Religion

Celebrating Chinese New Year’s in China’s Uyghur Region

URUMQI, China — Urumqi, the capital of northwest Xinjiang Province, is a city that operates on two clocks. Trains, planes and business hours tend to correspond to “Beijing time,” while many locals instead set their schedules according to “Xinjiang time,” two hours behind official clocks but closer to the natural rhythms of the landscape.

Time zones aren’t the only thing that separates this remote province from the rest of China. As the home of China’s Uyghur ethnic minority and a mashup of other central Asian groups, Xinjiang is a world apart culturally from the rest of the country. Most Uyghurs practice Islam and speak a Turkic language indecipherable to members of the dominant Han ethnic group. Those religious and cultural divides are just one aspect of the increasingly fraught relationship between Uyghurs and Han in Urumqi, where tensions have exploded in deadly riots and terrorist attacks.

Even without the violence, the communities inhabit largely parallel universes, and rarely is this clearer than during Chinese New Year. While Han Chinese drop everything and journey to their hometowns for once-a-year reunions, most Uyghurs ignore the holiday entirely. The photos below portray Uyghurs and Han in Urumqi on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

All photos by Matjaž Tančič except where noted otherwise.

chuanr castle
Crescent moons adorn lamb barbecue stands on a busy street in Urumqi’s Uyghur Tianshan district.

eye models
Mannequins outside a Uyghur storefront in Tianshan district.

adidas veil
Storekeepers at Urumqi’s Grand Bazaar dressed in traditional Adidas and Louis Vuitton headscarves. Urumqi’s local government has instituted strict bans on face-covering veils and long beards on young men.

guitar couple
A musical young couple lines up to buy decorations for Chinese New Year.

meat man
Uyghurs adhere to religious injunctions against eating pork, but lamb butchers and skewers are abundant in the city.

girls dancing
Young men and women dance at an underground Uyghur club on New Year’s Eve.

beret guy
A Uyghur man dancing to local ethnic music in the hours before midnight.

police patrol
Police on patrol in Tianshan district. A spate of knife and bomb attacks have attracted a large and heavily armed police presence throughout the city.

fat manA Uyghur man dancing to local ethnic music in the hours before midnight.

children standChildren pose for photos on the morning of Chinese New Year.

boy with capA young Han Chinese boy visits Red Mountain Temple in Urumqi on New Year’s morning.

light my fireA young Han Chinese boy visits Red Mountain Temple in Urumqi on New Year’s morning.

cops on the squareMilitary police guard People’s Square on New Year’s morning.

A massive firecracker explosion marks the New Year at an Urumqi mall.Read more from source…

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