 Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you so much for coming. I've held on to these photos for 37 years, and, you know, got busy with my family and work and stuff, and then I tried to contact members of the Uyghur community and wasn't having luck, but a friend of mine introduced me to the Muslim Community Center here, and I'm so pleased that you responded in a positive way. And thank you to Qasim, in particular, and Runeir, for helping to organize this and dealing with the technicalities, et cetera. I really appreciate it, and I hope this is the first of many opportunities to show people the wonderful life I experienced in 1984. So, too close. So, what Qasim and I discovered when we opened up the slides is when I sent them to him, they got scrambled. So they're not in order. I have photos from when I took a bus from, I think, Longzhou to Tutifan, and I spent about 10 days, maybe, in Tutifan, and then I went on to Kashgar. So those are the two towns in the photos. So I'll just quickly describe each photo and tell you where it's from. If you recognize anyone, or if you recognize yourself, note it down, and I could send you family photos of relatives. You know, if you see a little boy and that was you, I'd love to send you a photo of that, so keep your eyes open. So here, the first photo is shortly after I arrived in Tutifan, and this is the little market. And what's interesting is the Han policemen on the side, and that was my introduction to the fact that on the surface, things seemed fine, and the people were very friendly and nice, but they were always being watched. My God, this was a classic photo of the policemen looking out. And here's in the market, I loved the little boys and little girls' haircuts. I thought they were great. I think they should be brought back as a style. I have 147 photos to get through, so I don't want to bore you, so I'll keep moving. Here's some of the photos, like this one, don't have a huge amount of content, but Kasim said, keep the photos in. You might recognize your father, your grandfather. So some of the photos are a little boring, but not if there's somebody's grandfather. And here's the marketplace in Tutifan. Again, go ahead. Ah, kabab. I had spent maybe six weeks in China, and I was exhausted in Han China. The food was terrible. It was all coconut oil and rice and canned vegetables and canned fruit, and it was just very difficult. When I got to Beijing, there were good restaurants, but otherwise the food was awful, and I was so happy to get to the country with Middle Eastern food and just delicious kababs and salsa and all that. And here's another salesman at the market. These are all Tutifan. I love this little girl's haircut. And Kasim says this is bamboo, which I didn't realize. No, sorry, sugar can't you do bamboo? Yeah. Oh, I'm not saying anything. And this man was a traveling entertainer, and he went on and on and on. So I sat and waited to see what's in the bag. He kept hitting the bag and talking and talking, but he talked for so long I finally gave up. So sorry, I don't have a photo of what's in the bag. He went on and on. Popsicles. Next. Shoe repair. Next. Here's my favorite, the bread. I loved the bread. There was no bread. Only rice in Hun China, and this bread was so good. You all remember the bread, right? I remember the taste as well. Yeah, go ahead. Many bread stalls in here. Kasim said keep the photo in, so I kept the photo in. Taking a nap. And I loved the little cradles. These are women out in front of their home. Next. Working inside the doorway. Now, I just liked this woman and her baby. They were so sweet and so friendly. Now these guys. Yeah, these guys, I call them the dudes. These are the dudes in total fun. But I found, we were more fashion conscious. And I liked how they dressed, so I thought these guys were very cool. Recognize anybody? One of you is? It's you, not me. The one on the right, it looks like me. Really? Hey, if you're sure. I have a same cap, same style. Yeah? You are a cool dude. Here's a mom and her baby. Go ahead. And Kasim told me about the irrigation system in total fun, which I'm sure you know that is really impressive, what they did. Here's another mother and baby, Madonna and child. And the children were so, they were so happy. And just ran around pretty free all through the town. This is still total fun. This guy is on the way to his market, to the market. I told Kasim, he's the really handsome weird guy that I saw. And so here's the market in Putofan, which was, of course, much smaller than Kashgar. I love the animal market. Yeah, yeah, animal market, right. While I was switching to, in the evening, there was a performance in our little hotel. And the name of the actress, there's no DNA. The man? Yeah, the man, yes. Yeah, that's Kasim said he recognized. I mean, he's quite famous. I was impressed that they performed with us. It was wonderful to see, really great. They were so full of character and great musicians too. This guy was so good. He's one of the best drummers I've ever seen. Does anybody recognize him? Not from the side. Not from the side. This is all in Putofan. He was really good. And he was working hard too. You can see, you know, the sweat on his forehead. So here's the market again. And you see, you know, once again, I assume this is a Chinese man looking around, keeping his eye out. And then the next day there were dancers in the little area pavilion of my hotel. And they were wonderful too. Really? Such a nice dance style. And this... Oh, what are those instruments called? Chum. Chum? Chum. Chum. He was really good too. Those were the... He was another really great musician. And I wonder what's happened to him. No. He was so good. So I took a taxi, which I think... I never saw any cars in Kashgar or, you know, in East Turkestan. So looking at modern photographs of Kashgar and Putofan, I'm just shocked by the highways and the cars. There were no cars except this one taxi that took me out to the Bezeklik caves. So these are just the photos of the landscape going out to the Bezeklik caves. Next. And there they are. It's funny. I don't have any photos inside. Maybe we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. Is that right? Yeah. So there's a... Wikipedia has some photos of the mosaics inside that were quite beautiful. And so people working in the fields nearby, I'm not sure if it's their land or Chinese land or what it would be. And this is the town of... Yarkoto? Yarkoto? Or the Chinese name is... Jiahe? Jiahe. Yarkoto. Right. Which apparently was lasted from the 2nd century BC to the 13th century when it was destroyed by Genghis Khan and the Mongols. That's what Wikipedia says. This is the only photo of me. All the pictures. But I was there. No. Here I am again. There's a Wikipedia. Oh, I loved this statue. And it was at a very small museum in Tudofan. Is anybody here from Tudofan? Do you remember a museum? I do. Oh, okay. Well, Kassim says it's likely to be Tudofan because the decorations on the body are more typical of that region, the Tudofan region than in Kashgar. But it's kind of an amazing statue and where is it now? Who knows. Oh, this is supposed to be the last photo in the show. Oh, well. And this is the beginning of the show where this is the bus I took from, as I recall, one show. And this is Tianxiang in the Taklamakan desert. On the way. This is one of the people I met at a stop, at a rest stop. So this is on the way to Tudofan. And apparently the man is wearing Kassim says the man is wearing a Kazakh hat, right? So this is where we stopped for the night. And I think this is the road to... Okay. Right. So, like I... From Longshou to Tudofan where I stopped, it was two days. Oh, I don't remember. I think I'd probably... Oh, really? See, it's been too long. I forgot. I forgot that trip. But we... I didn't have a translator but people were so friendly it wasn't really necessary. I don't know. We just did hand signals and I learned a little we were. I think, you know, probably the hotel spoke some English. But, you know, it was a lot of friendly smiles and waves and pointing. So... This place is like a 20, 50 miles from where I live. Oh, really? Oh, okay, if you want the photo. So what... We spent the night in this. I thought it was... I got excited and thought it was a Caravansalai but Cassimus has it. It was probably built by the Chinese but anyway, it was kind of exciting. A little hotel where we spent the night. Very primitive. And this is one of the women and children that we met that I met in the Caravansalai. And another little guy. And this was a woman that I met on the bus. We became friends. And I... She wrote down her address. I can't remember if I sent her a photo or not. I've got a photo of her journal so maybe maybe I can show it to you and send her... I mean, who knows send her a photo now except maybe that's not a good idea. So... And this is the bus driver the friendly bus driver. So this is the... this is cash and you know this is actually the first photo with cash and it's so much busier than Turfan and this is old cash so maybe leave it on here for a little bit. Did they destroy this area? Yeah this was you know I wandered around the streets here all destroyed wow okay and this was the only really it stuck out like a sore thumb because it was so incongruous. It just did not fit into the cashguard what I saw in cashguard just tried down the street and boom there he was you know Yeah I know fortunately there weren't a lot of this kind of statues this was the only one I saw and this is the alleyways in that neighborhood I took a photo of earlier little boys running around having tea and the oasis were beautiful in cashguard it was so green sorry I some of the photos the quality is not great so there's some little kids playing in the along the irrigation canal you can swim there this photo this is an odd photo but I took it in the main square this was the main square which was where the idka mosque so there were instead of cars big highways you had people driving their donkey carts yeah this was the Uber driver waiting to pick someone up but people just hung out in the square it was very quiet and relaxed and this was Saturday the big market day and a lot of people from small towns came into cashguard for it so this is where I first saw women wearing burqa right so I assume that they were from the countryside and came in from the market so here are some of the shops if it's in order I really loved the shops I thought they were beautiful this is a junk shop I guess and kassim said that these are the boys are making wedding gift chess yeah nice sharpener this guy was very proud of his nice people were really pretty it seemed pretty happy there oh the horse yeah saddles beautiful saddles it's a hardware store hardware store yeah wow and then in Han China I had seen the young pioneers so I guess you guys had to wear those scarves did you get indoctrinated? yeah if we go to school if we go without this little scar we were the bad guys we stand out as a bad the juvenile delinquents really at least they got to play musical instruments and this was my favorite noodle shop ah I love this food I think also the chef was very handsome so I like to go back and get food with him but it was very clean and the food was delicious and this is a cafe where I mentioned I came to the cafe and I kind of got the feeling I was interrupting a conversation that might have been sort of politically inclined because everybody became quiet when I came in so I think people were talking already about the situation and this is the idka oh this is my favorite yeah apothecary or medicine and you can see the lizards and I think that's rats in the back or mice and a bat and skeletons of other things too I think the colors in his shop were so beautiful so this is yeah calling for prayers I think this is afakkocha I hope it's okay that I took the photo and now we're back to idka again let's go preparing to pray I bet you didn't see anyone wearing jeans right? no jeans nothing some old friends chatting in front of the mosque I hope oh yeah do you recognize anybody any grandfathers you know them? well yeah and now we're back to the afakkocha the cemetery and this is afakkocha the actual temple and these are the tiles that Kasim told me about I didn't realize that Kashgar was famous for its tiles these must be very old and then back in town I came across some musicians that were selling instruments and this is where I got my one of those or maybe a smaller one apparently I don't know but anyway this is the guy I bought them from and this guy played rala beautifully and I got this rala at this little place where they were selling instruments but I don't have a photo of it near the kids the little kids were so playful and having fun the stroller was great do little girls somebody peeking out from the middle this is a funny photo I'm sort of embarrassed because they were looking at me like who are you this is the first year that there were tourists you know I had this big camera not very good I think they were staying the camera but they were looking at me it was not that great a camera and actually I had fallen into a canal in China and my camera got wet and I took it to I hung it out to dry with a fan in my hotel room that night I took it apart and the Chinese put it back together so I'm kind of amazed that these photos are okay it's a film right film camera right yeah these are from slides I have slides there are some other characters and here are the little kids I like the guy floating you know the little guy in front is so tiny and frail I hope he's strong enough to grow up nice and strong that look on his face and here Kasim said he did that when he was a little so did you all do that you did shame on you your mother a beautiful little cradle and so this is you know on Saturday morning we saw lots of donkey carts coming into town and it was for the Saturday market actually that is a self-driving car ah oh good especially on the way back home especially on the way back home especially on the way back home especially on the way back home right and this is the parking lot I guess that's what I called it the parking lot for the market so it was very crowded you'll see just amazing that people got things done this was all around the market area there were people selling things barbers and then one, two, three next photo down they go they all went down at the same time to shake so this was the animal market and these are pictures of people bargaining with each other lots of beautiful horses and we saw, got to see one guy riding his horse around to test it out and see if it was healthy lunchtime checking the teeth you can see the age of that the age aha and they even were selling pigeons and Casim told me about the mediator like the two people with bargain and so I guess the guy in the middle is listening very carefully and mediating the bargaining the broker very intense and they came to an agreement so I really like this picture I think but it reminded me of you know I studied art in college I minored in art history and it reminded me of actually 17th century Baroque European paintings by the great artists the faces are just so wonderful and so weathered and it was lunchtime and it was time for Samsa yeah everybody was eating Samsa myself included so this guy offered me some melon these guys what's the name of what they're making one two three and here's the Samsa I really liked how they made it I know how to make it oh you do make some oh yeah and then after lunch I came back out and the area was just packed I was shocked there were so many people and still bargaining very intensely and then I looked down and there were these little boys who were staring at me the whole time I was taking pictures any of you in there this is my row up and we were invited to a wedding and so these are musicians that were performing it wasn't the wedding itself it was a celebration and once again wonderful dancers oh my gosh they were so and musicians playing and delicious food we were really grateful to be invited yeah very special and here are my two friends from the US you didn't travel alone no no it's always good some people I love this photo because I think this woman is beautiful and I love her her hat and her scarf are just so elegant and I guess those are her grandchildren I really like that photo it would be wonderful if somebody recognized her and there's a little girl at the wedding now these are sort of random photos so oh this is the airport it doesn't look like the sitting board and here's the airplane I took to get back to I don't know maybe maybe and then took a flight to Beijing is that how we have to stop yeah I didn't spend any time to go to Omshi and here are all the people who came out to see the airplane land I guess and this is your typical donkey cart and this is a typical donkey cart that went over a ditch oh the donkey is thirsty he went for the water thank you water now these are all out of order but I think this is in Kashgar do you remember the name of this little mosque it was near Ipakkoja I think I thought it was beautiful and are these what are these I wasn't sure what they shrines to a particular for a family or rich guys rich guys okay these two little girls are from Kodafan oh and this photo is it was supposed to be right at the beginning of the show but it just shows I felt like they weren't wealthy but they did the women did wonderful things with their clothing and were very stylish I mean after being in Han China it was still very malice influenced and the women were very plain and wore very simple clothes and had haircuts very boring haircuts just straight across but the Uyghur women I thought paid attention to how they looked and dressed very well even though their clothes were very simple and they're high heels etc it was really nice and that's the end thank you my own personal feeling I just I'm so familiar with these photos having lived with them for a long time but like I said it was a relief getting to eat Turkestan and the people were so kind and friendly and even though I hardly spoke a word of Uyghur I did fine people were too kind and friendly and it was a very culturally rich society so I got to see the music and the dance enjoy the food it was definitely one of the best experiences I've ever had and I'll never regret it and I talked to a couple of people about photos elsewhere if people are interested in other communities I really want to share the photos it's the least I can do given the situation there any questions? yes first of all thank you so much it brought so much poignant memories even though I was like probably 5 years old back then but growing up pretty much I grew up seeing all of what's in the picture I was part of what's in the picture it brought so much fondness memories and it's just hard to express with words thank you so much for the pictures and we were talking back in 1984 you talked about really nice quality it's very quality picture and the question is what back then what was it that made you go the visit in this remote place because I figured there were tourists but back then maybe not as many right well I've always been kind of an adventurer where was back then and I had experienced Islamic culture traveling in Pakistan a couple of months before so I had remained in China I mean in Asia to go travel further in China and I really like the Middle Eastern culture I really think the music is fantastic and the food is great and so I was already the art is wonderful so I was already really entranced by the culture of the Middle East and so like I say I was so tired after two months in Han China the opportunity to come back to a Muslim culture just really appealed to me so that's why I went and I wasn't disappointed the music especially I just love it so thank you as you said since you had the personal experience there as you see culturally even in many aspects as you visited we have been rich in culture even in crafts even in contrast with how people dress between Uyghurs and Chinese you can imagine how the trajectory things as it is we had the freedom to live the way of our own life our own way but unfortunately with more encouragement of Chinese culture and Chinese influences and even their propaganda portraying us, painting us is a very bad picture but one thing I wish that more and more people could see what you see or at least from the pictures that they would understand actually we were not as what China or what they painted us as to be yeah I would like to if these photos can be useful in that way I would like to share them broadly thank you if you have ideas or thoughts I've already been in contact with I don't have her name but anyway I'm trying to provide a wider audience and I think things like the New York Times has been very good about presenting the situation in East Turkestan and other groups have done well so I feel like people are pretty sympathetic it's the Han Chinese I have a friend who is Chinese American and she did a tour of Xinjiang a couple of years ago but she wants to see these photos and I think it would be good for her to come from photos from a Uyghur perspective and understand a little bit more about what's going on there because I just can't imagine what they did on that tour or what they hid any other questions thank you thank you for all the pictures it's really great my question was back then in 1984 are you aware of any policy change that made the first time travelers like yourself at the time what allowed you what kind of policy changes are you aware of that made foreign travelers to be able to go to Xinjiang all we knew it was hard to get information because I think we were in Kunming when we heard was that East Xinjiang Turkestan was opening up and at the same time Dali which is another area in what in Yunnan in Yunnan had just opened up was a policy of Deng Xiaoping to open things up and I'm not sure what else was going on maybe it was part of his campaign to improve the economy after the you know all the chaos and to open it up to tourism maybe that's all it was we can exploit these people for tourism that might have been all that was involved there this is a big change in three years after that Deng Xiaoping came out and started changing things because China has a 30 some years all closed economy everywhere no car no one own car at that time only the corporate company government owned everything land trees mountains everywhere belongs to government all cars belong to government every car has a special driver only the government leader official person can have a car but he has a driver in 1977 they started to change the education system they accepted and started a college exam so it's a big change happening economically politically they need to stop giving the freedom to people yeah so there are advantages to being so old I got the code in there you know a wonderful place it's somewhat pretty free comparatively although who knows what was going on underneath any other questions any questions from ladies side any questions from ladies side yes well thank you so much for your patience I'm sorry things were out of order but I just really loved sharing my pictures with you and like I say get in touch with me with Samir if you want copies of any of these photos I'm happy to share them thank you thanks I think I had just one last minute question I think thank you so much for giving us all this beautiful opportunity to go through this beautiful memories that some of us has been through some of us has never actually lived through the existence of these beautiful cultures right so the question is it looks like when you were visiting back in 1984 it feels like you're very close to people so it doesn't feel like right now if any foreigners go to visit in those areas there's always government officials working this and that so I'm just curious back then do you feel anything that you know like if there's anyone like nowadays so if you could visit there's always people watching do you feel the same at that time or no but it looks like from the picture it was not like that back then I never felt anybody watching me or interfering at all I mean I I saw them like the one on the motorcycle in the market but I was never approached by a Han person I met some Han people on the bus coming out including one Han woman who was very nice and was not happy about being sent off to East Turkestan you know she wanted to be back wherever her home was but and there were a few Han people but really not many just hardly I don't know I just didn't see many at all so thank goodness I didn't have to deal with that thank you okay thanks again you know for one representation let's give a big round of applause to Miss Jenny thank you and I know this is like we had just our 8th just like a Tuesday so it's a great gift for us for all of us and also you brought up a very nice instrument we're going to invite Torin Jan to perform a couple of sounds and so we can enjoy the performance Torin Jan is a welcome we should have come up you can still sit turn off the mic maybe two sound the first one is just a warm up sound then I found a very perfect sound for today's event the second sound is small street the picture of the cash car small street that's a very famous sound in Uyghur thank you very much Torin Jan for beautiful performance and this song is everyone know about the song it's called narrow alley it means the road for Uyghur getting narrow and narrow it's losing your freedom so it has deep meaning so yeah it was a beautiful performance thank you very much so next one is just we're going to have a little like a gifting instrument session you know so I know Mrs. Janney is very generous enough to not only bring to the tar and also gifting because the tar that's amazing especially if you had a lot of memory a lot of story what we see from the pictures right so thank you and just before before this session starts so I want to introduce your foundation a little bit because for some of you if you never know about this on foundation so this foundation started in 2019 when it was a mission of preserving our Uyghur around the world and preserving our identity the beautiful culture especially in these days our language not being spoken and we are not available to follow our own practices religious culture wise that's why we know we have a lot to do to help to preserve this culture and our identity so since the start we helped around 6 to 700 orphans and families in need around the world mostly in Turkey and here in the US so please continue support us provide your feedback and help us get better for the gift session so I think so I know if Turkey will be receiving this because you are since performing this Turkey will be receiving this yes oh yeah right now I heard about you and your playing was beautiful and yes I didn't realize that your play was so small comparison to my but maybe for a children for a company you probably recognize that yeah it needs a little repair yeah I see thank you very much yeah enjoy do you have anything to say thank you thank you again just at the end I'll give a big round of applause to the JNE and the Turkish and everyone you know so may this the presentation memorable and at the end I know we are rushing food so we still have some food left for the rest of the hours and do our eight kind of you know at the back sure so seeing like first of all thank you and second of all when you visit my land my hometown this is like I was not even born I was born in 85 I missed you yeah so like seeing our people our culture back then and seeing what happened third best 30-70 years and I've been living in the United States since 2009 if you remember what happened 2009 July 5th in Burumqi you might have heard about it so seeing a lot of things happening in the United States kind of like sadly makes me sad as well this happened during my second hometown and like what the ration is going and it feels like one day this may sound kind of like a little bit like pessimistic but I hope it will not happen but so seeing so many things in your life and what do you see the future of the United States like cancelling what happened to Uighurs back in the East Turkestan and like the development in the United States what's your thought like since you had a life like you had probably a lot of not probably I mean like you had a lot of experience like life experience and like what's your feeling right now cancelling like everything all things cancelling thank you do you mean like in general like everything like what happened like gradually to us and like what's kind of like the United States is the direction of going right now the direction of the United States yes well this is I actually I've been doing you know I was when I was at university I was opposed to the war in Vietnam and was active and I've always been active that way and I'm really worried now so but I'm also so you know there's an old saying I don't know if you know it pessimism of the mind optimism of the will so I'm still working very hard I'm volunteering for the to contact people in states within the United States I'm urging them to call their senators specifically right now about the for the people act which is a bill in the senate which would make sure everybody has the freedom to vote and has a possibility to vote and the you know the elections are fair you know politicians can't decide who's going to be president the people will decide who's going to be president and so this bill the for the people act is very important and you know in 2020 I worked very hard to get some good senators and congressmen elected for me that's the way I feel I can help and the U.S. has wonderful potential but we just got to work hard for to make it happen so pessimism of the mind optimism of the will keep working keep positive I don't know if that's how you all feel or how it impacts the situation in East Turkestan that's the other thing you know I think we are very optimistic because you know we are coming from the area that has extreme conditions you know dry and all that we don't have to be optimism to live in such a environment you know so that kept us alive till the day you know I think that will keep us through this whole thing you know so yeah I think I like what you are saying you know yeah pessimistic of the mind but optimistic of the will you know beautiful you know I think it's very beautiful thank you very much you know yeah I mean I think also looking at what's happening to the Tibetans and the Hong Kongis you have allies there I hope things can get better for all three of those groups yes thank you very much thank you wonderful seeing all of you