Diaspora

Ai Weiwei visits Ukrainian front lines

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Source: The Art Newspaper (8/18/25)
‘Their resolve is incredibly strong’: Ai Weiwei visits soldiers on Ukrainian front lines
As Ukraine’s president prepared for a high-stakes visit to Washington, DC, the Chinese artist and activist visited Eastern Ukraine
By Sophia Kishkovsky

Ai Weiwei with Ukrainian troops Photo courtesy Ai Weiwei, via Instagram

Ai Weiwei with Ukrainian troopsPhoto courtesy Ai Weiwei, via Instagram.

Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and activist, has travelled to the front lines of Ukraine’s war against Russia’s full-scale invasion just weeks before unveiling a new commission in Kyiv. In eastern Ukraine, near Kharkiv, Ai met with Ukrainian fighters and cultural figures as well as Pyotr Verzilov, a member of Pussy Riot who is fighting against Russia for Ukraine.

In a series of photographs and videos posted on Instagram without any commentary over the weekend, Ai documented his meetings with Ukrainian soldiers in forests and trenches, cultural figures and landmark Constructivist architecture in Kharkiv—which is under regular Russian attack—and images of support including the blue and yellow national flag, fields of sunflowers and a puzzle of Reply of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks (1880-91), a painting by the Ukrainian-born artist Ilya Repin.

At least ten people were killed in Kharkiv and in Zaporizhzhia by Russian drone strikes on Sunday night and Monday morning (17-18 August), just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders were scheduled to meet at the White House with US President Donald Trump. Following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on 15 August, Trump is pressuring for a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelensky. Continue reading Ai Weiwei visits Ukrainian front lines →

‘Reverse Runology’

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Source: China Digital Times (8/15/25)
“Reverse Runology?” Some Émigrés Reconsider Their Escape from China
By Arthur Kaufman

The struggle for a better life has long pushed many Chinese citizens to escape difficult conditions at home. In the most recent waves of emigration, tens of thousands of Chinese migrants have made perilous journeys through Central America along the “walking route,” or zǒuxiàn (走线), in an attempt to reach the southern U.S. border. But the political climate at their destination has become increasingly hostile, particularly under the new U.S. administration, which has deterred Chinese tech talent and restricted Chinese student visas (building on restrictive measures under the previous administration). Now, some Chinese migrants are reconsidering their escape routes and looking beyond America—or returning home.

The impetus to emigrate in recent years is encapsulated by the term “run” (润) or “runology” (润学). Recent CDT translations have illustrated how persistent youth unemployment, continual pandemic-era surveillance, and a repressive political environment, among other issues, have contributed to a feeling of malaise and a loss of faith in the Chinese Dream. Last week in the Made in China Journal, Dino Ge Zhang situated “runology” in the context of “Sinopessimism”, describing it among other negative affects and exit strategies for youth disenchanted with contemporary Chinese life. But the author hinted that the practice of runology ultimately may not yield desirable results, particularly for those who have chosen to flee to the U.S.: Continue reading ‘Reverse Runology’ →

The Films of Ikram Nurmehmet

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Source: China File (7/3/25)
Balancing What Can Be Said with What Can Only Be Implied: The Films of Ikram Nurmehmet
By Shelly Kraicer

A still from Ridiculous Nurshad (2022).

The young Uyghur filmmaker Ikram Nurmehmet is now in a Chinese prison. Arrested in May 2023, he was accused by the Chinese government of “actively participating in terrorist activities.” Human Rights Watch called the charges “politically motivated,” and reported that Ikram was “tortured . . . until he gave a false confession.” Convicted in January 2024, Ikram was sentenced to six and a half years behind bars. He was likely targeted because he had studied in Turkey between 2010 and 2016. His arrest and imprisonment has occurred in the context of Chinese authorities’ continuing persecution of minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region that has intensified since 2017.

It is always difficult for what China calls “ethnic minority” (i.e. non-Han Chinese) filmmakers to make the films they want to make inside China, where review by the state Film Administration is mandatory for all. Staying inside the system allows filmmakers to have their work shown publicly in China and, if they can get official approval, abroad. What may be surprising is that filmmakers from Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang have succeeded in making important and eloquent works of cinema that grapple, at least indirectly, with the particular situations of their communities in China, despite the constraints under which they work.

Since 2017, a new generation of Uyghur filmmakers, including Ikram Nurmehmet, Tawfiq Nizamidin, Emetjan Memet, Mirzat Abduqadir, and Pahriya Ghalip, has emerged. Most studied at the Beijing Film Academy, and all have made creatively challenging, formally interesting, socially engaged short films that carefully explore—with humor, passion, and a savvy sense of how to balance what can be said with what can only be implied—what life is like for Uyghurs in China today.

A close reading of Ikram’s four short films—from Elephant in the Car’s mysterious energy, through the absurdly dark comedy of Ridiculous Nurshad and rambunctious humor of Tu Cheshang Erbai (200 Per Puke), to the brilliant formal control of A Day by the Sea—can elucidate some ways that a filmmaker under systemic political pressure can navigate the closely regulated Chinese censorship system while preserving an articulate, sustainable, and authentically expressive voice. Continue reading The Films of Ikram Nurmehmet →

Dalai Lama will reinarnate

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Source: NYT (7/2/25)
Dalai Lama Says He Will Reincarnate, but China Has No Say in Successor
The aging Tibetan spiritual leader is looking to prevent Beijing from taking advantage of a power vacuum that might arise after his death.
By Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar, Reporting from Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders are meeting to discuss the future of the spiritual leader’s institution

Monks in saffron robes sit as a video of the Dalai Lama speaking onscreen plays in front of them.

Tibetan Buddhist monks gathered in Dharamshala, a Himalayan hill town in India, to discuss the future of the Dalai Lama’s spiritual office, as China tries to control who will succeed him. Credit…Atul Loke for The New York Times

The Dalai Lama gathered senior Tibetan Buddhist monks on Wednesday in Dharamsala, the Himalayan town where he has lived in exile for over half a century, to chart the future of his spiritual office — and how it might survive growing pressure from China.

In a recorded video statement to the three-day conference, the 89-year-old offered few specifics on how Tibetan Buddhism’s highest office might avoid a period of uncertainty after he dies, a moment that Beijing may try to seize by installing its own choice as the next Dalai Lama.

But he made one thing clear: his own doubts about whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue after him have now been put to rest. He had previously been open to ending the role to avoid it being exploited by China after his death, but now affirmed that the lineage would go on.

He also made what was seen as another move at shutting China out from the future reincarnation of the Tibetan spiritual leader. He said in a statement that Gaden Phodrang Trust, which is registered in India and run by the Dalai Lama’s office, has “sole authority” to recognize such a reincarnation.

“No one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter,” he said.

The Chinese Communist Party, which has sought to erode the influence of the Dalai Lama in Tibet, asserts that only it has the authority to choose his reincarnation, despite being committed to atheism in its ranks. In Beijing, a spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the reincarnation had to be approved by the central government. Continue reading Dalai Lama will reinarnate →

Poll shows attitudes toward China improve

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Source: China Digital Times (6/11/18)
Polls Show Global Attitudes Towards China Improve, At Expense of U.S.
By Arthur Kaufman

Numerous public opinion surveys from around the world have highlighted a significant shift in global attitudes towards China. Respondents from countries in both the Global South and Global North have expressed increasingly favorable views towards China and less favorable views towards the U.S. As the surveys and other analyses suggest, this shift is in part due to perceptions of U.S. instability and a global media landscape that produces a less hostile picture of China.

The latest poll was published on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. In a survey of 24 countries, respondents in Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Indonesia, Turkey, South Africa, and Mexico expressed a higher confidence in Xi Jinping than Donald Trump to do the right thing regarding world affairs. Those in Greece, Italy, France, Australia, and Kenya trusted Trump more than Xi only by five or less percentage points. (Respondents in Japan, Israel, and Poland had the lowest levels of trust in Xi.) Across all 24 countries, Xi obtained a median of 25 percent, compared to Trump’s 34 percent and Vladimir Putin’s 16 percent.

Last week, Xinlu Liang at the South China Morning Post described the results of another survey by U.S. intelligence company Morning Consult showing that, between January and April, favorable views towards China surpassed those towards the U.S. for the first time in recent years: Continue reading Poll shows attitudes toward China improve →

Chasing Traces open access

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Chasing Traces: History and Ethnography in the Uplands of Socialist Asia
Now available as Open Access from University of Hawaii Press.
Download and share

Table of contents is below, including my own chapter on the Wa people’s history between China and Burma.

First, the book’s description:

In the connected highlands of southwest China, Vietnam, and Laos, recalling the past is a highly sensitive act. Among local societies, many may actively avoid recalling the past for fear of endangering themselves and others. Oral traditions and rare archives remain the main avenues to visit the past, but the national revolutionary narrative and the language of heritagization have strongly affected the local expression of historical memory. Yet this does not prevent local societies from producing their stories in their own terms, even if often in conflict with both national and Western categories. Producing history, ethnohistory, historical anthropology, and historical geography in the Southeast Asian highlands raises significant questions relating to methodology, epistemology, and ethics, for which most researchers are often ill-prepared. How can scholars manage to competently access information about the past? How is one to capture history-in-the-making through events, speech acts, rituals, and performances? How is the memory of the past transmitted—or not—and with what logic? Continue reading Chasing Traces open access →

Hong Yen Chang

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Source: NYT (6/6/25)
Overlooked No More: Hong Yen Chang, Lawyer Who Challenged a Racist System
He struggled to become the first Chinese American person to practice law in the U.S., then used his training to fight for other Chinese Americans.
By Julie Ho

A black and white portrait of Hong Yen Chang formally dressed and looking off to the side.

Hong Yen Chang in about 1890. He was one of 120 young men selected by the Chinese government to study in America, where he chose to stay. Credit…Bushnell Photography, via Huntington Digital Library

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.

Before Hong Yen Chang graduated from Columbia Law School in New York, he was breaking barriers just by being there.

Before he became the first Chinese person allowed to practice law in the United States, he had to wrangle with New York’s judiciary for permission.

Before he could protect Chinese immigrants in court, he studied tirelessly to master a legal system that was not inclined to welcome him. Essentially, Chang realized that before he could help anyone else, he had to help himself.

Chang was born on Dec. 20, 1859 (some records say 1860), in what was then called Heungshan, a prosperous district in Southern China connected to the Portuguese port of Macau. His father, Shing Tung Chang, was a merchant who died when Hong Yen was a child; his mother was Yee Shee. Continue reading Hong Yen Chang →

US will ‘aggressively’ revoke visas of Chinese students

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Source: NYT (5/28/25)
U.S. Will ‘Aggressively’ Revoke Visas of Chinese Students, Rubio Says
阅读简体中文版 | 閱讀繁體中文版
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the students who will have their visas canceled include people with ties to the Chinese Communist Party and those studying in “critical fields.”
By Edward Wong, Reporting from Washington

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, wearing a dark suit and red tie, points with his right hand while seated in front of a microphone.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifying at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week. Credit…Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday evening that the Trump administration would work to “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in “critical fields.”

He added that the State Department was revising visa criteria to “enhance scrutiny” of all future applications from China, including Hong Kong.

The move was certain to send ripples of anxiety across university campuses in the United States and was likely to lead to reprisal from China, the country of origin for the second-largest group of international students in the United States.

Mr. Rubio’s brief statement announcing the visa crackdown did not define “critical fields” of study, but the phrase most likely refers to research in the physical sciences. In recent years, American officials have expressed concerns about the Chinese government recruiting U.S.-trained scientists, though there is no evidence of such scientists working for China in large numbers.

Similarly, it is unclear how U.S. officials will determine which students have ties to the Communist Party. The lack of detail on the scope of the directive will no doubt fuel worries among the roughly 275,000 Chinese students in the United States, as well as professors and university administrators who depend on their research skills and financial support.

American universities and research laboratories have benefited over many decades by drawing some of the most talented students from China and other countries, and many universities rely on international students paying full tuition for a substantial part of their annual revenue. Continue reading US will ‘aggressively’ revoke visas of Chinese students →

Walasse Ting

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Source: NYT (5/16/25)
Overlooked No More, Walasse Ting, Who Bridged Cultures With Paint and Prose
His style as a poet and artist was informed by his upbringing in Shanghai and his years in Paris. He then joined the Pop-fueled studios of New York.
By Will Heinrich

A black-and-white photo of him leaning casually against a sidewalk railing along a city street with stone buildings behind him. He is stylishly dressed in a jacket and slacks and print shirt.

The painter and poet Walasse Ting in Hong Kong in 1953. Credit…The Estate of Walasse Ting

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.

Flickering among the major figures of postwar art — the Minimalist sculptor Dan Flavin, the avant-garde artist Pierre Alechinsky, the abstract painter Sam Francis and others — is the radiant shadow of Walasse Ting.

Ting, a painter and poet from China, introduced Flavin to Japanese ink. He turned Alechinsky on to acrylic paint. Together, he and Francis explored the interplay between Western action painting and Asian brush techniques.

In an era when artists were typically siloed by geography and genre, Ting broke free, effortlessly creating fertile connections wherever he went. His own work, at its best, melded the elegance and delicacy of traditional Chinese ink painting with an eye-grabbing palette equally influenced by American Pop Art and the lurid colors of the Florida aviary he frequented, Parrot Jungle (now Jungle Island) in Miami. Continue reading Walasse Ting →

The Mediterranean through Chinese Eyes

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The Mediterranean Through Chinese Eyes: Transcultural Encounters and Representation in Chinese Sources
May 16th-17th, 2025
UNIVERSITY OF PALERMO
Botanical Garden, Lanza Conference Room (and online)

The international conference The Mediterranean Through Chinese Eyes: Transcultural Encounters and Representation in Chinese Sources is the second conference of the MeTChE research project. This event aims to investigate how the Mediterranean has been perceived, represented, and reimagined in Chinese sources across time. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines, the conference will explore the construction of a transcultural perception of Mediterranean civilization(s) in Chinese geographical texts and travel diaries. Particular attention will be given to how representations of the sea and distant lands contributed to shaping the image of the “other” in Chinese thought.

The conference will be transmitted live on Microsoft Teams. We invite you to attend remotely and participate in the discussion. Full program, link and other details are available at the conference website.

Posted by: Renata Vinci <renata.vinci@unipa.it>

Aftermath of Thai handing Uyghur refugees to China

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If you read just one article about Thailand handing Uyghur refugees to China, this may be the one — it situates this stunning debacle in the context of the global US withdrawal from commitments, promises, and values:

“US Ally Kowtows to China as Old Order Crumbles Under Trump,” by Matthew Tostevin. Newsweek (Feb. 28, 2025). 

The Newsweek piece was published the day after the forced deportation, so it could not yet note the absolutely stunning admission from the Thai government, on March 6, that they knowingly lied about there being no other governments (or the UNHCR) ready to take the refugees — as top officials all the way to the PM had been insisting, until that day, as one justification for setting aside the Torture Convention.

Links on this and on the Thai government’s shocking parroting of various other Chinese talking points (the refugees are “safe”, because there is pictufre proof from Chinese-arrangeded photo ops, etc.):

“In reversal, Thai official acknowledges other countries offered Uyghurs resettlement“… (Radio Free Asia)

“Thailand had offers to take Uyghurs but deported them to China anyway: MP.” (Radio Free Asia)

“US offered to resettle Uyghurs that Thailand deported to China, sources say.” (The Guardian)

For more, including some of the Chinese propaganda around this whole incident, see my online bibliography (periodically updated) on the genocide in the Uyghur region (East Turkestan): https://uhrp.org/bibliography/

Sincerely,
Magnus Fiskesjö

Thailand deports Uyghur refugees

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This morning, on Feb. 27, 2025, Thailand deported over forty Uyghur refugees to China, despite a pending court hearing set for next month. This was simply set aside — and was perhaps a lie to begin with. The shameful deportation was done under the cover of night, in buses with black-out windows, to prevent the press from seeing the prisoners [https://prachataienglish.com/node/11322]. A Chinese plane flew them direct from Bangkok to Kashgar in the Uyghur region, where China’s concentration camps now await them.

Thailand has now violated both the UN convention on torture, which it signed, and the principle of non-refoulement, against sending refugees in harm’s way. Thailand’s betrayal of human rights also overrides the Thai politicians and lawyers and others who tried to protest, arguing that refugees had suffered enough, languishing in Thai jails for over ten years, with five dying, including two children.

It is obvious this was done only to obey China — where state media celebrated getting their hands on the refugees.

For more see: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14jjxz8re6o

A week ago, I explained the global stakes of Thailand’s Uyghur refugee drama, that has now ended in such a gruesome way. Listen on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/wrfihumanrightsshow/magnus-fiskesjo-feb-21_4upload
(first aired Friday, Feb. 21 on the “Human Rights and Social Justice” local FM radio show hosted by Ute Ritz-Deutch, on WRFI.org, at FM 88.1 in Ithaca)

Sincerely, with great sadness, and frankly disgust at the Thai authorities’ betrayal,

Magnus Fiskesjö

Thailand obeys China on refugees and kidnapping

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On the burning issue of Thailand’s pending forced repatriation to China of forty-some Uyghur refugees, to certain torture and probably death there, because of international protests (even from UN-appointed experts), and global media attention, top Thai political leaders and the national police chief have now come out, to tie themselves in knots while trying to defend their country’s actions and shore up an image of decency.

Thailand’s police chief has the audacity to say that the refugees, WHO HAVE BEEN DETAINED FOR TEN YEARS NOW, are “doing OK”.

This article also mentions the brave Thai senator Angkhana Neelapaijit, chairwoman of a Senate committee that has now asked to at last be allowed to see the detained men, and who also “expressed concerns shared by human rights organisations that the Uyghur group could face danger if they are sent back to China.”

She also reminded us all about how the coup government of general Prayut Chan-o-cha in 2013 already forcibly returned 109 Uyghur men to China at Beijing’s request, and to this day, their fate remains unknown. (Of course, we can assume they have all long since put to death).

In another report, a deputy PM and defence minister says Thailand will handle this decently (again, that’s after holding these refugees for 10 years!!), and “promises to adhere to human rights.” This minister’s pronouoncement has been seized upon as a hopeful sign, by Uyghurs in exile.

But I for one wonder, about Thailand and human rights. The country has refused to sign the international refugee convention on refugee treatment, and that same coup general once mocked the very same Uyghur refugees he sent to their probable death, as lowly animals. Continue reading Thailand obeys China on refugees and kidnapping →

New Chinese Migrants in SE Asia

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Dear colleagues,

The Contemporary China Centre at the University of Westminster is pleased to announce the next event in our Conference Deconstructed. Please feel free to circulate it widely in your networks and with colleagues whom might be interested, thank you.

New Chinese Migrants (Xinyimin 新移民) in Southeast Asia: Partnerships, Engagement and Faultlines
Wednesday, 26  March 2025,  11:00 AM  – 1:00 PM  GMT
Online, Zoom

Speakers: Associate Professor Wasana Wongsurawat, Dr Sylvia Ang, and Professor Enze Han
Chair: Dr How Wee Ng

Registration: The event is free to attend and open to all. A Zoom link will be provided to all those who register before 26th Mar 2025.

Book your tickets here Continue reading New Chinese Migrants in SE Asia →

Statement on Uyghur asylum seekers in Thailand

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See below for information on signing a statement protesting the Uyghurs being held by Thailand and who are at risk of being deported to China. –Magnus Fiskesjö

======================

Dear Friend and colleagues,

You will have seen the tragic news that 48 Uyghurs face immediate deportation from Thailand to the PRC where they will certainly face persecution.

We urge you to sign the following statement addressed to the Thai authorities asking for the group of detained Uyghur men to be given safe haven: https://forms.gle/zWw3GbTvvqiuNLRX7.

We hope that this statement will raise awareness of the detainees’ situation and prevent their deportation to the PRC.

Kind regards,

Nyrola Elimä, Rune Steenberg, David Tobin <d.tobin@sheffield.ac.uk>, and Emily Upson.