<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/03/orkesh-dolet-tiananmen-square-china-uyghur-activist-36-years-in-exile>
"When I was little, mum used to take us to visit an elderly Uyghur couple every
year. We would climb up the winding concrete stairs in a Soviet-era apartment
block and be greeted with a warmth that felt like family. Over piping hot bowls
of Uyghur
chay, mum would talk to them for hours while my brother and I
listened. I always assumed they were relatives of ours, until mum told me that
they were the parents of her friend Örkesh Dölet, and they had not seen their
son for over 20 years. As a child, I didn’t know who Örkesh was, but my heart
broke for his parents, who clearly loved and missed their son so very dearly.
Growing up in Beijing, dad used to take us to Tiananmen Square on weekends to
fly colourful swallow-shaped kites. Due to censorship, I never knew that the
pristine, neatly paved tiles beneath the soles of my sparkly light-up sneakers
were once carpeted with the corpses of brave pro-democracy student protesters.
I never saw the famous photo of “tank man”. I never knew the date “4 June 1989”
had any significance for the city that I called home.
When I first learned about the Tiananmen Square protests, I was in disbelief. I
could not even imagine a Beijing where young people would dare to dream of and
fight for a better China. In the repressive China that I grew up in, a movement
like that of 1989 seemed like fiction from some distant, unrecognisable
timeline.
But the student movement was real, it was impactful, and it was led by a young
Uyghur man named Örkesh Dölet.
I interviewed Örkesh remotely from his home in exile in Taiwan as part of an
upcoming book project, titled
Uyghur Resistance. Now, as the anniversary of
the 1989 massacre approaches, Örkesh reflects on his lifelong dedication to the
fight for democracy, and on that one summer 36 years ago that would
irreversibly alter the course of his life."
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
