Preserving Culture (clip)

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