Uyghurs are Turkic people, primarily residing in East Turkestan. In 1949, the

Chinese Communist Party occupied their natural resource rich country, East

Turkestan and renamed the region as XinJiang. The word “XinJiang” means “new

frontier” in Chinese. There are about 15-20 million Uyghurs currently living in East

Turkestan. There is also a smaller population of Kirghiz, Uzbek, Kazak, Tajik and

large population of new settlers, Han Chinese living in this region. The land of East

Turkestan is about four times the size of California. Since 1949, Uyghurs have been

facing systematic discrimination, repression and have become second class citizens

in their own land. In 2017, systematic genocide towards Uyghur, Kirgiz and Kazaks

and Uzbeks began to occur. Millions of Uyghurs, Kirghizs, Uzbeks and Kazaks

have been removed from their homes and taken to Nazi-style concentration camps

where they are forced to renounce their Islamic beliefs and cultural identity, and are

subjected to forced (unpaid) labor in factories and cotton fields. In addition, they

must endure physical and mental torture often leading to death, and risk becoming

targeted organ harvesting victims for the international halal organ market . Over

half a million Uyghur children have been forcefully taken away from their parents

and grandparents and placed in state run orphanages where they have no contact

with family members. This not only causes a disruption of family life, but also

eliminates all possibilities of maintaining their native Uyghur language, culture and

Islamic beliefs.

As of 2021, the horrible atrocities are still occurring and the world has little

knowledge of the Uyghurs. To raise awareness about the current situation and to

garner more international support to end this genocide, Leila created this book

“Daddy, Daddy, When Are You Coming Home?”. Although this story is fiction, it is

based on real events and the characters reflect this reality.

Drawing on rich ethnographic and historical research, McGranahan tells the story of the Tibetan resistance and the social processes through which this history is made and unmade, and lived and forgotten in the present. Fulfillment of veterans’ desire for recognition hinges on the Dalai Lama and “historical arrest,” a practice in which the telling of certain pasts is suspended until an undetermined time in the future. In this analysis, struggles over history emerge as a profound pain of belonging. Tibetan cultural politics, regional identities, and religious commitments cannot be disentangled from imperial histories, contemporary geopolitics, and romanticized representations of Tibet. Moving deftly from armed struggle to nonviolent hunger strikes, and from diplomatic offices to refugee camps, Arrested Histories provides powerful insights into the stakes of political engagement and the cultural contradictions of everyday life.