ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — BYU-Hawaii senior photographer Monique Saenz, who has been responsible for documenting the Concert Choir tour to China and Mongolia from May 7-29 also pointed her cameras at those she found fascinating in the audiences and on the streets.
This appeal began the first day we arrived in Urumqi, in the far-western Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. The culture, food, customs — and faces — of the Uyghur people all tell of their middle-Eastern Turkic heritage. Their language, for example, is mutually intelligible with that of Uzbekistan and Kazahkstan — an ancient form of Turkish. Today, of course, they also speak Mandarin Chinese and are Chinese citizens, but they are equally proud of their own ethnic heritage, which quickly entranced all the members of the tour group. If anything, they are probably over-represented in our photo collections.
Arriving in Xi’an and Bejing, we quickly became enamored of our associations with the dominant ethnic Han Chinese population. As in Urumqi, our students found much common ground with theirs. When we performed concerts together, we soon learned they often included historical and ethnic arts, highlighted by rich, traditional costumes and accoutrements. To say they were colorful does not do justice to the sights and sounds we enjoyed.
This phenomenon continued as we traveled to the independent nation of Mongolia, where we once again found a rich source of photography among people we met and those we performed with.
To repeat a word from above, we all found the people as reflected by the collection of faces depicted below, simply fascinating. We hope you do, too.
— Photos by Monique Saenz; additional photos by Mike Foley
