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https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/19/china-has-renamed-hundreds-of-uyghur-villages-and-towns-say-human-rights-groups>
"Hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns have been renamed by Chinese authorities
to remove religious or cultural references, with many replaced by names
reflecting Communist party ideology, a report has found.
Research published on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the Norway-based
organisation Uyghur Hjelp documents about 630 communities that have been
renamed in this way by the government, mostly during the height of a crackdown
on Uyghurs that several governments and human rights bodies have called a
genocide.
The new names removing religious, historical or cultural references are among
thousands of otherwise benign name changes between 2009 and 2023. According to
the two organisations that conducted the research, the apparently political
changes, which mostly occurred in 2017-19, targeted three broad categories. Any
mentions of religion or Uyghur cultural practices were removed, including terms
such as hoja, a title for a Sufi religious teacher, which was removed from at
least 25 village names; haniqa, a type of Sufi religious building taken from 10
village names; and mazar, meaning shrine, which was removed from at least 41
village names.
The authorities also changed names that referenced Uyghur kingdoms, republics
or leaders from before 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded.
The report said there were no longer any villages in Xinjiang with the word
“xelpe” or “khalifa” (ruler), or “meschit” (mosque) in their names.
Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group mainly found in Xinjiang. They have long had
a fractious relationship with Beijing, which accuses many of them of wanting to
break away from Chinese rule.
The report said the new village names were typically in Mandarin Chinese and
expressed a “positive sentiment, which the government wants Uyghurs to embrace
and express under the Chinese leadership”.
In 2018, Aq Meschit (White Mosque) village, in Akto County, was renamed Unity
village, the report said. In 2022 the Karakax County village of Dutar – named
for a Uyghur traditional instrument – was renamed Red Flag village.
“This is part of the broader efforts by the Chinese government to conflate
Islam with terrorism,” said Elaine Pearson, the director of Human Rights
Watch’s Asia division. “They see anything Islamic or Arabic sounding as
threatening, so they renamed these things to be more in mind with [Chinese
Communist party] ideology.
“We’ve seen this also in the way mosques have been demolished, changed,
altered. We’ve seen many different examples in the way the Chinese government
uses this to violate aspects of free expression and cultural identity and
religious freedom.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
