Annie Ruth Harrison (夏安)
·
Follow
Perpetual student of Chinese history, culture, and language Dec 19
The Uyghurs living and working in Beijing are not the same as those in Xinjiang. They try to live as the Han Chinese and dress like the Hans and don’t use the hijab or burka. Why?
Thanks for the a2a. Two things come to mind. One is that Uighurs have more to their culture than just their religion. They may be Muslim but they aren’t “only Muslim.” Their culture itself seems to be full of bright colored clothing, dancing, singing, and art forms, a unique language and delicious cooking styles, and yes, religion. Some Muslims choose to cover their heads and some do not. There are secular Uighurs as well. Haven’t you heard of secular Jews? It’s a similar concept.

The second thing that comes to mind is that you’ve been exposed to too much Western propaganda, but you are intelligent and recognize that you’re seeing for yourself something that was wrongly presented or misrepresented to you as reality. The Western media has a bit of Hollywood in them. They cast people to a part:

“We need to show oppressed Muslims. Women and children especially, to tug at woke heartstrings.”

“Say no more! Let’s get these women and kids dressed in hijab or burka and use dark, somber colors. Make sure they tell their sob story well. Americans are dumb. They think all Muslims dress like this. We can’t show them in their traditional clothing because it’s too colorful and doesn’t look oppressed enough.”

Meanwhile, Uighurs in China: