For descriptions of the routine and short forms of the Chinese-Muslim martial art xīn yì liù hé quán mentioned in the story, click here.

For maps of China and the region of Xinjiang where most of the story takes place, click here.

Local people call it “the Land of Death”…

What man or woman could sing and dance, which no matter the words or tune were praises to Allah, with joy and confidence after having committed evil, or with sadness and insincerity after having done great good?

“Our father told us that the Taliban and al Qaeda were worse than the Chinese.”

The old man promptly turned his mouth to Aman’s ear.  “That talk could get you and your brother killed.”

“We will never give up our culture; and when we are free of the Chinese, our singing and dancing will drive them away as well.” Aman spoke adamantly, though he now saw more fully how his homeland was caught between two relentless, nearly invincible evils.

Khosan’s bitter laughter was an ugly sound to the young man.

Before the heatwave, Guma was a poor, peaceful, segregated town.  Although less than ten percent of the population, the Chinese ruled and as everywhere in Xinjiang ruled severely at the least sign of disquiet by minorities.

It was not the same desert he had seen during his first day in Guma.  It was now the “terrible beauty” that the Uygurs rarely talked directly about, that binary environment of attraction or repulsion, hot or cold, bright or dark, and abundant life or widespread death.

The elder Jiang had often taught that a man with wŭdé, martial virtue, could not be defeated by a man without wŭdé; but his mother had reminded him of the other side of that coin, that a murderous nature could go beyond ordinary competence into the realm of a madman’s genius and physical strength.  “Your father believes in paradoxes, my dear.  The second greatest of which is that a moral man is a better fighter than an immoral man.”  

Robert stared at the black, glistening face.  It exuded a confidence that he had seen in few other people, all academics at the top of their fields.  Comparing a warrior with academics suddenly seemed ludicrous considering what this man’s words meant.  What was scholastic twaddle compared with taking one’s own life, a friend’s, and a lover’s to avoid unspeakable torture?

The
Superior Men
Of
Xinjiang