People of the new frontier

Photographer Norberto Cuenca recently travelled to the province, hoping to capture traditional life within Xinjiang’s Uygur communities before it disappears

With a population of more than eight million people, the Uygur (meaning ‘united ‘or ‘allied’) are one of the largest ethnic minorities in China. Originally descended from a group of Turkic-speaking tribes from the Altai mountains, the majority of Uygur people now live within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a province in the north of China that shares its borders with eight countries. Xinjiang (literally ‘new frontier’) has a long history of intermittent independence – it was only officially incorporated into China in 1950, becoming an autonomous province in 1955. Although the region has always been relatively isolated, the creation of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in 1954, a semi-military government organisation established to increase industry and agriculture within the province, brought modernisation and an influx of Han chinese in its wake. Xinjiang still retains a unique cultural and social structure, but these traditions are slowly being eroded. Photographer Norberto Cuenca recently travelled to the province, hoping to capture traditional life within Xinjiang’s Uygur communities before it disappears