Bride and prejudice: rare Uygur-Han marriages reflect ethnic tension in Chinese society
Husbands and wives who marry outside their ethnic group say they encounter intolerance because of their choice of partner
It was not until late on her wedding day that Aygul told her parents she was even in a relationship. And they were furious.
A year later, her Uygur father was still so angry she had chosen an ethnic Han Chinese husband he beat her up in a Beijing train station, stamping on her throat as he hurled insults.
“They hounded me and demanded I choose: my mother and father or my husband,” said the 26-year-old website editor. “They told me I had to leave him.”
Against a backdrop of prejudice and violence, inter-ethnic marriages between Uygurs, a mostly Muslim minority who speak a Turkic language, and China’s ethnic majority Han are extremely rare.
Uygurs in their home region of Xinjiang have long chafed under Beijing’s yoke and say they face restrictions on religion, language and culture, with some yearning for independence.
China counters it has brought development and raised living standards, blaming sporadic but intensifying violence that killed more than 200 last year on Islamist separatists with overseas connections.
Official media have laboured to showcase Han-Uygur marriages, with couples singing the praises of the government and Communist Party, as a symbol of “ethnic unity”.