Resistance Teaches
How people have fought oppression across the world and the last century, and what their victories and defeats teach about the Uyghur cause.
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The Response
How the world fights back: diaspora activists, lawmakers, lawyers, and consumers, and what actually works.