cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49335350
[...]
Songs are never just songs.
Across the world, music entertains and comforts, but it also carries history, belief, and identity. It teaches children language and values. It celebrates weddings and new life, marks funerals and loss, and keeps community bonds alive. In difficult times, music helps people endure. It can regulate mood, strengthen memory, and remind us who we are.
That is why the reported banning and restriction of Uyghur songs by Communist China in East Turkistan (aka Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) is so alarming. When Chinese authorities label Uyghur music “problematic,” the target is not merely sound, it is culture itself.
Reports indicate that Uyghur songs are being flagged for having religious meaning, for “distorting Uyghur history,” for “inciting separatism,” or for promoting “discontent” with the society. But these categories are so broad that, in practice, almost any Uyghur song could become a target. If a song mentions faith, homeland, traditional values, or collective memory, it can be reinterpreted as political and “problematic”.
[...]
This recalls the “Cultural Revolution”, when many Uyghur songs were banned or altered to align with Chinese communist ideology. Today, few could imagine that Uyghurs are once again living through one of the darkest periods in human history. Yet, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples live in a region where the reality resembles a renewed “Cultural Revolution”, where traditions must be “corrected” or disappear. The fear today is that Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples are once again being pushed into a controlled cultural reality, where traditions must be reshaped or erased.
These are the results of Chinese official policies, including a statement reportedly announced on August 10, 2017: “Break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins. Completely shovel up the roots of ‘two-faced people,’ dig them out, and vow to fight these two-faced people until the end.” Human rights researchers, journalists, and advocacy groups have documented mass detention, pervasive surveillance, pressure on religious practice, and policies that reach deeply into family life and education. Dozens of governments have used the term “genocide,” while the United Nations has raised concerns that the scale and nature of abuses may amount to crimes against humanity.
This is not only about politics. It is about a nation’s right to exist as itself.
[...]