Kurbanjan Samat
The remote region of Xinjiang has seen an upturn in ethnic tension in recent years with sporadic outbreaks of violence between Han Chinese and China’s mostly Muslim Uighur minority. Xinjiang has seen a string of deadly bombings and knife attacks, and the bloodshed has spilled over the regional border into other parts of the country.
The growing level of violence prompted Kurbanjan Samat, a Uighur photographer and cameraman from China Central Television, to write a counternarrative that portrays another side of life in Xinjiang. In his book “I’m from Xinjiang” he has profiled people from the region – from a lawyer to a pilot and a village chief — to show a calmer side of life in Xinjiang. The book has already climbed into the top 10 nonfiction best sellers, according to the Beijing News, which compiles book sales. Mr. Samat has been endorsed by renowned writer and former minister of culture Wang Meng and more recently he was seen on the main evening news meeting one of the nation’s top leaders,
Yu Zhengsheng. Mr. Samat recently sat down with China Real Time to talk about his book, his views on social changes in Xinjiang and how his region is portrayed in the media. Excerpts from a translation of the interview follow:
Why did you write this book?
I’m a documentary cameraman and photographer. I use my camera to communicate. I had been planning a documentary on Xinjiang for some time. If you watch television, the news about Xinjiang is all negative and one-sided. People never understand the region. I was thinking of doing something to show the lives of real people in Xinjiang. I was preparing my documentary when the terror attack on the train station in Kunming [which killed 31 people] occurred on March 1 this year. I was very shocked. I thought I needed to speed up my work and I figured a book would tell the story faster.
Tell us about yourself
I was born in Hotan [in southern Xinjiang]. I didn’t know a word of Chinese until I was 16. I didn’t think I needed to study Chinese. It was a foreign language to me at that time. But I fell in love with a girl who attended a Chinese language school and I wanted to say “I love you” to her. So I started to learn Chinese. It worked quite well, and we were together for 11 years. Later I wanted to live in Beijing but she wanted to stay in Urumqi, so we went our separate ways. Before I joined China Central Television as a professional documentary cameraman, I was in the jade businesses for a while. …I later started to take an interest in photography. ..I want to use to my camera to show the real me and to communicate with others.

More In Uighurs

You live in Beijing. How do you feel when you visit your hometown?
I can see the changes clearly. There are those who use Islam to achieve their own goals. For them, the more chaotic society is, the better it is for them. They are extremists. Normal people in Hotan are quite honest and simple, and they open their hearts to you. What the extremists do is contrary to Islam.
What is your view of the media’s coverage of Xinjiang?  
Most of the reports are just brainwashing. Actually, 80% of the incidents in Xinjiang are social criminal cases. If they were in Shanghai and not Xinjiang the media’s response would be different. No matter where, there are extremists, certain good people and people in between. Such acts against society and humanity occur in other places and involve other religious groups. This is really sad. But I knew I couldn’t just complain. I had to do something.
Has there been a change in Xinjiang in recent years?
Years ago Xinjiang was portrayed as a good place, with the best pastureland in China. People who had never been to Xinjiang knew of its wonderful fruit and the beautiful ethnic costumes of its people. When the reform and opening up got under way 40 years ago, people were very friendly to us, they treated us as a friend from far away. But after the 1990s, some people from Xinjiang went to other parts of China and took to crime. And then after 2000, there were others who came to Beijing, some of them as drug dealers. It did a lot of damage to our reputation. … In recent years, violence and terrorism have been connected with Xinjiang, and people overlook the region’s beauty.
Can you talk about some of the causes of the problems in Xinjiang ? 
I think partly it is a lack of communication with the outside world. If you travel you find that you become more tolerant. It’s also a matter of economics. Everyone wants to get on board this fast-moving economic train. Those who have been left behind or fallen off find this hard to accept. They often take a very negative view of society and are bitter about their own lives. These people are susceptible to being used by others. The July 5 attack was due to this kind of problem.
Are you concerned that there might be an extremist appeal to people you know?
I am concerned. For example, some people have asked to borrow my mother’s house to study the Koran. They said: “You have a big house and yard. Why not let us use two rooms to study the Koran?” But my mother refused. Those people who teach the Koran often don’t fully understand Islam. How could they teach others? They just let students recite from the book, but it’s very superficial. They don’t understand the concepts. I have two brothers. When they were still in Hotan and I was away, I was afraid they might be used by the extremists since they didn’t go to school. Now they are living in Shenzhen, where it is much more open.
What do you think the future holds for Hotan?
I found that there is a little bit of backsliding in the recent years. The ordinary people there have being influenced by those who want to dress in Islamic clothes. I’m very depressed about this. For example, when I was studying outside of Hotan, I was very happy to go back to my hometown during summer vacation because there were so many beautiful girls in beautiful dresses. But there is less of that now. The whole society is becoming conservative, and this will affect all of us.
– Olivia Geng and Liyan Qi