Month: July 2013

Abdulla, King of Uyghur Women

Published by Darren Byler

This is the third post in a multi-part series on Abdulla Abdurehim hosted by The Art of Life in Northwest China Abdulla, the undisputed king of Uyghur pop, receives 1000s of love letters from Uyghur women. According to those who traffic in insider knowledge of Uyghur models of masculinity, Abdulla’s effect on women first became a subject of manly discussion in the early 2000s when his song “Ranjima” was released. As you will see in the linked music video of that song, the camera lingers on a young woman while Abdulla, clad in a bad-ass Harley-Davidson t-shirt, crones lines such as “Don’t be sorry, let’s just be friends” – a clear allusion to a failed illicit affair with the distracted young woman. Young Ranjima swoons. Abdulla basks in love letters which rain down around him from his female admirers. Despite this direct appeal to his sexuality in the images of the song, Abdulla carries on a line from Sufi poets who were devoted to “one true thing.” He sings: “Our souls cannot share the same flame.” Thirteen years …

Abdulla, King of Uyghur Pop: His Themes

Published by Darren Byler

This is the second post in a multi-part series on Abdulla Abdurehim I wrote last week about the way Abdulla’s poetic voice corresponds with his deep literacy in Uyghur culture. But clearly Abdulla does much more than lean on the traditions of the past. Although this attention to cultural symbolism and spiritual ritual are an important aspect of his public persona, Abdulla is also deeply engaged in the everyday life of increasingly urban Northwest China. In order to understand the depth of his appeal, I will outline the themes which emerge from his catalog and then analyse one of these themes. Put simply, Abdulla sings about love, moral struggle, and parents. If you take a random sample of his song titles you will see that nearly all of his songs fall into these categories: Songs of love: Embarrassment, They say I’m black, My flower you are not here, My nightingale, If I miss you, A word to my lover, Hey girl, I give you my everything, First Love, I can’t forget about you. Songs of morality: A …

“Older Brother” Abdulla the King of Uyghur Music: His Voice

Published by Darren Byler

This is the first post in a multi-part series on Abdulla Abdurehim I’ve asked many people why Abdulla “Aka” (Older Brother) Abdurehim is the undisputed King of Uyghur Music. It’s not that he has the gravitas of a young Elvis Presley, the steely resolve of Johnny Cash, the working-class poetics of Bruce Springsteen or the song and dance routine of the trickster Bob Dylan. People talk about the catchiness of his melodies, the way the best song writers flock to him like pigeons to a master and women flutter around him like moths to a flame. Yet these explanations always leave me unsatisfied. Abdulla is after all an average looking middle aged man from Kashgar. He’s average height. He has a moustache. It wasn’t until I watched a low-quality video (below) of him singing at an olturush or “sitting” that I began to appreciate the quiet dignity of his disposition – what Heidegger would call his being-in-the-world – and the way the burning passion of his voice fills a room. Abdulla carries a flame. When he …

A Smile of Recognition, A Look of Disdain, Sharing a Uyghur Frame

Published by Darren Byler

The Legacy of Ai Qing’s Xinjiang Poetics Sometimes the mountains faded into the whiteness of the clouds and it was difficult to distinguish what was snow and what was clouds. Yet some days there were no clouds and the mountains seem to float in the air. This caused me to have a good and proper smile. –Ai Qing, The Poetic Life, 2007, 67 (Looking south from Shihezi to the Heavenly Mountains) 1. Like the rest of contemporary China, Xinjiang is going through a rapid economic transformation. By simultaneously depoliticizing the economic and encouraging a new ethic of entrepreneurialism, new forms of governance and subsidized development in Xinjiang are drawing waves of rural Han migrant workers from other parts of China. In general terms, these new arrivals are faced with the same uncomfortable environment and ethnic difference that confronted Ai Qing, China’s preeminent revolutionary poet and father of rabble-rouser Ai Weiwei, when he arrived in the late 1950s. In fact, throughout China’s history new migrants to Northwest China have been forced to resolve whether Xinjiang can be …