A Stone is Most Precious Where It Belongs: A Memoir of Uyghur Loss, Exile and Hope

Description

A powerful and urgent memoir by Uyghur activist Gulchehra Hoja - a remarkable woman who went from being a beloved star on Chinese children's TV to a journalist whose reporting on the oppression of her people led to her entire extended family being imprisoned. In February 2018, twenty-four members of Gulchehra Hoja's family disappeared overnight. Among them were her elderly parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and their spouses; everyone she had left behind in Urumchi when she fled to a new life in the United States, arrested by the Chinese state as a direct retaliation for Gulchehra's investigations into the Uyghur plight. For the Uyghur people, this kind of oppression is not unusual. A Stone is Most Precious Where it Belongs is Gulchehra's stunning memoir, an account of life under Chinese rule in East Turkestan. The grandchild of a renowned musician and the daughter of an esteemed archaeologist, Gulchehra grew up with her people's culture and history running through her veins. She showed her gifts early on as a dancer, actress, and storyteller, putting her on a path to success as a major television star. Slowly though, she began to understand what China was doing to her people, as well as her own complicity as a journalist. As her rising fame and growing political awakening coincided, she made it her mission to expose the crimes Beijing is committing in the far reaches of its nation, no matter the cost. Revelling in the beauty of East Turkestan and its people, A Stone is Most Precious Where it Belongs gives us a glimpse beyond what the Chinese state wants us to see, showcasing a woman who was willing to risk not just her own life, but also that of everyone she loves, to expose her people's story to the world.

Gulchehra Hoja is a Uyghur journalist based in Washington, DC and one of the world's most prominent voices fighting what the US government in January 2021 officially proclaimed the 'genocide and crimes against humanity' against the Uyghurs. Her reporting on the situation in Xinjiang - which led to the incarceration of her entire extended family - has been widely recognized in the US and Europe, and has led to honours such as the 2019 Magnitsky Human Rights Award; the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation in 2020; her recognition as one of the '500 most influential Muslims' in the world every year since 2016; and platforms at Tina Brown's Women in the World summit and the Oslo Freedom Forum. She has been profiled for the Washington Post and Financial Times, among many other publications. Working closely with larger publications such as the New York Times and Guardian, as well as directly with the State Department, she has also been central to bringing to light both the stories of escapees from East Turkestan's concentration camps, and exposing China's use of Uyghurs for forced labour in their cotton and wig-making industries.

We said "never again" after millions of Jews were killed in the Holocaust, but here we are in 2023 and another genocide is taking place in front of our eyes. Gulchehra Hoja bravely exposes this new holocaust perpetrated by the Chinese communist party in her brilliantly written book, A Stone is Most Precious Where it Belongs. Her story is one of immense sacrifice to expose the truth. As a reporter for Radio Free Asia, Ms Hoja was one of the first people to expose the Uyghur concentration camps in Xinjiang and as a result, her entire extended family were rounded up and imprisoned on those same camps. The suffering of the Uyghur people that she documents is a must read. We owe Gulchehra Hoja an enormous debt of gratitude to bear witness and share this horrifying story -- Bill Browder, author of Red Notice Gulchehra's story, and her work to shed light on the Chinese Communist Party's genocide of the Uyghurs, has been carried out at a high price. This book offers a valuable look at the experiences that led to her dedicated journalism, and her fight to preserve and live out Uyghur culture -- Nury Turkel, author of No Escape: The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs On one level this immensely significant book is a memoir of a journalist overcoming tremendous odds and making unimaginable sacrifices to tell the truth. On another it tells the terrible story of the cultural genocide of the Uyghur people at the hands of the Chinese government. I found this heart-rending book impossible to put down and hope it finds the global audience it deserves -- Peter Oborne A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs is a brave and brilliant book. It is a window into topics ranging from efforts to maintain Uyghur culture in the face of suffocating propaganda in Chinese state media through to the opportunities and agonies of exile. But most gripping is Gulchehra Hoja's willingness to share not just her story but herself - humour and humility, pain and love and faith -- Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch In this moving, deeply personal account of a family's collective anguish, Hoja, a reporter for Radio Free Asia, re-creates in intimate detail her life story within the tight Uyghur community and their ultimate persecution and imprisonment... we are lucky to have this important historical record of what she - and so many others - endured. A heartfelt, accessible story of a determined warrior for her oppressed people * Kirkus Reviews * Gulchehra Hoja has given the world that rarest of treasures: a true account that magnificently tells the story of a whole people - the Uyghur nation - while simultaneously telling the most personal and powerful chronicle of one heroic woman's life. Readers will not be able to put down this beautifully written chronicle of Gulchehra's devotion to her family, her people, her faith and to her conscience. She has faced excruciating choices but through it all, her virtue and valour shine through like a beacon of light. This book will make each reader want to live a life of greater purpose -- Dr Katrina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation, past Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom