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The Xinjiang Ketchup Shirt

Are you interested in finding ways to stand with Turkic Muslims in their struggle for human rights in Northwest China? One of the ways to amplify knowledge about their struggle is by wearing it, making it a part of your everyday life.

Many of the retailers who sell us clothes and tomato products are complicit in the oppression of Muslims in China. This shirt helps draw together those connections.

Follow this link to find out more about how you can support the project. Below is a bit more about this effort from it’s creator, Joxkun.

In addition to cotton, Xinjiang is also a major producer of tomatoes. Our research shows that 1/4 of the world’s tomato paste supply originates in Xinjiang. Several years ago, Juxkun had the idea to redesign a series of ketchup bottle and cans of soup in such a way to position them as an Indigenous Uyghur product.

Things have changed since then. In May 2019, the Wall Street Journal published a report about western companies’ entanglement in a system of compelled labour connected to Xinjiang’s well-documented Re-Education Camp system.

A cute idea changed into a project for self-care in the face of grief and despair. With the help of some friends and graphic designers, Juxkun produced a ketchup label that would incorporate this information concisely into an impactful image. This “Xinjiang Ketchup” T-Shirt is the result.

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Dr. Darren Byler is an Assistant Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University where he teaches and writes about social theory, urban ethnography and the technopolitics of life in Chinese Central Asia. He also writes a regular column on state violence and Uyghur decolonization for SupChina.

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