Marziye, is a Uyghur girl from Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. She is also a freshman in Nanjing University, along with 31 other Uyghur freshmen.
Marziye started learning Chinese when she was in kindergarten on her own initiative. Then her mother sent her to the Chinese class to provide her a better learning environment. The result of studying in Chinese for nearly 20 years is the low ability in her mother language. “I have poor hand writing with my mother language,” said Marziye, who doesn’t want her full name being given out, “I even forget some of the Uyghur words.”
“It’s a shame that you can’t speak your mother language fluently and appropriately. So that your Uyghur peers, especially those who study in mother language would despise you,” said Marziye.
She has been under long-term pressure for her poor performance on her mother language. Some Uyghur students believe that she has a bad upbringing and weak belief, which is not true; based only on the fact that she speaks Chinese more often in daily life. Instead of the misunderstanding from others, she was raised in a decent family. Her father is a member of Xinjiang Ensemble while her mother is a professor in Xinjiang University, and her uncle, being mentioned many times by her, is an imam who devotes himself in eliminating extreme in Uyghur society.
Marziye attended a great number of activities on campus and won the best hostess prize this semester. She is active, easy-going, popular, but busy. She may spend time with Han friends who share the same interests with her, but seldom has time to sit down and talk to her Uyghur peers. She seems to have less interest and energy in socializing with them. That makes it hard for her to make close Uyghur friends in school. “It’s hard to fit in the Uyghur group. I hope someone can invite me to the party, but no one comes. I feel lonely,” said Marziye.
“The 57th ethnic group” is a new expression created for Uyghurs who assimilate to Chinese. If you act “too Chinese”, such as dressing yourself in a short skirt or speaking Chinese to your Uyghur peers, you could be regarded as a member of “the 57th ethnic group”. The phrase is a reference to the fact that there are 56 ethnic groups officially recognized in China. It means that people like Marziye are banished by their compatriots, but not in an official way.
Anna, a junior at Nanjing University, is from Kumul, said she was once called “the 57th ethnic group” face to face by a Uyghur peer. She considers it as a malicious joke. She uses “immature”, “ill-bred” and “poor grades” to describe those who use this expression. “I don’t want to live under others’ judgments. I don’t care about what they say about me,” said Anna, who prefers to be introduced with her English name. Dressed in a short skirt, she is a fashionable girl with long curly hair and adorable make-up. Before our conversation, she was by the basketball court watching her Uyghur friend’s competition. “If I know almost all the Uyghur undergraduates in Nanjing are there on the court, and some girls wear long sleeves, trousers and scarves; they would not wear a short skirt like this,” she said.
Conflict lies between Uyghur young people who learn their own language and those who learn Chinese. Each side insists that the other side is not friendly and is full of misunderstandings. The quarrel can be irritated by inconsequential details easily.
Marziye was a little afraid of talking in the Muslim canteen at first due to her friend’s experience. One of her Uyghur friends once spoke Chinese in the Muslim canteen to a student who is from the Hui ethnic group. Then that friend received a Wechat message from another Uyghur student telling her “please speak Uyghur in the Muslim canteen.” Marziye called the note “ridiculous and unreasonable.”
At the beginning of the autumn semester in 2014, all the Uyghur undergraduates in Nanjing University were planning to hold a welcome party for the freshmen. While most of them agreed to decorate the stage with colorful flashing lights, a small group of more conservative Uyghur students opposed it. They thought it would make the stage look like a nightclub. In their opinion, swaying one’s body too energetically during dancing offends public decency.
With the colorful flashing lights shining above the stage, the conservative students left the event quickly after the dinner. Then one of them wrote an obscure article in an ironic tone and published it on the Internet to remind others not to forget Uyghur tradition and Islam belief, which made others angry.
Uyghur is the fourth-biggest minority ethnic group in China and one often in the news. The few radicals want independence but others, as well as the Chinese government, do not. Extremist Uyghur nationalist have carried out bombings and other fatal attacks. Terrorist incidents and bloody clashes happen frequently. In the last few decades, the word “Uyghur” usually appeared with “violent, bloody, terrorist, extremist” in the news.
Given the complicated and tense condition in Xinjiang, the government enacts very different education policies in order to gradually create what they called “a cohesive and harmonious Xinjiang in the future.”
As a student from minority ethnic group, one has three learning patterns to choose. In the first type, students takes all courses in Chinese in high school plus compulsory English classes and sits the Chinese Gaokao. In the second type, student takes all courses in Chinese except literature, which is taught in mother language, and sits the Chinese Gaokao without the high demands for English grade. In the third variety, Uyghur students attend high school outside Xinjiang in other provinces.
Some Uyghurs tend to believe that it is the education policy that leads to discrimination among the Uyghur students. Those who study in Chinese school might tend to regard themselves as the elites in their ethnic group. On the contrary, others might regard them as traitors.
Those Uyghur students who learn in Chinese may feel that they stand between the Uyghur group and the Han group, and it’s difficult for them to find a balance. “Many people think that they are standing in the intermediate zone, but they are not. Because deep in their heart, they keep too many conservative things to provide them a way to escape,” said Marziye.
Marziye is eager to learn the Uyghur language and culture. She and her Uyghur boyfriend decide that every Monday is “mother language day.” On that day, they speak Uyghur all day and her boyfriend helps her with her speaking and writing. “No matter if I make mistakes or I even don’t know how to speak, he would help me with patience,” said Marziye.
Many other Uyghur undergraduates are trying to get closer to their own culture while in Nanjing.
Uyghur girl Rayle Abdukerem was born and raised in Kashgar Prefecture, the biggest city in southern Xinjiang, also a more conservative region compared to the northern part. In her hometown, Uyghurs were the majority until members of the dominant Chinese Han ethnicity came into the city to work. The first time she saw a Chinese face, she was 7 years old and she cried out of fear. In order to teach children only Uyghur language and culture, some families secretly keep their kids at home instead of sending them to Chinese-run schools.
Rayle likes to hang out with her Uyghur friends. They go out for dinner at least once a month and sometimes bring Uyghur music to KTV so that they can dance along it instead of Chinese or English pop songs. Rayle also lays a Uyghur carpet in her dormitory room in order to make it more Uyghur style.
“I will go back to Xinjiang after graduation,” said Rayle in a firm voice at the end of our conversation. Life in Xinjiang would be easier for her, including getting a satisfying job without suffering from discrimination, finding an appropriate husband with less effort, and staying with her family instead of being lonely in the big modern city.
Compared with Rayle, Anna feels more comfortable living in Nanjing. She plans to continue her education in Nanjing University including both Bachelor and Master degree. “Nanjing is more cosmopolitan and modern, and I can absorb fresh ideas here,” said Anna.
Though people have different preferences and choices, there is always something to stick on. “My mind is entangled with both conservative and liberal attitudes,” said Marziye, “but I will never forget who I am. I am a Uyghur.”
This article was first published in The Nanjinger Magazine, October 2015 Issue. If you would like to read the whole magazine, please follow this link.
