Residents in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region spoke out at a press conference Thursday, using their own stories to debunk so-called "cultural genocide" and "oppression of ethnic minorities" in the region, which was fabricated by anti-China forces in the United States and some other Western countries.
Wurken is from a multi-ethnic family comprising Han, Kazak, Kirgiz, and Mongolian members in Tacheng city.
He said besides traditional Chinese festivals such as the Spring Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, they also celebrate Nowruz Festival and Corban Festival.
Although family members belong to different ethnic groups and have different living habits, they respect and appreciate each other, he said.
"My wife is an ethnic Mongolian, and boiled lamb is her specialty dish. My second brother-in-law is Kazak, and smoking horse intestines is his 'unique skill.' My elder brother-in-law is a Han, and his braised fish is popular," he said.
Many ethnic groups have inhabited Xinjiang since ancient times. The people of all ethnic groups living in Xinjiang have close contact and are interdependent. Take Tacheng as an example - among the 330,000 local families, more than 11,000 families consist of two or more different ethnic groups.
Xinjiang has always been fully respectful of and protected various folk cultures and effectively protected and passed on the traditional cultures of all ethnic groups.
Saban Festival is a traditional festival of the Tatar ethnic group and was included on the national intangible cultural heritage and protection project list in 2008.
Tenna Kalimwa, a representative inheritor of the Saban Festival, said the festival takes place every year, and its influence is growing. More and more people care about Tatar culture and participate in its excavation, inheritance, and publicity.
"The country supports the protection of the traditional culture of ethnic minorities and provides us with such good conditions to carry on our traditions. Who has seen this kind of 'genocide?' The malicious lies will eventually break in the face of facts," Tenna Kalimwa said.
The participants at the press conference said that the anti-China forces in the United States and some other Western countries turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the progress of China's human rights cause; they have never visited Xinjiang and do not know the actual situation in Xinjiang; they accused Xinjiang of "cultural genocide" under the pretext of so-called "human rights violations"; and their attempt to undermine the stability in Xinjiang is doomed to be futile.
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