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This spring, Museum on Main is celebrating the Uyghur culture, partnering with the local community to raise awareness of its existence here and its struggles against China.

Uyghurs are ethnically and culturally a Turkic people living in the heart of Asia, on the fabled ancient Silk Road, occupied by China since 1949. The Turkic-speaking Uyghurs, who have inhabited the area for almost 4,000 years, are under threat by China as it opposes its centuries-old traditions.

“We feel very fortunate to be a part of a diverse community here in Pleasanton, and each year we try to highlight that diversity with our Celebrate Community partnerships and programs,” said Sarah Schaefer, the museum’s director of education. “This year we are honored to be spotlighting the local Uyghur community and helping to raise awareness of the plight of the Uyghur communities in East Turkistan.”

The following free programs will be held:

* MoM’s Toddler Reading Time with Uyghur Nowruz, ushering in of the new year, a spring festival: 10 a.m. this Wednesday (March 11).

* Celebrate Community: Uyghur Nowruz Family Day: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., March 21. Uyghur music, dance, hair braiding, crafts, demos, crafts, calligraphy, cross stitch, traditional games, and food from a Uyghur restaurant, plus amazing circus acts and Uyghur dances.

* “A Discussion with … Uyghur scholar Dr. Erkin Sidick”: 5:30-7 p.m., April 25. This NASA scientist will discuss Uyghur culture and language and the current crisis in China. He has traveled the country and the world to raise awareness about the plight of the Uyghur community. The one-hour talk will be followed by a reception. Free but reservations required.

Today, it is estimated that more than 20 million Uyghurs live in East Turkistan and abroad. According to the Uyghur Congress, “Human rights violations remain pervasive including persecution on cultural and religious grounds, arbitrary arrests and the silencing of peaceful dissent.”

Museum on Main is at 603 Main St. Call 462-2766 or visit www.museumonmain.org.

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  1. What a disgraceful and shameful article, acting as a propaganda apologist for a federally classified terrorist organization: “East Turkestan” Islamic Movement. Absolutely despicable beyond the pale for a once civilized and law-abiding community like Pleasanton to be hosting terrorist sympathizers at the Museum on Main!

    Apart from the egregious pandering, this article engages in hyperbolic historical revisionism. If you’re going to shill for terrorists, at least get your facts straight. Xinjiang wasn’t even settled by the “Uyghurs” until the 800s AD. The Han Chinese have lived in Xinjiang for 2000 consecutive years since the Western Han Dynasty. The Uyghurs are not the local indigenous inhabitants of Xinjiang – in fact, even today, they make up only 40% of the total population.

    Pleasanton Weekly should apologize for this disgusting propaganda piece. The kind of journalistic incompetence or malpractice is absolutely mind-boggling. With ease-of-access search tools such as Google available at our fingertips, just how difficult is it to fact check your own article? No such entity known as “East Turkestan” has ever existed in history. That racist term has been used by terrorist organizations to deny the historical connection Han Chinese have with their homeland. Either it’s intentional slander or its abject laziness. Either way, those of us in the Chinese-American community here in Pleasanton will not sit idly by while the city imports terrorist sympathizers to brainwash our youth into the “harmless ideology” of the Uyghur separatist movement!

  2. Pleasanton Times = Terrorist sympathizers? Really?

    The NYT, BBC, Washington Post, and many other respected news sources, have gone into excruciating detail how China has systematically brutalized and terrorized Uyghurs , going so far as to detain at least a million into concentration camps, separating families, and having Chinese men sleep with Uyghur women whose husbands have been sent away to prison.
    Relevant links here:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/opinion/china-xinjiang-files.html?searchResultPosition=14

    This link details leaked Chinese policy documents from Chinese whistleblower detailing roundup and incarceration of Uyghurs:
    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html?searchResultPosition=18

    Also, Han Chinese migration is a relatively recent phenomenon, starting in the 1950’s
    https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uighur;

    According to Wikipedia, Uighurs and their ancestors have settled Xinjiang since 1800 BC, with DNA analysis of mummies found there sharing characteristics of western Eurasian peoples, not Han Chinese:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang#Human_rights

    Of course, you are free to express your opinion, but you aren’t entitled to alter facts. You also shouldn’t claim to speak for all Chinese-Americans, because many here do not approve of what the CCP in China is doing in Xinjiang.

  3. This is one event where “raising awareness” will actually do something, as I have no idea about the history of this group or its conflict with China.

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