Food is all about connection.
I know for me, the taste of a piping hot,
Earl Grey always reminds me of comfort and security of home. And, you know,
particularly when we feel disconnected that taste can mean everything.
However, there are some people who simply cannot go home people like the uyghurs
a Muslim minority group from western China.
Isobel Yeung went there undercover last year's report on camps
where China has imprisoned more than a million viewers.
To quote, unquote re-educate them away from their Physicians.
One of these Traditions is they're distinctly unique Cuisine and style of cooking
and for the more than 1 million uyghurs now, living outside of China.
It's never been more important.
So what's the secret to making good lawmen?
Who taught you how to do this?
My mom we grow up with by eating love my making LACMA High Country nurse.
Wow, perfect. My God, that texture is amazing. They like the perfect consistency.
We go food is really interesting because it does seem like a real
mix of different types of foods. Mean
like,
there's definitely some Chinese elements in there with noodles and garlic
and ginger, but then there's also a
Like Central Asian flavors, right?
A dealer and her mom, Maria, a uyghurs.
They come from Northwest China in a region called shinjang
unlike the majority of China's population who are Han Chinese.
The uyghurs are mostly Muslim turkic ethnicity
who have their own language and traditions much closer to Central Asia.
My favorite weaker dishes luqman or lamb Yen,
hand-pulled noodles, served with meat, pepper, scallions, cumin, and spices.
Ian mean to you.
Thank you. Bye. Have a good one.
Ideally moved from China to Boston to study when she was 17,
almost a decade later.
She opened, the only we go restaurant in Massachusetts at the time
with dishes, based on her mom's recipes.
During that time. We as lives in China, have deteriorated dramatically.
In an effort to in their words, combat terrorism.
The Chinese government has sent over. 1 million uyghurs to sprawling
prison like camps over the last three years
here. They're frequently interrogated and tortured banned from practicing Islam
and forced to recite Chinese Communist Party ideology.
Shin Jang has been transformed into a dystopian surveillance State
Maria and adela's own family. Have been swept up in the Crackdown in 2018.
A dealer's father. Maria's husband stopped answering their calls.
Eventually they learned. He too had been taken to the camps.
When a deal is not working in her restaurant, six days a week.
She's searching for any information. She can find about her. Dad, Baba,
crushing Yugi.
What did he tell you about how the situation was changing in sinkiang? He's like,
you know, we can't talk directly.
We always said,
cold or warm because he's worried about the Chinese government listening.
And if anyone get the pain,
A day. He left my father. Always called me the favorite way.
Yeah.
I like it a lot.
Weakest in China, can be locked away for anything from praying
wearing a long beard or having relatives abroad in our dealers father's case.
It was for fasting during Ramadan.
What do you think? Your Dad's life is like right now?
Oh, I don't want to think about this lake is very hard. I've I get scared, you know.
She's can't eat proper food mill.
My mom cook for him every day. I can't think about what he's eating now.
Last year. I didn't took part in a social media campaign called me to Riga.
She's also given testimony about her missing relatives and lobbied Senators,
like, Elizabeth Warren, but speaking out has exposed her on Chinese social media.
I was dragged in a video chat.
Was 500 Chinese there?
They weren't like seeing that. I'm I'm terrorists
and they post all the information about the restaurant. My personal information.
Where did I go to school? Where do I live? My car?
Everything? Wow, that must've been scary. I was so scared.
In spite of the threats or maybe because of them,
the work that I dealer. Maria, and Chef Arkin are doing at the restaurant,
feels more important now than ever.
Just having a restaurant like this advertising halal food
is no longer allowed in xinjiang.
It seems like for all of you,
you know, having this we go restaurant is so much more than just
about selling the food.
It's about introducing, a culture and making sure it stays alive.
The many many jobs we can make money, like easier, job restaurant is really hard
every day a year long.
If you like my foot,
if you like me, this is the way that you get into. We were people