A Stone Is Most Precious Where it Bel..., Gulchehra Hoja
A Stone Is Most Precious Where it Bel..., Gulchehra Hoja
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A Stone Is Most Precious Where it Belongs
A Memoir of Uyghur Exile, Hope, and Survival

Author: Gulchehra Hoja

Narrator: Sarah Suzuk

Unabridged: 8 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/21/2023

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

This extraordinary memoir shares an insight into the lives of the Uyghurs, a people and culture being systematically destroyed by China—and a woman who gave up everything to help her people. In February 2018, twenty-four members of Gulchehra Hoja's family disappeared overnight. Her crime – and thus that of her family – was her award-winning investigations on the plight of her people, the Uyghurs, whose existence and culture is being systematically destroyed by the Chinese government.

A Stone is Most Precious Where it Belongs is Gulchehra’s stunning memoir, taking us into the everyday world of life under Chinese rule in East Turkestan (more formally as the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China), from her idyllic childhood to its modern nightmare. The grandchild of a renowned musician and the daughter of an esteemed archaeologist, Gulchehra grew up with her people’s culture and history running through her veins. She showed her gifts early on as a dancer, actress, and storyteller, putting her on a path to success as a major television star. Slowly though, she began to understand what China was doing to her people, as well as her own complicity as a journalist. As her rising fame and growing political awakening coincided, she made it her mission to expose the crimes Beijing is committing in the far reaches of its nation, no matter the cost.

Reveling in the beauty of East Turkestan and its people – its music, its culture, its heritage, and above all its emphasis on community and family – this groundbreaking memoir gives us a glimpse beyond what the Chinese state wants us to see, showcasing a woman who was willing to risk not just her own life, but also that of everyone she loves, to expose her people’s story to the world.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kimberly on January 07, 2023

This book, written by a Uyghur journalist about her life and how her embrace or freedom has impacted her family and friends, is deeply moving, terrifying and a reality check on our world. There is massive genocide occurring to the Uyghur population in China and this writing highlights the reality of......more

Goodreads review by Kim on March 09, 2023

This deeply affecting record of the beleaguered experiences of the Uyghur people, is reminiscent of the fate of ethnic minorities in many areas throughout history. These regions have seen their citizens arrested, tortured, and killed without cause, their lands and crops stolen, their culture abd lan......more

Goodreads review by Elena on September 09, 2024

"... if we stopped doing our duty as journalists, if we were silent, the world would simply forget." This is a memoir of Gulchehra Hoja, the grandchild of renowned grandparents who grew up in Uyghur culture and lived in exile later for exposing truths, as a journalist, about the Chinese oppression.......more

Goodreads review by Brenna M. on September 02, 2022

THIS IS A MUST-READ!!! The memoir of an Uyghur woman who loves her people, her culture, and her home, and who becomes an enemy of China's CCP as their approach to controlling the East Turkestan region and people grows more imposing, more restrictive, more violent. Born and raised to a proud Uyghur f......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on September 23, 2022

This memoir is just so important. The plight of the Uyghur people is heartbreaking. I hope everyone will do their part and read memoirs such as this one, by the courageous and fearless Gulchehra Hoja. Gulchehra did an excellent job at describing life in East Turkestan (or Xinjiang Province). What I......more

Quotes

"We said ‘never again’ after millions of Jews were killed in the Holocaust, but here we are in 2023 and another genocide is taking place in front of our eyes of the Uyghur people in China. Gulchera Hoja bravely exposes this new holocaust perpetrated by the Chinese communist party in her brilliantly written book, A Stone is Most Precious Where It Belongs. Her story is one of immense sacrifice to expose the truth. As a reporter for Radio Free Asia, Ms. Hoja was one of the first people to expose the Uyghur concentration camps in Xinjiang and as a result, her entire extended family were rounded up and imprisoned on those same camps. The suffering of the Uyghur people that she documents is a must read. We owe Gulchera Hoja an enormous debt of gratitude to bear witness and share this horrifying story."—Bill Browder, New York Times bestselling author of Red Notice

“A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs is a brave and brilliant book. It is a window into topics ranging from efforts to maintain Uyghur culture in the face of suffocating propaganda in Chinese state media through to the opportunities and agonies of exile. But most gripping is Gulchehra Hoja’s willingness to share not just her story but herself—humor and humility, pain and love and faith.”—Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch

"Gulchehra’s story, and her work to shed light on the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide of the Uyghurs, has been carried out at a high price. This book offers a valuable look at the experiences that led to her dedicated journalism, and her fight to preserve and live out Uyghur culture."—Nury Turkel, author of No Escape: The True Story of China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs

“In this moving, deeply personal account of a family’s collective anguish, Hoja, a reporter for Radio Free Asia, re-creates in intimate detail her life story within the tight Uyghur community and their ultimate persecution and imprisonment… we are lucky to have this important historical record of what she—and so many others—endured. A heartfelt, accessible story of a determined warrior for her oppressed people.”—Kirkus Reviews

"Gulchera Hoja has given the world that rarest of treasures—a true account that magnificently tells the story of a whole people—the Uyghur nation—while simultaneously telling the most personal and powerful chronicle of one heroic woman's life. Readers will not be able to put down this beautifully written chronicle of Gulchera's devotion to her family, her people, her faith and to her conscience. She has faced excruciating choices but through it all, her virtue and valor shine through like a beacon of light. This book will make each reader want to live a life of greater purpose."—Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, president, Lantos Foundation, past Chair, US Commission on International Religious Freedom

"On one level this immensely significant book is a memoir of a journalist overcoming tremendous odds and making unimaginable sacrifices to tell the truth. On another it tells the terrible story of the cultural genocide of the Uyghur people at the hands of the Chinese government. I found this heart-rending book impossible to put down and hope it finds the global audience it deserves."—Peter Oborne, journalist and author of The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong About Islam

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