Q. SAKAMAKI PHOTOGRAPHY

Latest Stories: Xinjiang: Shifting Sands

Uighur trinket sellers, including this small girl in foreground, wait by their donkey carts for customers at a site of ancient ruins.
   
Uighur people pray at Hongqi Mosque in Hotan, Xinjiang, as the Chinese authority has started to control more religious culture.
   
Ripped-off pages of Koran remain at a mosque at Iman Usim tomb site in Taklamakan Desert, Xinjiang, as according to rights groups, the Chinese authority has started to control more religious culture, including prohibition of pilgrimages to the tombs of local saints, especially outside of their communities.
     
  
Two Uighur men are staying at their demolished and flattened community due to the Chinese modernization projects or Chinesefication, though the government insists the main reason is security of houses -- especially resistance to earthquake, in Kashgar, Xinjiang.
   
Newly built residential buildings in Urumqi. As skyscrapers loom where bazaars once stood, many Uighurs see themselves crowded out of their own homeland.
   
A Uighur couple and two Han Chinese men at an Urumqi park overlooking the province capital's new buildings.
     
  
Many Han-Chinese workers or migrants, like these at Urumqi's central railway station, have been flocking into Xinjiang as actors of the Chinese modernization projects or Chinesefication.
   
A propaganda mural with Chinese president Hu Jintao is displayed in the street in Tulufan, Xinjiang.
   
"Xinjiang's Professional Model Contest" is held in a shopping mall in Urumqi, as the Chinese modernization projects or Chinesefication advances in Xinjiang.
     
  
With a snake, an Uighur woman takes an belly dance performance, that many Uighurs regard as un-Islamic, for Han-Chinses tourists or customers, as Uighurs face hard economic situations, in Urumqi, Xinjiang.
   
An Uighur with a traditional Muslim cap walks in front of Chinese soldiers, as the Army is deployed in Urumqi and other areas of Xinjiang.
  
Not wanted, but portraits of the July 5th riot suspects, who were already arrested, are displayed seemingly as warning, at a mosque in Xinjiang. Aug 2009.
     
  
An elementary school in an Uighur community in Xinjiang, as the government has started to shift the entire education system to Mandarin Chinese.
   
An Uighur small girl and her mother stay at their building's hallway in an Uighur's old town that could face the demolition due to the Chinese modernization projects or Chinesefication, though the government insists the main reason is security of houses -- especially resistance to earthquake, in Hotan, Xinjiang.
   
A scene of a restaurant which is open for jade miners working at the part of the Kunlun Mountain range in Xinjiang.
     
  
An Uighur family, making Muslim caps, is staying at their home at one of the Kashgar's old towns, many residential areas of which have been destroyed or destroying due to the Chinese modernization projects or Chinesefication, though the government insists the main reason is security of houses -- especially resistance to earthquake, in Kashgar.
   
An Uighur boy stays at an entrance of a barely left building in a destroyed Uighur community area in Urumqi, Xinjiang, but his building could face the demolition soon due to the Chinese modernization projects or Chinesefication, though the government insists the main reason is security of houses -- especially resistance to earthquake.
   
A street scene in Hotan, with beggers, where the majority of the town are Uighurs, and many of them live in poverty like those in other Uighur communities in Xinjiang.
     
  
Uighur children play badminton in front of ongoing high-storied modern buildings, as the Chinese modernization projects or Chinesefication expand into Xinjiang. Meanwhile, many parts of Uighur old towns have been destroyed due the Chinese projects.
   
Riot gear remains in front of a luxury shopping mall in Urumqi, Xinjiang, and a Han-Chinese mother and her daughter walk nearby, as China is expanding its modernization projects, or Chinesefication, in the remote Muslim majority Province.
  
An Uighur man passes in front of a stature of Mao in Kashgar, Xinjiang, as the Chinese modernization projects or Chinesefication expand into the province.
     
  
Uighur people pray at an unknown soldier's tomb at Iman Usim holy site in Taklamakan Desert, Xinjiang, as according to rights groups, the Chinese authority has started to control more religious culture, including prohibition of pilgrimages to the tombs of local saints, especially outside of their communities.