Zordun Sabir
The first in a trilogy of historical fiction novels set in East Turkestan/Xinjiang, the novel follows the life of a teenage boy, Nuri, as he navigates his way through a country steeped in political turmoil.
Ana Yurt, or The Motherland, solidified Zordun’s position as one of the preeminent Uyghur authors of the twentieth century. The trilogy presents a fictionalized chronicle of the struggle of the Uyghurs and other Turkic groups against the Chinese Republic as they established the Islamic Republic of East Turkestan in 1944. To date, it remains one of the bestselling works of Uyghur fiction in the history of Uyghur language publishing. (Source: Zordun Sabir: A Central Figure in Modern Uyghur Literature, by Abdulvahit Hasanjan and Darren Byler)
Published November 1, 2000
Zordun Sabir was born in April, 1937, as the second child in a poor farming household in the village of Yenitam in Ghulja Township, a mid-sized town in Ili Prefecture in contemporary Xinjiang. Although his father, Sabir, was an uneducated farmer, he nevertheless loved science and like the majority of Uyghurs of his time, had a tremendous respect for intellectuals. Zordun’s mother, Anarhan, died when Zordun was only five years old, and so the responsibility of raising Zordun fell to his father. Despite many obstacles and the extreme poverty of his family, a teacher named Zamanidin from Ghulja proper took him under his wing and helped him continue to study and successfully finish secondary school.
Zordun Sabir’s literary career began under difficult circumstances in 1961 when his poem “White Apricot” (Ak Oruk) was published in the journal Tarim. Shortly after its publication he was arrested and accused of being an ethno-nationalist and counter-revolutionary. As a result, he was sent to the Tibetan region of Garmu near the border of Gansu and Qinghai for reeducation. Due to these circumstances Zordun was unable to engage in any form of literary production until 1972 at the age of thirty-five. One short story in particular, titled Dolan Youths, proved to be his major breakthrough. Published in the October issue of Tarim in 1979 the piece tells the story of a young man from the Dolan area of Southern Xinjiang in Kashgar Prefecture. Despite coming from a place rich in Uyghur traditions, the protagonist of the story disdains the forms of cultural thought and expression for which Dolan Uyghurs are most renowned: the song and dance traditions of meshrep and muqam. By taking this up the story grapples with larger social concerns regarding the forms of cultural erasure that occurred during the Cultural Revolution. Zordun demonstrates that the experience of political trauma could have the effect of distancing younger generations of Uyghurs from the traditions that came before. The publication of the three volume novel, The Motherland, further solidified Zordun’s position as one of the preeminent Uyghur authors ofthe twentieth century.
In summary, Zordun Sabir’s oeuvre consists of four novels, 13 novellas, 86 short stories, two dramas, one screenplay, and five essays of literary criticism. The characters he created have a distinct place in Uyghur popular culture. In his works, the ethno-national ethos of Uyghurs and their Turkic traditions has been explicated and evoked through moving prose. His works have inspired patriotism and account for historical traumas that have been widely shared within Uyghur society. Through his works, he developed a great deal of nuance and complexity in literary forms. In a 1992 reader poll conducted by the Tengritagh literary journal, Uyghur readers selected Zordun as one of their top three most highly regarded authors. Further shoring up his position in the Uyghur canon, Zordun was the first Uyghur writer to receive an international literary award. A number of his works such as Dolan Youths, The Reception and The Quest have received awards from the Chinese Writers Association. Yet Zordun’s legacy extends beyond these awards. He is also important for the way he influenced Uyghur literary form, inspired debate about Uyghur values and history among his readers and critics, and brought Uyghur realities into broader conversations about the nature of the human experience.
(Excerpt from Abdulvahit Hasanjan and Darren Byler’s “Zordun Sabir: A Central Figure in Modern Uyghur Literature”)