Not merely for show, but respect

Zhang Chunxian, Party chief of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, showed off his Uygur language skills during the delegation's group discussion session that opened to media on March 7, although he admitted that he only knows one sentence, which is "Happy Corban Festival".

The Corban Festival is an important Muslim festival, which falls on Dec 10, according to the Islamic calendar. More than 61 percent of Xinjiang's population is from ethnic groups, such as Uygur, Kazak and Tajik, and many are Muslims.

Later, I replayed the voice file of Zhang speaking Uygur to a friend of mine who is from the Uygur ethnic group and asked her if she could understand what Zhang said.