The Emperor Far Away Read Free Page B

sand of the Taklamakan has preserved the bodies of a few of the earliest inhabitants of Xinjiang, who arrived during the Bronze Age. Those mummies have European features, red or brown hair and light-coloured eyes.
    Their descendants are the Uighurs, who went on to intermarry with Persians as well as their central Asian neighbours. Xinjiang is home to at least fourteen different ethnic minorities, including Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Mongols, Russians, Tajiks, Tatars and Uzbeks, but only the Uighurs regard it as their country. For them, Xinjiang is a Chinese-imposed name. The unknown numbers who want independence call it East Turkestan.
    When he finally showed up, Billy looked much the same as before. Still quick to smile and slight with a narrow face, topped by messy black hair, and a scratchy goatee, he was in one of his collection of fake Chelsea shirts, a team he supported with a passion. His love of English football was one of the reasons we became friends, even though I supported a rival London club.
    His preference for western clothes meant that Billy didn’t wear a doppa , the distinctive square-cornered hat many Uighur males sport. Taking an English name was another expression of his fondness for the West. Many Han, especially those in the big cities who work or come into contact with foreigners regularly, have alternative English names, but few Uighurs do. It suited me that he did. His real name, like those of many Uighurs, had far too many ‘x’s in it for me to pronounce properly. It was much easier, and safer, to call him Billy.
    We caught a taxi to Yan’an Lu, the main street of Urumqi’s biggest Uighur neighbourhood. I thought it ridiculous that so many Uighurs were concentrated in just one area of the capital of their homeland. But Han and Uighurs do their very best to avoid living side by side, and the sheer number of new Chinese arrivals has forced the Uighurs to cede much of Urumqi to them. Around People’s Square, the heart of the city, the only concession to Urumqi’s heritage is that the names of the shops are displayed in both Chinese characters and the Arabic script the Uighur language is written in.
    Ramadan had just started, but at the open-air restaurant we had lunch in the Uighur diners were tucking into their food heartily. ‘Out in the country people take it more seriously, they’re more religious there,’ said Billy, as he ordered polo , the rice and lamb dish that is a staple all over central Asia, kebabs, the freshly baked naan bread the Uighurs eat with every meal, and yoghurt sweetened with sugar.
    Uighurs are traditionally more relaxed about their faith than their Pakistani and Afghan neighbours. In part, that’s because Islam was a relatively late arrival in Xinjiang, taking hold only in the tenth century. Until then, the locals were mostly Buddhist and it took centuries for all to become Muslims. But even in Urumqi, most Uighur women wear headscarves and long skirts or trousers, while the city’s mosques are always busy.
    Religion is at the heart of why Beijing has always regarded the Uighurs, along with the Tibetans, as the most recalcitrant of China’s minorities. As well as periodically rebelling against Chinese rule, the Uighurs steadfastly refuse to integrate with the Han. They scorn Chinese culture and Mandarin in favour of their own language, which is very close to Uzbeki and similar to Kazakh and Kyrgyz, while their music and folklore also have their roots in central Asia.
    But it is their adherence to Islam which especially frustrates the Han. As far back as the eighteenth century, the Qing railed against the hold Islam had on the people of Xinjiang. Officials petitioned Emperor Qianlong to ban what they described as a ‘perverse doctrine’. The CCP, which regards all organised religions as a threat, because of their potential to focus opposition to its rule, adopted a more rigorous approach. In the 1950s, it created the China Islamic Association which appoints all imams. It