Skip to main content

Dark Shadows - In the Press 2

The Calvert Journal, a London-based online guide to the contemporary culture of the New East: eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia, has published an extract from Dark Shadows that takes a look at the oralmandar, Kazakhs who have moved to Kazakhstan, their 'historical homeland', under the title Long Way Home.

 The extract chronicles the tales of 'returnees' whom the author encountered during her travels across Kazakhstan and into neighbouring Mongolia and China.

Kazakhs getting ready to move on in Mongolia

With intense international media coverage focused in recent months on developments in China's western province of Xinjiang, where around a million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Hui (Chinese Muslims) have been sent to internment camps where they are forced to undergo 're-education', this extract provides a timely reminder that problems have been brewing for quite a while in Xinjiang.
“We were born here, this is our homeland — but now we have to buy it,” grumbled an elderly Kazakh man in August 2007, sitting by the shore of the crescent-shaped glacial Lake Kanas glittering turquoise in the Altai Mountains in the north-western tip of China.
Surrounded by dense taiga giving way to sweeping meadows, this is a prime area for livestock breeding, which is the mainstay of the Kazakh nomadic lifestyle — but this way of life was under threat in this far-flung corner of the world. “Pressure’s increasing with every year,” complained Kayrat, a twenty-something Kazakh speaking under a pseudonym for fear of reprisals from the Chinese government. “We have to move out of here.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark Shadows US Tour Recap

Joanna Lillis, the author of the best-selling  Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan , has completed her successful tour of the USA following the book's North American publication on 30 January.  Dark Shadows arrives in the Big Apple! Here we publish links to videos of two events, so you can watch on catch-up if you missed them on the day. Joanna Lillis in conversation with Alex Cooley at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, New York Here’s a  link   to video of a  Q and A   with Alex Cooley about  Dark Shadows  at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University in New York, where you can hear how the book came about and learn more about the diverse, from-the-ground reportage that it contains, if you missed the event on the day.  Kazakhstan’s Quest for Identity at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University And here’s a   link   to the author’s   presentation...
1 comment
Read more

Dark Shadows Around the World

It's been just over six months since Joanna Lillis's Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan was published in the UK by I. B. Tauris, and in that time it has turned up in some surprising corners of the world. Dark Shadows spotted at Niagara Falls, Canadian side So far, it has made the short trip across the channel to make an appearance in the venerable Shakespeare and Co in Paris , crossed Hadrian's Wall to Scotland , winged its way by post to  Mongolia , sailed across the expanse of the Atlantic to turn up in  Niagara Falls in Canada and the  Bronx , and even popped up in  Mexico  and the exotic Caribbean island of  Curaçao. Dark Shadows on  Curaçao island Who knows where this esteemed tome will end up next? Avid bookworms should keep on posting their pics of Dark Shadows on Twitter and tag in @joannalillis, or send them to us here at darkshadows@gmail.com. For any readers who have yet to get their hands on a copy...
1 comment
Read more

Dark Shadows: In the Press 5: Here Come the Reviews...

Check out the latest reviews of  Dark Shadows  in the international media! The book has recently been reviewed by two renowned historians, Peter Frankopan and Alexander Morrison, both of Oxford University.  Dark Shadows meets The Silk Roads - Joanna Lillis meets Peter Frankopan in Oxford in November 2018 Writing in  The Spectator , Peter Frankopan described  Dark Shadows as “ astute, refreshing and revelatory”, and also “surprisingly tender, showing not only [Lillis’s] affection but her care in trying to make sense of a country that needs to be understood warts and all”.  “She introduces a cast of characters one could not make up, from an Old Believer living in the north of the country to a militant atheist, whose grim convictions are not entirely appealing,” he continues. “We meet those suffering from the effects of Soviet-era nuclear experiments and children infected with HIV in a blood scandal, whose dignity in the face of injustice and trag...
1 comment
Read more