{"id":410,"date":"2019-05-09T23:36:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T14:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/?p=410"},"modified":"2019-05-09T23:45:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T14:45:29","slug":"in-xinjiang-even-nan-bread-is-being-sinicized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/2019\/05\/09\/in-xinjiang-even-nan-bread-is-being-sinicized\/","title":{"rendered":"In Xinjiang, Even Nan Bread Is Being \u201cSinicized\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

05\/08\/2019\u00a0RUTH INGRAM<\/a>
https:\/\/bitterwinter.org\/in-xinjiang-even-nan-bread-is-being-sinicized\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nan bread is a sacred sign of Uyghur identity and is usually decorated with traditional symbols. Now, the CCP wants nan \u201csinicized\u201d with Communist slogans.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ruth Ingram<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sacred Symbol Debased<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Early summer celebrations debasing nan bread in Xinjiang<\/a> have dismayed members of the Uyghur diaspora around the world. Pictures of nan breads depicting the Chinese national flag, CCP<\/a> symbols and patriotic slogans during festivities in Turpan have horrified Uyghurs<\/a> abroad, already traumatized by news of incarcerations of their people in the transformation through re-education camps, and their own subsequent enforced separation from loved ones back in their homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur bread is a unique part of our culture and so highly revered, that to see it scrawled with Chinese slogans is unbearable,\u201d said Tursun, who made his home in the UK five years ago. \u201cThe government is dismantling our culture bit by bit and replacing it with a mockery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u201cUyghur\u201d
\u201cUyghur\u201d \u201cNan\u201d breads \u201cdecorated\u201d left to right: the CCP hammer and sickle, slogan \u201cme and my country\u201d and the Chinese flag, during Spring celebrations in Turpan, Xinjiang.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nan, he explained is filled with symbolism for Uyghurs. The flat, round, disc-shaped spheres of various widths and thicknesses, have assumed a quasi holy quality down the centuries. It can\u2019t be thrown, wasted, trodden on, put into the rubbish, or have lies told in front of. If seen discarded on the ground, it must be immediately rescued and placed on a high shelf and can never be criticized. Promises and vows told in its presence cannot be broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese insistence on calling the precious \u201cnan\u201d bread, \u201cnang\u201d and describing it as a \u201cpancake\u201d has always infuriated Uyghurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy they can\u2019t just learn to call it \u2018nan\u2019 is a mystery to me,\u201d said Ahmed, a new arrival to Europe from Istanbul. \u201cWe don\u2019t make up a ridiculous name for their steamed buns. We just called them \u2018momo.\u2019 That\u2019s what they are called. It\u2019s as if the Han want to put their stamp on our culture and claim it for their own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSinicizing\u201d Daily Life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beijing\u2019s drive for national unity has spread into every area of regional life and the enforced blurring of edges has particularly struck a chord with those far from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is as if they are taking one of our most precious commodities and using it to provoke us,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd more than that, they are forcing us to desecrate our own culture and pretend that nothing is wrong. They make us sing and dance at the same time with smiles on our faces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Uyghur
Uyghur children are forced to dress in ancient Chinese national costumes to welcome in the Uyghur Spring holiday, Navruz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mahmut Turdi, an activist who has lived in the UK for 17 years, hit out at the Turpan Spring celebrations which were organized by Turpan\u2019s Gaochang District<\/a> Chinese Communist Propaganda Department. The centre piece Chinese classical instrument gu zheng <\/em>played by a Han musician astride one of the highest plateaus of the ancient trading post of Jiaohe was the bitter icing on the cake of what should have been a Uyghur festival but had been turned into a Han-dominated affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A Han Chinese musician playing the gu zheng on a plateau in the ancient city of Jiaohe, Turpan, during Uyghur festivities to celebrate the beginning of Spring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What angered Mahmut more than anything was the desecration of  their nan bread with red flags and hammers and sickles. \u201cNan is so precious to us that we wouldn\u2019t even paint it with our own East Turkestan flag,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have always respected nan and food in general as something given by God, not something to be played with or mocked like this. Everything God has given us to sustain us including birds of the field, plants and animals, we must care for and protect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was infuriated that their spring festivities had been hijacked by Han Chinese, who forced Uyghur children to dress in ancient Chinese traditional costumes and young girls to dance on stage in inappropriate outfits. \u201cWe have our own style of modest clothing and we would never dress our children like this, for the world to see,\u201d he said. \u201cWe try to preserve our separate customs by not eating Chinese food, wearing their clothes or going into their restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Young
Young Uyghur girls dressed in \u201cChinese style\u201d outfits to celebrate the beginning of Spring in Turpan. This infuriates Uyghurs as flouting Uyghur cultural norms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He considered the Turpan festivities to be the height of disrespect and abuse. \u201cThe Beijing government is trying to turn Uyghurs into Chinese by stomping all over our religion, our literature, our local crafts and our language. They have always tried to do this but the proof now is irrefutable,\u201d he said. He and his wife are doing all they can to keep the Uyghur language and culture alive among the diaspora in Britain and around the world, but he said it is an uphill struggle with Uyghurs scattered and afraid and having to learn the new languages of their adopted countries. \u201cMany of our books now are unobtainable in Xinjiang,\u201d he said. \u201cMost authors have been banned and their books destroyed and made illegal. You can be taken away just for having the book of a banned author in your home these days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ultimate Desecration: \u201cNan\u201d Promoting Materialism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A new Uyghur nan shop which opened this week in the new upmarket Wanda Shopping Mall in Urumqi has also provoked sadness and indignation from members of the diaspora. The bread on sale, despite being made to an original nan recipe, has metamorphosed from the familiar rounds into shapes representing, in many Uyghur eyes, the worst excesses of Beijing\u2019s drive for material wealth above all else. Covered with Chinese slogans and obscure sayings, which only those well-versed in classical literature could appreciate, these transformed \u201cnan\u201d are clearly intended for a wealthy Han clientele.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u201cI\u2019ll
\u201cI\u2019ll buy you a bag when I get my million yuan bonus.\u201d New-style \u201cUyghur\u201d \u201cnan\u201d for sale in the upmarket Wanda shopping mall in Urumqi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Abdullah, now resident in Sweden, is aggrieved that Uyghurs themselves, who are running the bakery, have been lured by the creeping sinicization<\/a> of their culture and allowed themselves to be hoodwinked into a full frontal assault on their ancient heritage. \u201cNan is a gift from God. It is simple and full of sustenance,\u201d he said with great sadness. \u201cTo dress it up with slogans and Han poetry, and connect it with wealth and prosperity, demeans this gift from God,\u201d he said, referring to inscriptions on a variety of different shaped loaves encouraging the accumulation of wealth to buy diamonds, cars, houses and expensive handbags. \u201cThere\u2019s even a slogan telling you to work overtime for a chance to go abroad,\u201d he said. \u201cThis of course is the ultimate cruelty for Uyghurs, all of whose passports have been confiscated and who will never get a chance to go overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the time, Uyghurs and their culture are being sidelined,\u201d said Abdullah. \u201cWhat is happening to bread is just another nail in the coffin of our people and our homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Different
Different kinds of \u201cnan\u201d bread for sale in Wanda. Top row left to right: \u201cEveryone has an outstanding achievement in work and owns a car,\u201d \u201cWork hard to buy a diamond,\u201d \u201cLet me be your cat\u201d ( referring to a romantic relationship). Middle row:Centre: \u201cI\u2019ll buy you a bag when I get my bonus.\u201d Right: \u201cA yuan note for one million dollars.\u201d Bottom row left: \u201cWe\u2019ll share the house I will buy with my end of year bonus\u201d (perhaps referred to  girlfriend). Centre: \u201cWork overtime for a chance to travel abroad.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Desecrating
Desecrating the nan through materialism: \u201cYou\u2019ll get a dividend from your boss.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


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05\/08\/2019\u00a0RUTH INGRAM https:\/\/bitterwinter.org\/in-xinjiang-even-nan-bread-is-being-sinicized\/ Nan bread is a sacred sign of Uyghur identity and is usually decorated with traditional symbols. Now, the CCP wants nan \u201csinicized\u201d … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14,4],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-foods","tag-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions\/415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}