Swati's Reviews > A Stone is Most Precious Where it Belongs

When I visited Xinjiang many many years ago I sensed a distinctive shift in the atmosphere compared to what I had experienced in China. The people seemed remote and they were very hesitant to speak Mandarin. I didn’t understand their unfriendliness then.

It was only later that I started piecing together their history and Gulchehra Hoja’s terrifying memoir “A Stone is Most Precious Where it Belongs” piqued my interest. This is Hoja’s account of growing up in an Uyghur family and living with the drastic changes brought about by the Chinese government. Starting with changing the name of the country from East Turkestan to Xinjiang, meaning “new city,” to persecuting people including her own family, Hoja writes up a chilling account of political, cultural, and societal extermination.

Hoja was a talented child and belonged to a family of musicians and artists. They spoke Uyghur, followed Islam, and enjoyed evenings filled with their traditional music, dance, and singing. It’s in school that she realised that “there were always two lessons to be learned: what was in the CCP-issued schoolbooks, and then the real history, literature and culture, which could only be learned from people like my father, in private settings and in low voices.”

That was the beginning of Hoja’s turbulent future. Hoja went through a tumultuous marriage, went to Europe, and then to the US. There, she started working for Radio Free Asia reporting on the human rights conditions in China. There were repercussions on her family, of course. They kept mounting until one night 24 members of her family were arrested overnight. Today, Hoja is branded a ‘terrorist’ but she continues to work towards bringing truths to light.

Hoja’s memoir gives us a good picture of Uyghur culture and traditions, which are otherwise unheard of. I liked that she gave context and spoke about her personal life, as well. Her writing simmers with the discontent, and the anger that she feels towards her oppressors. It also brims with sadness and yearning for a land that she holds very dear and one she might not see again.

A timeless, brave account.