Uyghur, the people lost in the vastness of China

Another delayed post, but better later than never, as the saying goes. I know I'm diverting my original plan of blogging here, but there is something I have to write about.

As some of you may remember, on May I co-hosted a welcome party for the new foreign students in Wakayama University. I was one of the M.C. at the event. I also helped to set the schedule of the performances taking place during the event, and at that time, we decided to schedule a Uyghur performance the last number in the night. We, the organizers, thought it may had been worth closing the event with something different. At that time, my Japanese skills were not good enough, and although I wanted to communicate with him, I was not ready. As he also studies in the Faculty of Economics, I managed to asked him further question as my Japanese skills improved. He taught me how to spell his country's name to carry on my own research in the web. He also announced me that all the Uyghur people living in Kansai area were gathering in November to introduce their region to Japanese people and perform traditional music and dances. I have been asking to him about the date ever since. Finally, the date was set as of November 18, and I immediately confirmed my attendance. By this time, I also interacted with two other Uyghurs studying in my university.

I went there and I listened to one of the bests presentations I have ever been present at. It was a magnificent well conducted PowerPoint presentation, delivered by a former foreign student, currently working as an Assistant Teacher with the aplomb educators usually have. I carefully listened to it, and looked up in my dictionary the words I did not know. Soon after the presentation was finished, the students performed their traditional music and traditional dances. I should point out they are ordinary people living and studying in Japan and they staged as professionals! I am so thankful to my classmate Arif who gave me the chance to take part in this event.

May I tell you this people are very much nationalists and they do not identify themselves as Chinese. Although they also speak Chinese and write Chinese, they always regard themselves as being Uyghurs, and their country is Uyghur, which in Chinese is better known as Xianjiang (Xianjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), one of the 4 autonomous regions in China. They have their own alphabet, which looks pretty much like Arabic, considering that the Ottoman Empire extended to Mongolia (or was it that the Mongolia Empire extended to Constantinople?). Regarding the fact that they do not like being called Chinese, although they are part of China, may I report that when I was first trying to know where my classmate was coming from, he mentioned to me that Uyghur is also know as East Turkestan.

I have to agree with the fact that they have more than enough reasons to seek their independence. They are another ethnicity; they speak another language and have their own alphabet; they have a different religion: they are Muslims. They were twice independents before the Communist Regime was installed in 1949. They have their own flag, which is banned within Chinese territory. Last, but not least, they are disregarded by the Central Government which, among other things, gives jobs priority to people of the Han ethnicity.

Uyghur means "united" or "allied" and God these people are united! This is not mean to be nationalist propaganda. I am not a nationalist myself. I just want to pay a tribute herein to my principled classmates. May they all their dreams come true.

Far behind are those days when I studied all this history. How practical those lectures have been since I started travelling the world. There is nothing like travelling to better understand the past. I have more impressions about China and its breadth; in the meantime, here there are some nice pictures I took. I also made a few videos, but due to the size, I only could upload one of them to my youtube account.

Corruption in Wakayama-shi

Last week, the governor of Wakayama Prefecture resigned from the Prefectural Office on corruption charges. He is tied to construction illicit businesses. Yesterday morning, the third person in the hierarchy of this construction company who was in charge of money collection, a 71-year-old man committed suicide in the Nankai railway, just where the students cross it when taking the shortcut on their way to university. This is a scandal, and Wakayama people is alarmed and angry at the time. However, they still talk about it like a secret. I was approached about the issue today by a tutor lady who started the conversation as if it were a secret, but later raised her voice to a more normal level. This is not a secret and everybody knows about the issue. People is very concerned.

The reason why this high rank employee committed suicide is because he was about to being interrogated by the police. This kind of crimes are very bad seen within Japanese society. Actually, any crime is regarded badly. I once heard of somebody who lost his job because he got a ticket for over speeding in a highway. The moral weight of breaking the law is far too much and difficult to put up with. By the way, highways here may well allow somebody to drive at 120km/h, but the speed limit is 80km/h. Talking about speed limits, this is what happened to a friend of mine.

Back to the corruption scandal in this small city and the suicide of this old man, the former governor's house is now being guarded by the police (he is likely to be under house arrest), until he is brought to justice, or at least interrogated. Prefectural elections will be held on December 17th. Election time is very quite in Japan. Foreignhers hardly know is a different day.