Not Just Uyghurs: 6 Turkic Peoples of China

The Uyghurs are the most famous Turkic people living in China. But in their shadow there are many smaller Turkic peoples who are rarely mentioned, including by the Chinese government. From 1954 to 1979, China compiled a register of 56 indigenous peoples of the country, which included such Turkic peoples as Tatars, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Salars, and Uyghurs, but many smaller peoples were artificially classified as larger ones — for example, many Turkic peoples of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) became Uyghurs for the central government. However, many of them retain their unique languages and national identity. Let’s talk about some of the Turkic peoples that formed in China.