Dokument #2050532
RFE/RL – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Autor)
A young Uyghur man says he has turned his dream into reality by opening a popular coffee house at the heart of Kashgar’s historic Old City to “blend the old and the new.”
A young Muslim woman moves from her remote village to the city for a “well-paid” factory job that enables her to provide a comfortable life for her family.
A Uyghur businesswoman challenges stereotypes to help young women in her community to pick Western-style wedding dresses for their big day.
They all purport to be content with prosperous lives, freedom of choice, and abundant opportunities they say they enjoy in their home region of Xinjiang in China's northwest.
That is how a new Chinese documentary, Beyond The Mountains: Life In Xinjiang, depicts the lives of ethnic Uyghur and other Muslim minorities -- mostly ethnic Kazakh and Kyrgyz -- in the region.
The film makes no mention of China's brutal crackdown on Xinjiang’s Muslims that has seen more than 1 million people forced into a notorious network of massive internment camps, often run in prison-like conditions, since 2017.
The documentary was released by the state-owned China Global Television Network in mid-April in several languages -- including English and Russian -- in a bid to push Beijing’s narrative of Xinjiang to global audiences.
It seeks to counter multiple accounts by natives of Xinjiang who say Muslims live in a climate of fear and oppression as authorities target their culture, religion, family life, and traditions.
The documentary emphasizes opportunities the government has allegedly created for young people to pursue their dreams in sports, music, business, and other areas.
Xinjiang activists who spoke to RFE/RL condemned the documentary as blatant Chinese propaganda that is a gruesome distortion of reality.
The Kashgar Coffee House Tale
The documentary depicts a coffee shop in a traditional two-story building with a flat rooftop on the backdrop of Kashgar’s scenic Old City.
Kashgar Corner Coffee & Tea is a startup business owned by young Muslim entrepreneur Mardan Ablimit, who describes himself as a “genuine Kashgar boy” with a big dream.
Ablimit says his idea of a coffee shop was to mix his community’s history and culture with modern elements.
He describes his drinks as a perfect “blend of Western coffee and local herbs.”
The coffeehouse features colorful cushions and carpets along with traditional teahouse-style furniture.
Ablimit calls his coffeehouse a “miniature version of Kashgar” where “the older generation is trying new things” and young people like him “are pursuing their dreams.”
“I don’t see any conflicts or contradictions here,” he says, alluding to the official Chinese line of “peace and harmony” in the region.
People in Kashgar are “discarding the old way of thinking” and embracing change, Ablimit claims.
It’s difficult to verify Ablimit’s story of success in a business that he says pays tribute to his community’s history, culture, and traditions.
In reality, the Chinese government has shut down Xinjiang Muslims’ cultural centers, damaged or razed thousands of mosques and historical Muslim structures, and imprisoned community leaders.
Muslims are barred in many areas from entering mosques until they reach the age of 18.
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