Book review·Book review｜To all the people who have disappeared——"Backstreet: A Novel from Xinjiang"

"Urumqi is like a scar on a wound."

The feeling above 👆 comes from the protagonist "I" in the English translation of "Backstreet: A Novel from Xinjiang" by Uyghur author Perhat Tursun. The Wikipedia entry states that his whereabouts have been unknown since early 2018. According to reports, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The introduction in the book "Backstreet" also confirmed that Tursun was sentenced to imprisonment. Wikipedia did not mention the reasons why this doctor and poet who specializes in Uyghur literature was sentenced to imprisonment. It did not even include the latest English translation of "Backstreet" in the "Major Works" column... The literary prison faced by Xinjiang and Uyghur writers is Is it such a concern? Note that what is mentioned here is only the content on the most commonly used Wikipedia, which means that if ordinary people go to Wikipedia to check, this is the information about Tursun that they can see. Therefore, I am very grateful to Darren Byler, the translator of the book "Backstreet", and the anonymous translator for bringing Tursun's works to English readers and the world. So, what kind of details about the author, translator and this book can be obtained in this book? Through these details, what kind of situation can we readers get a glimpse of the situation faced by the Uyghurs in Xinjiang?

1. About the author and translator

This book was published in September last year. The publisher was not any for-profit publishing house, but was published by Columbia University Press. The translator was scholar Darren Byler and another anonymous Uyghur named "AA". Naturally, the binding and cover design of "Backstreet" were not very eye-catching and looked very dark. It was only after I opened the book and started reading that I realized how much the feeling conveyed by such a design matched "my" feelings in the book.

This is how Darren described Tursun's appearance in the introduction. When Tursun appeared at a literary and art conference, the Uyghurs present suddenly gave way to a path, just like Moses parting the Red Sea. Tursun came out and shook hands with everyone one by one. This illustrates the respected status of Uyghur literature scholar Tursun in the Uyghur literature circle. However, Tursun himself does not particularly like this feeling of being in the spotlight. His more ideal position is "He said he didn't want to be famous or popular. He wanted to be a shadowy, marginal figure." Uighur literature scholars want to be marginalized creators, and Tursun has always practiced this.

Tursun has a novel called "The Art of Suicide", which was included in the list of 100 Uyghur cultural books. Tursun himself wrote to the Ministry of Culture to have the novel taken off the book list because he did not want such recognition. This novel is his writing attempt, and he does not feel that it can represent excellent Uyghur literature.

However, translator Darren said that since 2016, many influential scholars and writers in the fields of Uyghur literature and culture have disappeared one after another, and Tursun is one of them. An unnamed DM scholar in the preface of "Backstreet" is a good friend of Tursun and was also admitted to a re-education camp in 2017 (in the preface of "Backstreet", Darren relayed what DM said about the conditions he received in the re-education camp. specific examples of abuse). Around the same time, AA, the anonymous translator of this book, was also arrested and sent to a re-education camp. Darren doesn't know the specific reason why they were arrested one after another, but he speculates that it has something to do with the traces they left online. In addition, Darren pointed out very clearly that he knew that Tursun did not believe in religion and was opposed to extreme religious beliefs, so it was impossible to be imprisoned for (extreme) religious beliefs. What was possible was the book "Backstreet".

The book "Backstreet" actually reads very much like an autobiography. It was originally serialized online by Tursun. However, because the rejection experienced by Uyghurs in Urumqi and Beijing described in the book resonated with many Uyghur men who had the same experience, this was also the motivation behind the anonymous translator AA's decision to help Darren translate "Backstreet".

Tursun graduated from the Minzu University of China, so there is reason to believe that the fragments of his studies in Beijing in "Backstreets" are somewhat autobiographical. In fact, "Backstreet" is not the experience of the nameless protagonist alone, but the experience of a group of nameless people. Darren also said that as a first-generation Uyghur studying in Beijing, Tursun told him about the rejection he experienced while studying in Beijing, etc. He also said that other Uyghur students had experienced varying degrees of mental breakdown.

Maybe the suffocating atmosphere of death that cannot be concealed in "Back Street" is what angered the authorities, or maybe Tursun was arrested because of his influence, but in any case, the sentence written by the translator Darren made me cry. Head — —

They just wanted to live and think.

Last summer, Salman Rushdie was speaking on stage when extremists rushed onto the stage and stabbed him in the neck with a knife. The attack lasted 27 seconds. After the extremist religious organization started offering a reward for Rushdie's death, Rushdie's translator was also killed. In the first interview he faced after his recent recovery, Shan Rushdie still said that "I won't write scary stories." What is a fear story? Rushdie said that it is the kind of story where the author is hesitant and afraid. After telling it again and again, there is no truth or substantive content in the story. These are scared stories. I admire Rushdie's courage and writing, and I also feel that the situation faced by Tursun is very similar to Rushdie's. I would like to ask, which other translated literature and books have anonymity become a must in their prefaces? Why do DMs and AAs need to be anonymous? They want to protect themselves, but who is afraid of ordinary people and ordinary people's stories?

2. Another "character" in "Backstreet": Fog

"I" am a Uighur who found a temporary government job in Urumqi, the provincial capital, so I have to find a place in Urumqi. The story begins with "my" "wandering" in the fog of Urumqi.

The "I" described by Tursun has always felt walking in a heavy haze since entering Urumqi. In addition to the pollution and smog, the entire city seems to be covered with a bell-shaped cover. What greets "me" is being lost both internally and externally. I think "fog" is Tursun's most important image in "Backstreet", right? Darren told readers in the preface that no, "Fog" is another character in "Backstreet". This feeling of suffocation and depression shrouded in fog has become equal to "I" as a "person". Is this a strong emphasis on depression and suffocation, or is it another way to show us that "I" is no longer a real person? In the sense of "people"?

The dehumanization mentioned repeatedly by the translator Darren in the preface was unfolding in front of "me" at the beginning of the story of "Backstreet"——

In Urumqi, "I" saw a Han man who seemed to be crazy and said that he would kill all Uighurs👇

Then, the entire page was filled with hacking words. From the analysis of "I", the translator pointed out in the footnote that the person said "cleave" in Mandarin, not "cut, chop". "I", who is extremely sensitive to numbers, began to calculate how long it would take if the madman in front of me really killed all 4.5 million Uyghurs like this. At this point, dehumanization has reached its climax at the beginning of the story.

In the following story, Tursun used the metaphor of "beating people to death" many times. To be honest, many readers did not give the book "Back Street" a high rating. The reason is that it is "too depressing and depressing"... I don't understand how people who have read Darren's preface and the story of "Back Street" Can we draw a conclusion like this? ! Perhaps what readers want is a "real" story, rather than a Kafka-style aggrieved, inner castle that can't be reached?

3. Self-exile and escape

The "I" in "Backstreet" has been running away, running away from his tyrant father, running away from the city where he can't find his identity, but he still wants to find a place of his own. I am so familiar with this aimless search.

"I"'s escape from home and loss of place in a repressive and authoritarian society seem to make the self with nowhere to place smaller and smaller. Maybe after writing this, you will think that this book is very depressing and dark, but I want to say that this book is also full of violence and color. In the process of describing my life, "I" repeatedly flashed back to my childhood, when I faced my father's beatings and my face was covered with blood.

This gray mist contains flashes of bloody violence from childhood, which creates a great visual impact when reading, causing the entire depressed mood to fluctuate from time to time, because there is a very strong and extremely traumatic pull from the past , "I "The escape is even more difficult, but more determined. But what kind of place did he flee to? A place completely different from the rule of his tyrant father? Children who have been devastated by abusive parents have a hard time finding themselves because they were never allowed to have themselves. It's like Kafka, he keeps looking and looking, but he can't find it. Many powers occur inexplicably, as if a child has to face violent parents when he first comes into the world, feeling confused and uneasy.

I think I understand this feeling. I kept running away and running away. Only after I got far away did I realize that the curse had never been removed. It’s just that another identity has been added to this story: the Uyghurs. As a result, this story is no longer about the self-exile of adult children, but about a group of people looking for the possibility of breathing in a place where they can almost never leave.

4. Blood splatter and disappearance

If the fog is another character, then I think the blood should also be a character, as if the black and white impermanence follows "me". Although the appearance of blood is not as frequent as fog, it is always accompanied. More importantly, when I read the interaction between "I" and the fog, I feel tired, suffocated, depressed, and helpless, and I begin to look forward to the appearance of blood and the arrival of violence; when the blood and violence come, I feel relieved: "Ah , I saw real violence," I thought. In fact, it is not a desire for violence, but a desire for concrete pain, countable and visible violations, because the invisible scars are even worse. "Fog" is invisible and hard to grasp, but it is everywhere, surrounding "me" all over. A violent punch on the body will clearly know where the attack is, and it can even be used to heal the injury in a targeted manner.

Being disappeared is like the "fog" in the book. It is bloodless, but mixed with too much fear, unknown and seemingly difficult to blame. We are used to looking away from conflicts and violence until we see bloodshed, because the pain is uncountable.

In the preface, the translator recounts the experience of a DM who came out of a re-education camp: Once there, he asked to see Uyghur music and dance videos, and was actually allowed to do so. But after watching it, when everyone asked to go to their respective cells, they were not allowed. The warden said that you should continue reading. They just had to watch it again. When I asked to go back after watching it, the warden said if you continue reading, don’t you want to see Uyghur music and dance? Take a look. In the end, everyone was locked in and watched for 72 hours, with feces and urine everywhere. From now on, they will never ask to see Uyghur dance performances again. There was no blood seen here, but the violence, fear, and mental trauma experienced were so great that it was unimaginable and unacceptable. It could almost turn into mist and suffocate everyone.

I don't know why, but the word "blood spattered" always reminds me of "Blood Splattered at the Mandarin Duck Tower" in "Water Margin". At that time, I read it over and over again just because the pleasure of revenge could outweigh Lin Chong's humiliation in "White Tiger Festival Hall" and depression. Of course, there is no comparison, but it is connected in my mind, as if the "fog" accompanying "me" in "Backstreet" makes the reader feel sick, because it covers up the bloody storm behind it, and the turmoil in the mind. It is bloody and violent, and its level of violence will make readers look forward to visible sword flashes.

Tursun was also a poet, and Darren ended the part that introduced Tursun’s disappearance with a poem by Tursun: “When they search the streets and don’t see me disappearing, you must know that I am with you.” ( English translation by Joshua Freeman). The poem is titled " Elegy ".

Podcast by Wired https://spotify.link/RmvXPYrIbyb 👈🏻When talking about the timeline of Uyghur technology giants and founders being imprisoned in re-education camps, disappeared and sentenced, Byler was mentioned.