Uhghur students are having the Chinese class at No. 2 Primary School of Zepu county. Photo: Hao Zhou
"When I first told my father that I wanted to attend a bilingual school to learn Chinese, he refused," said Turson Ayi, 15, now a second-grade student at No. 5 Middle School of Zepu county, Kashgar District, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Ayi's father, a primary school teacher in a remote village in Zepu, only speaks the Uyghur language, and Ayi didn't know how to recognize a single Chinese character before she decided to study Chinese.
"I wanted to study Chinese because I want to leave my village to find a different life," Ayi said. "My father was worried about me, my safety in particular, because I am a girl and have to depend on myself if I leave my village. But I insisted and cried many times in front of him, and then he relented."
Now, less than two years later, Ayi can speak fluent Chinese.
Bilingual education does not mean the erosion of Uyghur culture. "There are various books about Uyghur history and culture written in Chinese, but there are not so many written in the Uyghur language. Learning Chinese could help Uyghur people to know more about their own history and culture," said Yumairjiang Maimaiti, head of Zepu’s government.
"Mastering Chinese could help Uyghur people to increase their knowledge, just as many Chinese people send their children to foreign countries to learn English. Language is a tool to communicate better with the outside world, rather than eliminate an ethnic culture," said Liang Xinmin, deputy head of the Education department of Zepu government.
Zepu, with a population of 200,000, now has around 100 Chinese-Uyghur bilingual classes in its primary schools and high schools. Around 4,600 Uyghur school children are now receiving a bilingual education in Zepu.
"When I was young, there was no chance for me to study Chinese. Later, I encountered a lot of problems in my professional life, as I wasn’t fluent in a more commonly used language. I want my child to find a good job in a big city in the future. That’s why I send my child to a bilingual school," said Haireguli, a Uyghur who works in an oil exploration company in Zepu.
"I am first a Chinese, so I must know how to speak and write my national language," said Hochi Ahammati, a third-grade student in Zepu's No.5 Middle School.