This week in our online class we visit a number of Central Asian peoples, dabbling in Kazakh and Kyrgyz customs while focusing attention on the Uighur people who mainly live in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in Northwestern China, which many Uighur who are eager for political independence from China refer to as “East Turkestan.” Over the last few years the movement for an independent East Turkestan has received international press due to increasingly intense clashes between the Uighurs and the Chinese government. The Chinese government has sought international support for its controverisal effort to stop Uighur separtests and refers to them as “terrorists.” Of course the Uighur people are more than a political independence movement; Uighur culture is as ancient and rich as Uighur history. In music class we largely dispense with the politics and SING!
