The Chinese Communist Party is currently perpetrating one of the largest humanitarian crises in the modern world, as millions of ethnically Turkic Uyghur Muslims, Kazakhs, and other minority groups face persecution based on their faith and culture. A cultural genocide is occurring in Xinjiang, under the guise that the government is fighting religious extremism. Due to China’s power and huge economic influence, this continues to be a story that has been supressed across the world’s media. The province has rapidly developed into a police state shrouded in secrecy.

For my final major project I gave myself the task of bringing attention to these atrocities. My aim is to tell the concealed story of these oppressed people and to show a physical manifestation of confusing and contradictory media rhetoric and propaganda.

‘A People Destroyed’ is an interactive exhibit that endeavours to construct a narrative of the ongoing plight of China’s Uyghur population underneath a brutal and authoritarian regime, in Xinjiang province.

This exhibit intertwines the narrative promoted by China with the far grimmer reality exposed through personal accounts and party leaks. The user must navigate a variety of newspaper-style spreads to discern the truth from President Xi Jinping’s propaganda and the actuality of events to create a ‘bigger picture’ of the crisis.