Tianshan Mountains, stretching for thousands of miles across China's 
northwestern frontier, divides the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in half – 
the relatively affluent north and the less developed south. For some time, 
people in the south with a bigger ethnic minority population didn't understand 
the rapid development in the north while those in the north lacked accurate 
views of the south, let alone people from outside the region.

After decades of development and interaction, people from both sides of the 
mountains became acquainted with each other. Mountains are physical boundaries 
that can be crossed, but "a dose of prejudice comes from the mountains in our 
mind that prevent us from seeing the truth," according to Han Bin, director of 
the documentary "Beyond the Mountains: Life in Xinjiang."

Terrorist attacks that have plagued the region for almost three decades left 
people in and outside the region in shock and panic. A number of people from 
other provinces and regions of China unwittingly looked at Uygurs with tainted 
spectacles, noted Chen Ruijun, a construction firm official who went to support 
Xinjiang's development in 2008 and 2009 when extremist riots were rampant in 
the region. The fear and accompanying preconception have gradually subdued with 
greater understanding and faster development. 

In recent years, a fair portion of Western media coverage regarding China have 
painted a negative picture due to lack of information as well as lack of trust. 
Xinjiang, home to over 12 million Uygurs, has experienced a larger share of the 
stigma and distortion. Foreign reporting on Xinjiang has predominantly centered 
around allegations of so-called "human rights abuses by the Chinese government."

As such, the real Xinjiang is drowned in endless outrageous and sensational 
headlines about "detention camps" and "forced labor" in textile, tomato 
production, and even solar power sectors, to name just a few. Such rhetoric, 
imbued with prejudice and presumption, amounts to an insurmountable mountain in 
the minds of many people.

"Beyond the Mountains: Life in Xinjiang," the 80-minute documentary, is told 
through a collection of individual stories that, together, chronicle the 
process of change in the region. It's also about breaking stereotypes and 
clearing up misconceptions for people in and outside the region.

The film features the magnificent landscape of this vast land, as well as the 
modern-day life of its people from different ethnic groups. It contains four 
parts: "Changing times," "Following the money," "New generations" and "Man and 
nature," presenting multiple facets of today's Xinjiang and its people.

Sabyt Abukhadir lives in north Xinjiang's Zhaosu County where generations 
depend on the lush, rolling highland meadows for a living. His grandson Erjanat 
Nurkidir is majoring in dance at Ili Normal University. The two had a fight as 
Sabyt believed dancing was only for girls. The wrangle didn't end until Sabyt 
watched Erjanat dancing on the stage. "My kid was so good that it made me cry," 
he said.

In south Xinjiang, such a change in mentality is much harder. Many women in the 
four prefectures of south Xinjiang have never left home. "Women who leave home 
to work won't find a husband," according to the traditional thinking there.

But Zileyhan Eysa, a farmer from Kuqa County of Aksu, decided to leave for the 
north to work in a textile factory in hopes of earning money so that her 
seriously ill mother could get proper treatment. "If I didn't come here, Mom 
would already be dead," she said.

Besides the stories that depicts Xinjiang's changes where young people exert 
immense passion to bring a change in the thinking, the documentary also tells 
stories of people who work to protect the land that they love. Yang Zongzong 
has a very "peculiar" hobby – finding and cataloguing every species of plants. 
"To me, it is the appreciation of the beauty in the most ordinary," he said. So 
far, he's gathered 10,000 to 20,000 specimens, studying their morphology, 
genetics and environmental signature. Plant growth is mostly affected by the 
environment, so any shift in climate recorded by their growth is indicative of 
changes in climate change and natural conditions.

These stories of dedication and breaking with tradition isn't so much disregard 
for the past as much as looking toward a more progressive future.

Link: 
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04-16/Beyond-the-Mountains-Life-in-Xinjiang--Zui80BwyOc/index.html


SOURCE: CGTN

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