Letter to Uighur Peasants of Xinjiang
(August 30, 1952)

Source: Shuxin, p. 440, Other Chinese text: RMRB (Dec. 27, 1973).

In the Shuxin source, it is indicated that this letter was addressed specifically to the
peasants of the xiang named here in the salutation. The RMRB Source does nor provide this information, but is simply titled “Letter to Uighur Peasants.” The Uighurs
are a minority nationality of Turkic origin and of the Moslem faith. They reside for the
greatest part in Xinjiang Province, where they make up close to 70 per cent of the population, There are over 4 million Uighurs in the PRC.

To the Peasant Comrades of Paihataikeli xiang. Suofu xian, Kexi Region

Comrades:
Thank you for the letter that you wrote to me in March this year at the time
When you celebrated the victory of land reform.' You have achieved
ion from the bondage of the feudal landownership of the landlord class.
hope that you will, with the motto “Patriotism and High Yields” [as your
Watchwords], become even more solidly unified, strive hard for production,
and make improvements in your own material [standards of] living, and, fur-

Cation) * _ on this basis, raise step by step, the level of your culture [and edu-on) 2

Notes

J) See text Feb_ 18, 1951, note 2
tg he teen that Mao used here is wen shaping, which Wray transues as “evel of Ot
Wher. ff the PRC however, the term generally alse connotes education and, more precisely even,
'Y, To sue wenhua (learn culture) is to lear to become literate, i.¢., learn to recognize and

oc KAA HE


282 | MAO ZEDONG

read and write characters. This sentence should not be mistaken to mean raising the § vel
Uighur's own ethnic civilization ;