China’s Campaign to Reshape Uyghur Culture Through Food

The Chinese government is aggressively working to remold Uyghur culture in Xinjiang, including efforts to transform traditional Uyghur cuisine, Foreign Policy website reported yesterday.

Through “household school” programs, authorities dispatch Han Chinese workers to Uyghur homes to provide culinary training, promoting Han-style dishes over Uyghur staples like nan bread and milk tea, the article mentioned.

According to the report, Chinese officials view Uyghur dietary customs, often shaped by Islamic practices, as backward and a threat to ethnic unity.

The campaign is part of Beijing’s broader attempts to strip away Uyghur identity and enforce a unitary “modern” Chinese culture.

The article further notes that CCP authorities are altering eating habits in an attempt to “liberate” Uyghur women and bring the ethnic group in line with the party’s vision for a homogenized society.