Author Description

Product DescriptionWho are the Uyghurs of Xianjiang?This book offers a comprehensible view of one of modern China's most seemingly inscrutable, publicized, and complex issues -- the treatment of the Muslim Uyghur minority in the northwest region of Xinjiang. After a brief historical background, historian Morris Rossabi describes the ChineseCommunists' policies toward the Uyghurs since 1949. Many authors who write about and identify with the Uyghurs have been highly critical of Communist rule in Xinjiang. This book attempts to achieve a balance in perspective, noting that the Chinese government has vastly improved the Uyghurs' health,education, and standard of living, which some critics scarcely mention. On the other hand, this book also details China's repressive governmental policies, particularly towards the Uyghurs, including developments during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.Rossabi addresses limitations on Uyghur religion and culture by the Chinese government, including the recent establishment of re-education centers, as well as the violence unleashed against ethnic Chinese citizens and officials by Uyghur militants and terrorists. The book concludes with a discussionof possible U.S. responses and proposed solutions to the current crisis.About the AuthorMorris Rossabi is Distinguished Professor of History at the City University of New York and teaches Chinese and Mongolian history at Columbia University. He is author or editor of 24 books, including Khublai Khan, The Mongols: A Very Short Introduction, A History of China, and Voyager from Xanadu.He has collaborated on and written for exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.