Uyghur PEN Board Members
Uyghur PEN Centre
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“But a thorn was left in our tongue …”
by Aziz Isa Elkun 25 June 2021 Brussels Morning Newspaper London (Brussels Morning) The Uyghurs love poetry, which is very special to them. It is an essential part of Uyghur cultural heritage and expression, and plays an important role in the continuation of creativity and developing the Uyghur language and literature. The poet Adil Tunyaz shocked the Uyghur world with his poem, written in 1992, “Qeshqerdiki yershari” (The earth of the city of Kashgar). It was read by many Uyghurs, and he became one of our most celebrated poets, with a special place in the hearts of the Uyghurs. يۇلتۇزلار پەرۋاز قىلار تاڭ سەھەردە، پەسىللەر پەرۋاز قىلار دەرەخلەردە، بۇ شەھەر پەرۋاز قىلار چۆچەكلەردە. بۇ يەردىكى ئادەملەر، پەرۋاز قىلار يۈرەكلەردە. The stars are soaring at dawn, The seasons are flying in the trees, The city is soaring in legends. The people here, Soar in our hearts. Who is Adil Tunyaz? He was born in 1970 into a teacher’s family in Qaghiliq County of Kashgar Prefecture. After graduating from the Literature Faculty of Xinjiang University in 1993, he worked as a reporter for the Xinjiang People’s Radio Station in Urumchi. I first met Adil in September 1989 when both of us were studying at Xinjiang University. I studied Russian at the Foreign Languages Department, and Adil studied Literature at the Literature department. These two departments were located inside a two-storey Soviet-style building; we called it “seriq bina” (the yellow building) because its walls were painted yellow. In those years, our student lives were full of turmoil; we had experienced a series of demonstrations and protests in the fast-changing political landscape of China before the Tiananmen Student movement was brutally oppressed. Though we were university students, our daily life was regimented; we had two compulsory evening self-study sessions after dinner. Adil was interested in learning […]
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The Poetry of Trauma – Webinar
Uyghur poetry reading – مۇشائىرە – Mushaira ئۇيغۇر شېئىرىيىتىئۈرۈمچى 5-ئىيۇل قىرغىنچىلىقىنىڭ 12 يىللىقىنى خاتىرىلەش ۋە 2021- يىلى ئۇيغۇر قىرغىنچىلىقى بىلەن ياشاش Remembering the 12th anniversary of the 5 July Urumchi Massacre, and living with Uyghur Genocide in 2021 ئازابقا تولغان نەزمىلار The Poetry of Trauma ۋاقتى: 2021-يىلى 4-ئىيۇل لوندون ۋاقتى 15:00Sunday 4 July 2021, 15:00 London time PEN Uyghur Centre promotes literature, freedom of expression, and the right to use mother tongue, and works to sustain Uyghur culture in the diaspora. We celebrate PEN International Centenary 2021 !100 years of celebrating literature and protecting freedom of expression ! • Date and time: Sunday 4 July 2021, 15:00 London time • Topic: Uyghur poetry • Platform: Webex Webinar • Language: Uyghur • The Webinar will be shared live on Uyghur PEN’s Face Book. Registration on the Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-poetry-of-trauma–tickets-160995633273 Moderators: Aziz Isa ElkunDirector of Uyghur PEN Online Revitalisation Project Poets: Medinay Bawudun (USA)Omerjan Imin (Germany)Aygul Yusuf (Norway)Rahile Kamal (Sweden)Abduljan Aznibaqiev (Kazakhstan)Kunduzay Hamut (Sweden)Mustafa Halil (United Kingdom)Aziz Isa Elkun (United Kingdom) On July 5, 12 years ago in Urumchi, thousands of Uyghurs, led by the relatives of the dead workers and university students, took to the streets to ask the authorities to investigate the incident that took place in Shaoguan, Guangdong province of China on 26 June 2009, and bring the perpetrators to justice. In this incident around 20 Uyghur factory workers were killed and many others were injured when a mob of Han Chinese workers raided the dormitories of Uyghur workers. The peaceful Uyghur protestors asked the government not to remain indifferent to the incident and commission an independent delegation to investigate. However, Chinese police used tear gas and heavy weapons and opened fire on the protestors. According to Uyghur sources and witness accounts, at least 500 people, most of whom were Uyghurs, were killed on July 5 and the […]
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Adil Tunyaz, a well-known Uyghur poet, arrested in 2017, and his fate is unknown
Published by Uyghur PEN on 18th June 2021 He was born in 1970 into a teacher’s family in Qaghiliq County of Kashgar Prefecture. After graduating from the Literature Faculty of Xinjiang University in 1993, he worked as a reporter for the Xinjiang People’s Radio Station. The Uyghurs love poetry, which is very special to them. It is an essential part of Uyghur cultural heritage and expression, and plays an important role in the continuation of creativity and developing the Uyghur language and literature. The poet Adil Tunyaz shocked the Uyghur world with his poem, written in 1992, “Qeshqerdiki yershari” (The earth of the city of Kashgar). It was read by many Uyghurs, and he became one of most celebrated poets, with a special place in the hearts of the Uyghurs. ,يۇلتۇزلار پەرۋاز قىلار تاڭ سەھەردە,پەسىللەر پەرۋاز قىلار دەرەخلەردە.بۇ شەھەر پەرۋاز قىلار چۆچەكلەردە,بۇ يەردىكى ئادەملەر.پەرۋاز قىلار يۈرەكلەردە The stars are soaring at dawn,The seasons are flying in the trees,The city is soaring in the legend.The people here,Soar in our hearts.[i] He published the following poetry collection books: “If I fell in love with you” (Söyü qalsam séni nawada); “The secrecy of a single poet” (Boytaq sha’irning mexpiyiti); “Eyes under the neqab” (Chumbeldiki köz); “The street on the sea” (Déngizdiki kocha). One article collection book: “Nights in the land of the Prophet” (Peyghembir diyaridiki kéchiler) According to the RFA Uyghur Service[ii] and United States Commission on International Religious Freedom[iii], “Adil Tuniyaz and his wife, Nezire Muhammad Salih, were both arrested in December 2017. Their eldest son, Imran (19 years old), was also arrested at a Beijing school where he was studying Arabic. Imran was reportedly sent to a detention facility in Xinjiang. It is believed that their three younger children have been placed in state-run orphanages for Uyghur youth whose guardians have been detained. Adil’s father-in-law, the well-known […]
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Keeping the Uyghur Culture Alive in Exile
by RUTH INGRAM 03/03/2021 Non-Chinese culture is repressed or reduced to a tourist attraction in Xinjiang. But exile and sorrow have produced a flurry of poetry and creativity among the diaspora. Strange bedfellows; tear gas and poets, tasers and writers, electric cattle prods, handcuffs and artists; folklorists and pepper spray. But when orders come down from the top to break Uyghur lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins, and CCP procurement figures for a secret network of transformation through education camps include instruments of torture, the pieces of the puzzle start to make sense. No one willingly walks into the annihilation of their culture. Unreasonable force will be part of the deal. Not content with rounding up so-called “holy warriors,” “splittists” and “the politically dangerous” for Beijing’s euphemistically named “vocational training” program, more than 400 academics have also been dragged into the black hole of internment and the disappeared since the start of a program of cultural annihilation, which began in 2017. Unlike most Uyghurs who were corralled into 24/7 Chinese language classes and political indoctrination, these university professors, writers, poets, singers, and dancers are fluent Mandarin speakers and often loyal Party members. Accused of being two-faced traitors and half-hearted supporters of the regime, these intellectuals’ only crime is their love for Uyghur history and culture, and their desire to see their nation flourish. They have all without exception vanished, and with them a vital bridge to the intangible cultural heritage they embody. Uyghur writers, poets, and academics gathered online last week to commemorate UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day and the 100-year anniversary of PEN International, a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote literature and defend freedom of expression worldwide. Members of the Uyghur PEN Centre, one of more than one hundred and fifty mother tongue groups around the world, […]
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#100PENMembers No. 87: Ahtam Omer
MAY 18, 2021 / WRITERSANDFREEEXPRESSION Today’s #100PENMembers is prominent Uyghur writer Ahtam Omer, recently sentenced to twenty years in prison by the authorities of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. He is the author of a well-known short story Child of the Eagle and the popular novel Greetings to the Homeland from Distant Horizon, which depicts the author’s first travel abroad and the comparisons that he makes with his homelife. He was taken from his home on 12 March 2017, a month after his brother and nephew. The reason given, according to witnesses, was that he had paid for his brother’s son to study in Egypt. Egypt is one of several countries blacklisted in the XUAR for travel by Uyghurs because of a perceived risk of their coming into contact with and being indoctrinated by Islamic extremists. He was charged with “separatism” in a secret trial in the Xuar capital, Urumqi in 2018. In 2020 several of his books – including Child of the Eagle – were burned by authorities. According to an RSA report ‘The story was initially published in China Ethnicities Literature, a national journal, and long stayed far away from any official criticism as a result. However, by 2017, as a wave of “looking to the past” had begun in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), including in the field of literature, a number of books were rounded up under accusations that they contained separatist content.’ The book had a significant impact on Uyghur society because of its focus on the themes of freedom and the spirit of struggle. Omer’s arrest took place at the same time as authorities in the region began to detain an estimated 1.8 million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in vast internment counts. The Chinese government has denied the existence of camps, then, in 2019, began to refer […]
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China – Xinjiang: Severe prison sentences for Uyghur writers is latest example of government efforts to erase Uyghur culture
PEN International Monday 10 May 2021 – 3:37pm PEN International is alarmed by recent reports of severe prison sentences being handed down to Uyghur writers and intellectuals, many of whom had already been extrajudicially detained for several years in Xinjiang’s notorious re-education camps. We continue our call for an immediate end to the atrocious repression of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang carried out by the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Among those detained is literary translator and academic principal, Ahmetjan Juma, who was reportedly sentenced in 2019 to 14 years’ imprisonment according to a social media post made by his brother on 1 May 2021. The sentencing took place two years after he was initially detained in a re-education camp in 2017 for possessing a book that was prohibited by the authorities. His brother, who works as Deputy Director of Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Uyghur Service, believes that Ahmetjan Juma’s punitive prison sentence is a form of punishment for his work at RFA highlighting human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Recent reports have also emerged about the sentencing of Uyghur writer, Ahtam Omer, to 20 years’ imprisonment on separatism charges after he was initially detained on 12 March 2017 for allegedly sending money to his nephew while he was studying in Egypt. The author of much-loved books, including Child of the Eagle and Polluted Lake, Ahtam Omer was also a member of the China Writers’ Association and had previously worked as a professional writer for the Kashgar Prefectural Literary and Artistic Association, according to a profile by Uyghur PEN. Despite Child of the Eagle having been published as part of the prestigious China Ethnicities Literature journal, in 2020 the book was reportedly taken off shelves and burned by the authorities as part of a campaign to vilify and destroy Uyghur literary works, many of which were previously given […]
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