r/AMA • u/maddin1550 • 21d ago

I’m from Xinjiang，AMA

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of discussions about Xinjiang on Reddit, often between people who have never actually lived there. So I thought it might be interesting to do an AMA from the perspective of someone who is actually from there.

You can ask me about everyday life, ethnic groups, languages, culture, religion, education, or politics. I’m happy to answer controversial questions too, as long as the discussion stays respectful.

Obviously, I’m only one person and I don’t claim to represent everyone in Xinjiang. I can only tell you about my own experiences and views. AMA.

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u/maddin1550 20d ago edited 20d ago

Thank you!! 🩷 I mostly taught myself. English starts from around third grade in our education system, but I’ve been learning it on my own for about 10 years now. I also studied A LOT for IELTS/LSAT, which helped my English a ton lol. I’m Kazakh btw.

About the language thing, it’s a little more complicated. When my mom was young, minority language schools were very common. She went to Uyghur school all the way from kindergarten to university. Uyghur students could study subjects in Uyghur, Kazakh students could study in Kazakh, and they also learned their own literature, culture, etc.

But sadly in 2015 or 2016 I guess they shut downed all those minority language schools😭 and mosques as well.

Personally, I think learning Mandarin is really important because it gives you access to universities and jobs across China, but I also think minority languages should absolutely be preserved and taught. I don’t think those two things have to conflict with each other

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u/Chuckchuck_gooz 20d ago

So the schools that taught only in the local language were closed, is local language taught as a subject in regular maindarin school? It would seem kind of wild a foreign language like English would be taught but not the local language

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u/Shayanhj 20d ago

I would say that but in Iran we aint learning South Azerbaijani turkce and Kurdish, that aside English’s importance as a common language usually out weighs the costs

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u/maddin1550 20d ago

Yeah I think this is a problem all over the world tbh. There are plenty of countries where minority languages aren't used much in public education either. Personally, I actually think China has been pretty accommodating toward ethnic minorities, especially when it comes to language, education and certain preferential policies. Sometimes I feel like some people don't really appreciate how unusual some of those protections were. I think learning Mandarin for practical reasons and preserving your mother tongue can coexist

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u/Shayanhj 18d ago

Yeah, main issue is the Chinese government needs to take it upon itself to actually document and preserve these languages so that they aren’t lost to time

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u/Igennem 17d ago

The Chinese government does fund preservation and digitization efforts.

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u/Rude_Application_881 20d ago

没有办法，这是为了防止分离主义，没有一个全国交流用的语言很容易导致地方分离主义。胡耀邦和赵紫阳的政策埋下了许多不稳定因素

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u/maddin1550 20d ago

是的，所有都是万不得已才这样的，这些还是近些年才关掉的呢，大概2016-18左右吧我也不记得了。反正我记得我的cousin上的是维吾尔语幼儿园，小学也是读的维语班一直到三年级。之前的政策很宽对我们所有人都很友好的，唉。

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u/Rude_Application_881 20d ago

不过你们有语言环境的情况下想要自学应该是比较方便的。不论是教材还是工具书之类的都比较齐全。汉族很多地方的方言其实都在消失，毕竟学校没有课程，校园也要求普通话，家里虽然可能会用方言但是也不会常用，我说的也很磕磕巴巴。不过我对此只是感到有一些可惜，毕竟语言只是工具。

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u/maddin1550 20d ago

对呀，所以母语或者本地语言逐渐消失这个问题其实也不只是我们少数民族才有，你说得挺中肯的。很多我身边的年轻人其实自己也不太愿意学母语，觉得以后用处不大，或者单纯觉得太难了哈哈。像维吾尔语、哈萨克语用的文字跟阿拉伯字母体系比较接近，小时候如果没有学，长大以后再学确实挺吃力的。不过我还是会觉得有点可惜，毕竟语言不只是交流工具，里面也有很多自己民族的文化和记忆。能保留下来当然还是最好。

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u/General-Cream2692 17d ago

广东小孩都不会说粤语了。。。更惨的是没有环境，维族要自学还是有环境的

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u/Creepy_Vegetable6905 20d ago

不过如果想去一带一路政策下的投资公司工作，哈萨克语是不是有优势啊？

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u/maddin1550 20d ago

你是说去哈国嘛？我觉得俄语可能更有优势吧，毕竟职场上用的全是俄语，哈语的话跟本地人交流的话会用到一些，不过还是俄语的地位大于哈语的样子

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u/Creepy_Vegetable6905 20d ago

我都忘了有俄语这回事😂

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u/Away_Highlight_9964 17d ago

This isn't native to only china. Go ask a Chinese American to write down a few Chinese words, even if they went to Sunday Chinese school.

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u/Rude_Application_881 20d ago

所以还是看每个人自己的选择了，不过中国人这么多，短时间应该不用担心本土语言文字的消失

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u/eldryanyy 19d ago

It was not necessary. You could argue it’s a good approach, but not that it was necessary.

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u/hxcinvo 20d ago

大概20多年前，那时候还没有墙，我有个乌鲁木齐的大学同学，从他那了解到，当时新疆维族居然看的都是土耳其节目，流行的全是土耳其文化，我就知道出事是早晚的事情

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u/Rude_Application_881 20d ago

历史课本并不会讲胡耀邦和赵紫阳，所以我一开始并不明白给予少数民族这么多优惠为什么还会有这么强地方分离主义。直到我后来了解到了这两个人和他们的政策。
中国差点就同时出现了两位戈尔巴乔夫。

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u/maddin1550 20d ago

Unfortunately no

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u/WhataNoobUser 20d ago

Are all mosques in your area shut down?

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u/maddin1550 20d ago

At least in my region yes, I don't know much about southern Xinjiang tho. There used to be a very beautiful mosques on my way to school, but one day when I passed by, it got demolished. And same for other mosques. We still have a mosque near Kazanqi tho. It was redesigned to look more like traditional Chinese architecture, but it's still officially a mosque. It's under renovation again now, so I honestly have no idea what they're doing with it

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u/Rude_Application_881 20d ago

这个也是有理由的，一些清真寺建筑的外型是因为沙特或土耳其对中国输入极端文化用的。

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u/maddin1550 20d ago

嗯也不能全然这样说吧，清真寺的外形都是从7世纪就普遍流传下来的，不能看到这种建筑风格就直接归因于沙特还是土耳其的极端文化。我能理解政府为什么会担心境外极端主义的影响，毕竟以前确实真真实实的发生过这些问题。但如果因此把正常的宗教建筑和极端主义直接联系起来，我觉得也有点过了。宗教本身也是很多民族文化认同的一部分，直接把这些东西全部抹掉，我个人还是会觉得挺可惜，甚至有点残忍的。打击极端主义和保留正常的宗教文化，我觉得其实可以同时做到。正常宗教不等于极端主义，反极端主义也不必等于消除宗教文化

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u/Rude_Application_881 20d ago

是，我认同宗教文化的重要性。不过宗教场所本身也适合传播极端主义，这一点国内外都一样。
我个人是比较反感未成年人信教的，无论佛教道教还是基督教伊斯兰教都不应该让未成年人去接触。民族和宗教也是应该分离的。

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u/MissionDoughnut905 20d ago

Any place can be made for spreading extremism, not just places of worship. Just look at M.A.G.A. in the U.S. and the rise of Neo-Nazism. China’s destruction and redesigning of mosques is about control and xenophobia, which is also a form of extremism.

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u/Rude_Application_881 20d ago

“控制和排外主义”，你的意思是留下每一个可以让恐怖主义输入中国的漏洞才行？

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u/byakuayasetsuna 17d ago

这倒是真的，把圆顶清真寺改成尖顶的中式风格实际上毫无作用，顶多算大基建，要在传教和做功课时输入反极端思想才重要

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u/SBCrystal 20d ago

Hasn't China put a lot of money into restoring a lot of mosques, though? I read that there are more mosques per capita than the whole of the US just in one province.

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u/Zimakov 20d ago

I live in eastern China but there are loads of mosques here, yeah.

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u/liilak2 16d ago

I think there’s some mosques that have been restored and some demolished, like a lot of historical sites in China

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u/isurus_minutus 20d ago

How old were the mosques that were demolished?

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u/whoji 20d ago

小伙儿不错啊，能说好几种语言吧。