How a kids’ TV star ended up on China’s most wanted list
Gulchehra Hoja made her name as the popular host of China’s first Uyghur-language children’s TV show. But exposing Uyghur detention camps would make her an enemy of the state.
In the 1990s Gulchehra Hoja was a popular face on Chinese TV, the star of the country’s first Uyghur-language kids' show. But as the Chinese authorities began a crackdown on Uyghur culture, Gulchehra had to toe the party line. She felt her TV show was being used to promote government policies that were making life hard for her people. Gulchehra found a way out – moving to the US and becoming a journalist. But it would mean saying goodbye to her family, possibly forever. And it would make her an enemy of the Chinese state.
Gulchehra has written a book called A Stone is Most Precious Where it Belongs.
Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: Maryam Maruf
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com
(Photo: Gulchehra Hoja in the 90s. Credit: Courtesy of Gulchehra Hoja)
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