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#IWillNotWatch
Beijing 2022 gave China a global platform to attempt to gloss over extreme human rights abuses and legitimise the occupation of Tibet. But thousands of you didn’t watch!
And chose to view, listen, read from our library of films, books, music, podcasts, and other information to find out more about Tibet, East Turkistan, Hong Kong, and human rights in China.
ALTERNATIVE CLOSING CEREMONY
In Focus
FIELD OF VISION
DO NOT SPLIT
Told from within the heart of the Hong Kong protests, “Do Not Split” begins in 2019 as a proposed bill allowing the Chinese government to extradite criminal suspects to mainland China escalated protests throughout Hong Kong. Unfolding across a year, “Do Not Split” captures the determination and sacrifices of the protesters, the government’s backlash, and the passage of the new Beijing-backed national security law.
Films & Documentaries
Herzog's Days
In 2010, a case called “Three Net Friends” about the freedom of speech in Mainland China raised a storm of citizens movement. A case of a girl‘s sudden death happened in Minqing, Fujian. The police identified it as a natural death, but the girl’s mother believed that her daughter was raped to death by turns according to all indications. You Jingyou, Fan Yanqiong and Wu Huaying wrote articles and recorded videos for her and posted them online. Then, the police sentenced them to 1-2 years in prison on the charge of libel.
This event aroused strong indignation of the netizens and people from all over the country went to Mawei District People‘s Court in Fuzhou to express their support. It becomes a landmark event of modern Chinese citizens movement.
INSIDE CHINA'S 'THOUGHT TRANSFORMATION' CAMPS
The BBC has been given rare access to the vast system of highly secure facilities thought to be holding more than a million Muslims in China’s western region of Xinjiang.
Authorities there insist they are just training schools. But the BBC’s visit uncovers important evidence about the nature of the system and the conditions for the people inside it.
OLD DOG BY PEMA TSEDEN
Old Dog is a 2011 Tibetan feature film written and directed by Pema Tseden. Old Dog picks up the story of a father and son against the backdrop of China’s escalating trade in Tibetan mastiffs.
Pema Tseden was born in Guide County, Qinghai, in December 1969. He graduated from Northwest University for Nationalities, where he majored in Tibetan Language and Literature. After graduation, he worked as a primary school teacher and a civil servant. Then he pursued advanced studies at China’s most prestigious film school, Beijing Film Academy, where he became the Academy’s first-ever Tibetan student.
Pema Tseden on Facebook
CHINA UNDERCOVER
A special undercover report from China’s secretive Xinjiang region. FRONTLINE investigates the Communist regime’s mass imprisonment of Muslims, and its use and testing of sophisticated surveillance technology against the Uyghur community.
Music
“Black Hat” by Lhundrub Drakpa
Tibetan singer Lhundrub Drakpa was six years in prison after releasing this song “Black Hat”.
་མོ་ནག་པོ། or ཞྭ་མོ་ནག་པོ་གཡོགས་པ། lit. ‘a black hat’ or ‘to put on a black hat’ is a well known Tibetan phrase that means a false/groundless/unfounded accusation or allegation of wrongdoing that is untrue. A very popular aphorism goes མི་དཀར་པོ་ལ་ཞྭ་མོ་ནག་པོ་མ་གཡོགས། i.e. ‘don’t put a black hat on an innocent person’.
Read more at HighPeaksPureEarth.com/
Nashtarr - Dark Nights (feat. MonaM)
Nashtarr (aka Young Nash) is a Uyghur rapper.
His first mixtape Motivation came out in 2019 and was followed by Yanchuqla Tom in 2020. Nashtarr raps in Uyghur and English, collaborating with other Uyghur diaspora rappers and local American MCs.
In addition to his rap career, he also designs and produces his own Original Uyghur clothing and merchandise line. He modernized and performed “The Contest of the Fruits” poem, transforming it into a contemporary rap.
R.O.O.T - 宜蘭食雪糕
關於 R.O.O.T 樂隊名字是 Running Out Of Time 的縮寫,由觸執毛主音 Jan Curios 和經常到世界各地巡演的爵士樂結他手 Teriver 發起,找來年紀輕輕已經常為一眾流行歌手作曲、編曲及監製的鍵琴手蘇道哲,以及台灣天團八三夭前鼓手,現活躍於爵士樂界的 Fish (子瑜) 組成。因彼此在不同音樂領域亦各有發展,難怪常有「時間太少,想做的事太多」的感嘆。 R.O.O.T 的音樂,既有爵士樂風味,骨子裡是搖滾的叛逆精神,喜歡融合各種樂風與音樂元素,將作品中高低跌宕、變幻莫測的情緒起伏發揮得淋灕盡致;配上流行樂般流暢入心的編曲,造就 R.O.O.T 無法明確定義,充滿個人風格的破格作品。 2016 年獲邀參演「自由約」後,正式活躍於各地大小演出,包括「搶耳博覽2019:響朵音樂節」及同年於台北 Legacy 舉行的「Share Your Love 六週年音樂會」。目前推出四首原創曲目 Walk the Walk、Boys and Girls、Waking Up 及 Fly Me Out of There。 2020 年 6 月推出首支廣東歌〈人間有愛〉,並入圍角逐 2020 年度「叱咤樂壇我最喜愛的歌曲」最後十強。12 月推出第二支廣東歌〈非洲的 60 秒〉,成為港台「中文歌曲龍虎榜」及商台「903 專業推介」季軍歌。
Facebook IG: @root_band
"TSAMPA" by Shapaley
Swiss-based Tibetan rapper Karma Emchi, better known as Shapaley, has had a number of massive hits. The first, and possibly best known is ‘Shapaley’ a catchy, fun song about the tasty pastry that, along with momo, is a favourite food for Tibetans.
“Tsampa” (རྩམ་པ་), which is a main staple of Tibetans’ diet and is unique to Tibet, is a song that highlights what it means to be Tibetan. The importance of tsampa as a symbol of Tibetan identity can be easily understood by the fact that during the 2008 uprising when Tibetans all across Tibet rose up in protest against China’s occupation, protesters could be heard calling, “Rise up, all tsampa-eating Tibetans.”
Read more about how “Tsampa” (the song) became a ‘sensation’ and about the importance of tsampa to Tibetan identity
Books

"Burning the Sun’s Braids: New Poetry from Tibet"
An anthology of poems beautifully translated from Tibetan into English by Bhuchung D. Sonam.
Kalsang Yangzom’s review writes that “poetry speaks to the soul, to those inner workings of our hearts and mind that cannot be quantified, capable of inspiring revolutions, soothing troubled minds and providing courage in times of despair,” and describes this “collection of poetry is a much-needed addition to the corpus of contemporary Tibetan literature and a testament to the steady growth of demand for literature written by Tibetans.”

Dragon Fighter: One Woman's Epic Struggle for Peace with China
Along the Silk Road, where Europe, Asia, and Russia converge, stands the four-thousand-year-old land of a peaceful people, the Uyghurs. Their culture is filled with music, dance, family and love of tradition passed down by storytelling through the ages.
This autobiography presents the story of Rebiya Kadeer’s journey from humble beginnings to her position as a powerful figure fighting for the Uyghurs’ self-determination against Chinese domination. Devoted to the principles of nonviolence, Kadeer’s courage,intellect, morality and sacrifice give hope to the nearly eleven million Uyghurs worldwide on whose behalf she speaks.
Introduction by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Betraying Big Brother
by Leta Hong Fincher
A feminist movement clashing with China’s authoritarian government.
On the eve of International Women’s Day in 2015, the Chinese government arrested five feminist activists and jailed them for thirty-seven days. The Feminist Five became a global cause célèbre, with Hillary Clinton speaking out on their behalf and activists inundating social media with #FreetheFive messages. But the Five are only symbols of a much larger feminist movement of civil rights lawyers, labor activists, performance artists, and online warriors prompting an unprecedented awakening among China’s educated, urban women. In Betraying Big Brother, journalist and scholar Leta Hong Fincher argues that the popular, broad-based movement poses the greatest challenge to China’s authoritarian regime today.

The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited
In 2019, these journalists were at the frontlines of Hong Kong’s historic protest movement: You’ve probably read their coverage on news outlets like the New York Times, Reuters, CNN, the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Free Press, and many more.
On June 4, 1989, People’s Liberation Army soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians in Beijing, killing untold hundreds of people. A quarter-century later, this defining event remains buried in China’s modern history, successfully expunged from collective memory. In The People’s Republic of Amnesia, former BBC correspondent Louisa Lim charts how the events of June 4th changed China, and how China changed the events of June 4th by rewriting its own history.
The book uncovers details of the brutal crackdown and how it is a near-perfect case study in the state’s ability to rewrite history, excising the most painful episodes.
Blogs & Podcasts

HIGH PEAKS PURE EARTH
High Peaks Pure Earth provides insightful commentary on Tibet-related news and issues and provides translations from writings in Tibetan and Chinese posted on blogs and social media from Tibet and the People’s Republic of China.
The blog is a fantastic library of music, writing, poetry, and analysis.

China Digital Times
China Digital Times brings uncensored news and online voices from China to the world. The blog highlights perspectives of netizens living under China’s rule; archives content that has been or is in danger of being censored in China; and, through translation, make these voices accessible to the world.

Uyghur Teen’s Life After Escaping Genocide
Aséna is Uyghur and in this podcast she talks of the pain she witnessed before escaping from East Turkistand [CH: Xinjiang] in 2017. Her experience has aged her beyond her years, she says, making it hard to relate to American teenagers.
“They talk about … TikToks … clothing, malls, games, movies, and stuff,” she says. “And then the things I think about [are] genocide, Uyghurs, international policies … all the annoying adult facts.”

Yakpo Collective
A safe online space for Tibetan Artists from across the world to be represented. Yakpo Collective exhibits works of art beyond how the mainstream media portrays the Tibetan diaspora and featured artists showcase a broad range of mediums and challenge the stereotypes associated with our culture.