About

The Art of Life in Chinese Central Asia is edited by Darren Byler PhD, an Assistant Professor in the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, in collaboration with Uyghur, Han and Kazakh writers and other non-Chinese scholars and artists. The site is focused on emerging forms of art and politics in Northwest China and Central Asia. Based on years of ethnographic fieldwork in the communities of Ürümchi, this site exists to provide a space for Xinjiang artists, film-makers, writers, musicians and poets. It is here to tell the stories of migrants who come to city in search of ways of living otherwise. The general aim is to recognize and create dialogue around the ways minority people create a durable existence and, in turn, how these voices from the margins link us together in simultaneously distinctive and connected ways. As long as the authors hold the دۇتار our goal is to add new content regularly as well as build and maintain an archive of Xinjiang popular culture.