Art

Using Social Media To Preserve The Uyghur Language — And Keep It Up To Date

Uyghur, a Turkic language that uses the Arabic alphabet, has about 10 million native speakers, most of them in the Xinjiang province of northwestern China. With the Chinese Communist Party engaged in a campaign to suppress the Uyghur minority and their language (including scrubbing Uyghur websites based in China from the Web), a WeChat group of academics, translators, and other professionals called “Tilchilar” (Uyghur for “linguists”) is doing crucial work to document the language and make sure ...
Tags: Art, China, Chinese communist party, Words, Xinjiang, 02.20.21

China Has Wrecked Two-Thirds Of Uyghur Mosques: Report

“Drawing on satellite imagery, data analysis and on-the-ground reporting, the think tank [Australian Strategic Policy Institute] estimated that, since 2017, 65% of the [Xinjiang] region’s mosques and 58% of its important Islamic sites — including shrines (mazars) and cemeteries — have been either destroyed or damaged.” – The Art Newspaper
Tags: Art, China, Xinjiang, Visual, 11.03.20

How Disney’s New “Mulan” Is A Travesty Of China’s History

The rotten heart of Mulan as a film, rather than its production process, is the accidental regurgitation of China’s current nationalist myths as part of a messy, confused, and boring film. The title card fades into a location said to be the “Silk Road, Northwest China.” This is, of course, Xinjiang—here set up by the narrative frame as an inalienable part of China that Mulan must defend for her father, her family, and her emperor. That’s not the historical reality—or even the reality of the ori...
Tags: Art, Media, China, Disney, Mulan, Xinjiang, 09.08.20, Silk Road Northwest China

Major Cultural Figures In China’s Xinjiang Province Are Disappearing Into Uyghur Prison Camps

“Since April 2017, an estimated one million of Xinjiang’s 11 million Uyghur population” — including most of its Uyghur artists and writers — “have disappeared into what the government calls ‘re-education’ camps, without recourse or documentation, where they are reportedly tortured into denouncing Islam and their Uyghur identity, and accepting Communist Party rule and Han Chinese dominance.” — The Art Newspaper
Tags: Art, China, Islam, Xinjiang, Issues, Communist Party, 01.02.19

Spotted! Cassandra Goh

Cassandra Goh calls herself a communicator, shooting stories that are heavy with visual activism. “My passion lies in sustainability – environmental and social concerns -, travel and adventure.” In the featured series titled A Mode of Being Apart, Cassandra focuses her lens on the ongoing separatist conflict in Xinjiang. “Especially on the issue of discrimination which has caused tension between Han Chinese and Uyghurs, highlighting the enforcement of human rights in Xinjiang.”
Tags: Photography, Design, Xinjiang, Singapore Photographer, Cassandra, Cassandra Goh

Gobi Desert Beauty: The Museum of Western Regions in Xinjiang, China

Among the design principles that the architects of the Museum of Western Regions in China’s Baijiangou village, in Xinjiang, mention, this one probably stands out the most: “Good-looking is not beauty, and even beauty often lasts for a short while with the shift of aesthetic trends. A pleasant and well-adapted building with multiple functions is a good building, and durability is a synonym of...
Tags: Art, China, Xinjiang, Xinjiang China, Baijiangou

China is now the largest producer of solar power in the world

One way China is working to battle climate change-causing carbon emissions is by developing a vast army of renewable energy projects. Even as the country struggles with pollution, it has made great strides on clean energy. They're now the largest producer of solar energy by capacity in the world, adding 34.54 gigawatts of the country's installed capacity of 77.42 gigawatts last year alone. The country's National Energy Administration (NEA) announced over the weekend that in 2016, installed p...
Tags: Energy, Japan, Design, News, China, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Clean Energy, Solar, Solar Power, Xinjiang, Photovoltaics, Nea, Reuters, Engadget, Qinghai

Here Are The Winners Of The 2016 iPhone Photography Awards

The annual iPhone Photography Awards have recognized the top images taken with an iPhone as well as the top iPhone photographers for the last 9 years, and now this year’s winners have been unveiled. This year, “thousands” of images were submitted from photographers across 139 countries. Siyuan Niu, Xinjiang, China, Grand Prize Winner, Photographer of the Year Man and the Eagle “The brave and wise Khalkhas live along the mountains in the south of Xinjiang and are companions with the eagles. They...
Tags: Photography, Design, Australia, United States, Strasbourg, Xinjiang, Warsaw, Cape, Shanghai China, Beijing China, Lisbon Portugal, Tarragona Spain, Changsha China, Andrew Montgomery, Chongqing China, Cebu City Philippines

Ai Weiwei s’envole au Bon Marché

Pendant le mois du blanc, Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche donne Carte Blanche à l’artiste chinois Ai Weiwei avec l’exposition « Er Xi, Air de Jeux » où culture et histoire s’entremêlent. L’exposition se décline en trois parties: les vitrines rue de Sèvres, les suspensions de créatures mythologiques sous les verrières et les installations au sol. C’est Aristide Boucicaut, fondateur du Bon Marché et génie du marketing, qui lança le mois du blanc en janvier 1873 afin de réveiller les ventes, en baisse a...
Tags: Art, Design, Zen, France, Beijing, Sculpture, Paris, Agenda, Xinjiang, Ai Weiwei, Insolite, Chine, Artistes, Janvier, Shandong, Duchamp