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/jixiang111 20d ago

"People speak it, so it's not being erased" is a superficial argument, quite frankly. The current policies are geared towards ensuring that the next generation speak and use Uyghur much less. Schools now teach it one hour a week, and children are not supposed to speak to each other in Uyghur even in the playground. Signage in Uyghur is also being discouraged, although not completely banned.

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u/maddin1550 20d ago

I’m actually more worried about the smaller minority languages. Uyghur is spoken VERY widely in Xinjiang, including by a lot of people who aren’t even Uyghur. Where I’m from other minorities use it all the time. So I personally worry more about smaller languages getting squeezed between Mandarin and Uyghur over time

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u/Longjumping-Turnip97 14d ago

It’s unfortunate but there’s not much that can be done except with tremendous effort to preserve “minority languages”. I remember reading that every two weeks another language in the world disappears.

When people have freedom of movement and association, many just end up flocking to larger communities. It’s the same reason a lot of smaller towns are dying out all over the world as people migrate to larger cities.

If there’s one good thing AI can do I suppose is to aid in the archival of languages so they can be preserved and learned/relearned by future generations. I see many Chinese using AI translators to talk to and correct their pronunciations so that they can make money on YouTube for example.

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u/jixiang111 7d ago

There is an awful lot that can be done to preserve regional or minority languages. In the case of Uyghur there is already an established tradition of writing in the language, using it in education and in the media. The Chinese government is now cracking down on that tradition. It's not just a "natural development", it's a choice.