Bearing Witness to China’s ‘Orwellian Dystopia’

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen
Is that Winston Smith I clock, front and centre?
Kashgar, Xinjiang, 2019; Patrick Wack’s “Dust “

Things are much too often said to be “Orwellian” these days. But it may be spot on for today’s Xinjiang in Bari Weiss’s “Bearing witness to China’s Orwellian dystopia”. That’s sure how it seems for the untermemsch, the poor Han-suppressed Uygurs, as described in photographer Patrick Wack’s interview with Bari’s sister Suzy Weiss.

Another classic example of the Streisand Effect in action. When will authoritarians learn? Don’t bring attention to things you’re trying to hide, by banning them! You only get world attention. Who would have noticed Wack’s new book, “Dust”? Answer: maybe 1,000 folks who bought it. Who will know about it now? Answer: many hundreds of thousands, the whole readership of Bari Weiss, former editorial writer at the New York Times and now a popular author in Substack. I’d never have heard of Wack but for the efforts of China’s censors and Kodak’s supine submission to it. Shame on Kodak!

The ten photographs that China objected to are now preserved Bari Substack link above. TBF, I don’t find them all that damaging to China. I don’t see the big deal. I guess it’s the contrast between the freedom for Uygurs to pray just a few years back and the destruction of most of Xinjiang’s mosques since then. That’s only an inference from the photos, which clearly China’s fervent censors were quick to make.