Who are the Uyghurs?
Uyghurs are an ethnic group living in central and east Asia. Their main home is Xinjiang which is located in western China. Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group, not to be confused with Turkish. Turkish people are a Turkic speaking ethnic group. However the Turkic language family actually originated from areas such as modern day China, Mongolia and Siberia. The most ancient Turkic people are believed to have been of Mongoloid origin with features close to the Yakut/Sakha people.
The area now known as Xinjiang has been inhabited by many ethnic groups. One ancient group includes the Indo-European speaking Tocharians and Yuezhi who where a Caucasoid group described as white skinned and light haired who inhabited this region. These people cultivated jade and sold to other groups living in China as jade was a highly treasured from an early period. The Uyghur people originated from Mongolia but in the 9th century they fled to Xinjiang and Gansu after the collapse of the Uyghur Khagante. During this time the Uyghurs and the Tocharians intermixed. This resulted in their physical features, cultures and linguistics to become blended. However, the Uyghurs who settled in Gansu (now known as Yugur) did not mix with other groups on a mass scale. It is believe that the Yugurs culture is much close to the original culture of the Uyghurs of Mongolia.
Although Uyghurs have believed in many religions in the past, Uyghurs in Xinjiang and central Asia are mostly Muslims. Unlike their cousins the Yugur in Gansu who are primarily Buddhist. Modern Uyghurs write using an Arabic writing system. However the original writing system they used was created by themselves, known as Uyghur. The Uyghur writing system was the first writing system used by Mongolians and was also the main writing system for Mongolians until the Russians imposed Russian Cyrillic on them. In recent years Xinjiang has seen an up rise in violence and extremism. The ever tightening grip of the Chinese communist government does not allow religious practices for children under the age of 18. Muslim men under 50 are not allowed to wear beards. Women, discouraged to wear hijabs. People across china, especially Uyghurs are not given the freedom to express political unrest without severe consequences. Even people’s personal phones are checked for ‘incriminating’ material.
Because of a few religious extremists Uyghurs have earned a reputation of being terrorists or thieves. Due to these ignorant stereotypes there has been a lot of prejudice against Uyghurs. However many Uyghurs just want peace and a normal place in society.
However, in the last few years there has been a large up rise of Chinese ethnic minorities in media. Notably several Uyghurs making it big. Such as, Gulnazar (古力娜扎) who has starred in several major films and dramas, notably in Police Story alongside Jackie Chan. Merxat (米热) an actor who has starred in several major dramas in China recently. There are also many more models and actors who have been breaking into the Chinese mainland media industry.
