Adventure of a Uyghur lad building his career outside Xinjiang

Reporter: Huang Shan and Chen Ziqi

As a country, China is home to 56 ethnic groups that have their own distinct cultures. And so when moving from one culture and relocating to another, getting familiar with your new home can be a huge hurdle to succeeding; especially if you don't speak the language the locals speak. 

A village in Altay region in Xinjiang [Photo: from VCG] (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is located in the northwest of China, with area of 1.66 million square kilometers. Xinjiang is inhabited by more than 40 different ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Uyghur and Han-ethnics. Known as Xiyu in ancient time, “Western Regions” in English, Xinjiang was an important traffic conjunction that leaded to ancient Silk Road.)

A prime example of that is one man who has lived through all that and still managed to come on top is Abdulla Ulaxim, who 15 years ago, packed his belongings and left his hometown of Xinjiang for greener pastures. He ended up in Nanchang whereby despite the culture shock, he still managed to thrive.

Nanchang is the capital city of China's Jiangxi Province that continues to attract many people from different cultural backgrounds to either work, live or study. Along the city's Guangdong East Road you won't miss the Uyghur rhythms and the aroma of the grilled bread coming from one of the city's popular Xinjiang grill restaurants.

Abdulla Ulaxim is greeting his customers in his grill restaurant.[Photo: from China Plus]

Inside, a short, thin middle-aged man, wearing traditional small cap with Uyghur-style patterns, is busy taking orders and delivering dishes to customers. His name is Abdulla Ulaxim. He is the owner of this restaurant.

It has been 15 years since he left his hometown of Hotan in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in search of a better life. He vividly recalls how dumbfounded his parents were when they first heard that their son wanted to leave Xinjiang. 

Script of Uyghur language. Uyghur Language is a member of the Turkic branch of the Altaic language family. [Photo: from the official website of the Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China]

Back then, he faced one main problem; he could not speak Mandarin. Born in the Uyghur ethnic minority, Abdulla had a language disadvantage. Apart from not being able to express himself in Mandarin, he couldn't read or write Chinese characters. Nonetheless, he clearly understood what challenges lay ahead. Still, he was confident that one day he would successfully crack the language code and overcome any obstacles.

Wearing his confidence and ambition on his sleeves, Abdulla bravely left Xinjiang in 2002. As expected, life was tough. In the beginning, he made a living by selling raisins by the roadside. He quickly became friends with another vendor with whom he learnt his first mandarin phrases from. The most crucial phrases were how to tell customers about the price of his raisins.

Thinking about how far he has come, he laughs out loud as he flashes back on that first experience. "The vendor told me when customers approached; I should tell them the price was 2 yuan per 50 grams. So when I saw my first customer come close, I kept repeating exactly those words.” he said, “Later, I found out that in fact, the customer wasn't asking for the price but actually where I was from."

Fast forward to today, Abdulla's story is a true testimony of the phrase "from grass to grace". From selling raisins to pancakes, he currently is the proud owner of 10 plus restaurants. 

On top of that, his once pessimistic parents couldn't be happier even though they still worry about him from time to time. Eitherway, they support his ambitions on one condition is that he shall never get himself in trouble by committing crimes like stealing and fighting. 

Abdulla said his parents had educated him since he was a child that they are Chinese, and they obey the law. And he is happy that so far he hasn't let them down.

Meanwhile in Xinjiang, there is an old saying in Uyghur--"making friends with good people will bring you good fortune." Abdulla now truly understands it better than ever. He is very grateful to the people who once helped him. 

His first Han-ethnic friend after he settled down in Nanchang was his landlord, Lv Tingyang. They quickly established a close friendship. When Lv started noticing that sometimes Abdulla hardly had time to eat, he would bring him food. 

"My wife and I would discuss that we should help Abdulla's family. Their life was not easy because they did not have relatives or friends here. Some Uyghur friends told me about their eating customs. So we brought new kitchen supplies and bought mutton and beef from Halal shops. We felt content seeing Abdulla's smiling face." Lv explained.

Abdulla is grilling. Although he is the owner of the restaurant, he often works as a regular crew member. He says he can make friends with his customers by serving them. [photo: from China Plus]

Running 10 plus restaurant businesses have rendered Abdulla and his wife busy; keeping them away from their daughter. Dinner time is especially the busiest period of the day at their diners. So they cannot spend the evenings with their daughter Ayxem. 

Like his father, Ayxem could not speak mandarin when she first came to Nanchang. And because of that Abdulla felt guilty and helpless for not being able to help his child with her homework after school.

Abdulla said, "In the beginning, Ayxem would not be able to complete her homework and so she would ask me for help; which I couldn't. So I would tell her she had to handle it by herself. She would then cry. And then I would cry too. It was heart-breaking."

Ayxem and her Han-ethnic mum Luo Guolian. Luo took care of Ayxem when she came back from school, when they were neighbors. [photo: from China Plus]

These days, Ayxem likes listening to songs sang in Mandarin. Thanks to the time she's been spending with their former neighbor turned Mandarin tutor Luo Guolian. She has been able to grasp the language pretty fast, and now she is fluent in Mandarin and can also express herself in some local dialects.

Ayxem calls Luo Guolian her Han-ethnic mom. When Luo was Abdulla's neighbour, she volunteered to look after Ayxem when Abdulla and his wife were busy at the restaurants. Ayxem would have dinner and finish her homework at Luo's home. Later Abdulla and his wife would collect her when they returned home.

Due to their busy schedule, Ayxem once spent four days with Luo Guolian during the Spring Festival. Although she spent the important holiday without her parents, it was still a happy experience for her; she was very excited to watch beautiful fireworks and firecrackers light up the sky in the evenings.

Grateful for all the assistance he's gotten from people over the years, Abdulla says he will never forget those Han-ethnic friends who helped him when he was going through some challenging times. Because of them, his lifestyle has significantly and positively changed. Therefore he now believes it is his turn to help others just like others helped him.

Another close Han-ethnic friend of Abdulla's is his neighbor Wang Lei who helped him a lot when he was searching for an ideal location to open his first restaurant. Abdulla recalls how they spent a whole day checking out plenty of potential storefronts; such that by the end of the day it felt like they had just walked through the entire city.

Unfortunately, for Abdulla's good friend Wang Lei, life hasn't been so kind to him. He recently was diagnosed with Diabetes. And so when he needed to have an operation for his left eye Abdulla offered to help foot his medical bill by giving him a fat envelope with 18,000 yuan in it.

Besides Wang Lei, Abdulla has been helping so many other people. Since the beginning of this year, he has visited 15 impoverished families, senior people living alone, and people with disabilities in Nanchang. 

He usually brings them fresh mutton and gives them some pocket money. Abdulla acknowledges the importance of helping others because if it wasn't for others, it would have been impossible for him to achieve the kind of success he has.

Whenever speaking of his Han-ethnic friends, Abdulla always expresses his gratitude, "I am 43-years old this year. In the rest of my life, I will never forget all these friends who helped me. No matter what regions they come from, we are all Chinese people, and we stick together and look after each other."