Fighting stereotypes with a camera

Kurbanjan Samat believes pictures and real stories are the most eloquent way to talk about Xinjiangers. The pictures are some of the Xinjiangners he has taken photos of, and they are active in all walks of life across the nation.

Misconceptions

He finds misconceptions about Xinjiang and China exist abroad too. Last year, he visited the Indonesian island of Bali. An immigration officer at the airport questioned his Chinese identity due to his Uygur appearance.

"The officer thought I was either from Turkey, India, Iran or Mexico, but not from China," Kurbanjan says. "I cannot speak English. The officer tried to speak Chinese, but it was very bad and I couldn't understand him. He took this as evidence that I was not Chinese."

Fortunately, a Chinese tourist behind Kurbanjan in the line intervened.

"He told the officer that China has 56 ethnic groups with diverse cultures. No single group alone can represent China."

It is these kinds of misunderstandings abroad that have encouraged Kurbanjan to accept invitations from overseas Chinese students and academics to do a lecture tour at US universities.

He plans to speak on "Promoting exchange with love: I am from Xinjiang."

"Love" was the first Chinese character he learnt to write at school.