I dont know where the author get the data from to produce this set of charts. It doesnt seem very accurate. For example, literacy rate, it couldnt be 10% in 1957, when my sister was born. We grew up with literate people and their children, even my grandfather who wore born long before 1957 was literate and lived to 83 in 1982. In his 90s he was still doing his profession dress making up to the last day of his life, putting thread through needles and the Singer sewing machine. It doesnt seem to match the chart about longetivity and literacy rate. However it is true that people were not literate in Chinese at that time because there were not many Chinese people there in Xinjiang, but people were educated in Uyghur and other languages, eg, Uyghur written in Russian script. I grew up reading both Uyghur and Russian script books that we had at home - and plenty of them were around, that is why I can read Russian from very early age, before learning Chinese. Plus there were schools and Madresses in Kashgar long before the Chinese government taking over the region in 1949. Those Madresses did not teach Koran only, they taught all other subjects, like math and science, as an ordinary school would. That is why the Madresses are a unique educational institution in Central Asia, unlike other Islamic region. There are a lot of literature about it. Plus before China taking over Xinjiang region as its new territory as Xinjiang means in Chinese, the whole world still existed, Uyghurs existed and built their empires and civilisation. Russian and Central Asia existed on the other side with their brilliant civilisation. The Uyghurs were not as isolated as they are now since the iron rule of the Chinese government. Throughout the history the Uyghurs and other people groups in Central Asia enjoyed more freedom on the ancient Silk Road, being the beneficiary of the frequent cultural exchange between the East and West until the communism taking over in Russia and China. Furthermore, the Uyghurs with their excellent multi linguistic and business skills acted the role of a facilitator of such a marvellous cultural exchange on the Silk Road starting before the maritime period. The Uyghurs were good merchants during this time with their caravans and caravan sarays along the ancient Silk Road. No historians or journalists should discount these historic facts. It is after the communism on both sides, the Uyghurs and other Central Asians suffered the greatest isolation, maybe in the entire human history, that has led to cultural isolation, therefore depletion. Therefore the journalists need to be careful in presenting such a graphic, as if the world didnt exist for the Uyghurs before taken over by the Chinese rule in 1949. What happened after the Chinese take over is, many generations of Uyghur intellectuals were killed or thrown into jails for lengthy period of time, or faced many types of other political persecution. For example, my mother was thrown into jail with false accusation of being Russian spy. My father was branded as rightest in 1957, and forced to do many other things, including raising pigs on the Uyghur High School campus where there were no Chinese students or teachers. Both my parents were forced out of the Teachers College where they were teaching. Before 1949, the Uyghurs had more options to get education, for example, going abroad, like Borhan did. There were opportunities in the Soviet Union, and many Uyghurs were educated there. It is after 1949, the Uyghurs had little choice but doing whatever they have to do to survive and thrive despite the serious isolation. Because of this, any information, as presented on this article, has to rely on the data provided by Chinese sources. Regarding cultural isolation, Even now, the Han Chinese people can go overseas easily, but the Uyghurs cannot even get their passports as if they were not a citizen of any country, despite the Chinese claim of the Uyghurs as their citizens. Even worse the Uyghur scrips were changed three times by the Chinese government since 1949. This artificially created illiterate people among the Uyghurs, and created difficulty in written communication between the Uyghurs of different generations. Are those who were literate in other scripts rather than the Chinese government designated ones considered illiterate?
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 03:39:13 +0000
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