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Our Hearts Burned for Home
By Emily FengRead by Emily Feng
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Published on Oct 13, 2026 | 3 Hours 24 Minutes
A people without a country in a country at war.
What drove a few thousand men and women from the deserts and cities of western China to the front lines of Syria’s war? Journalist Emily Feng unearths the untold story of Uyghur exiles who fled China’s expanding police state—only to become a pivotal force behind the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. At the heart of this narrative is a startling paradox: Beijing’s repression, meant to crush dissent, instead scattered and radicalized a generation.
Tracing their journey from the crushed protests of 1990s Xinjiang to the Islamist battlegrounds of Idlib, this book reveals how a campaign of surveillance and cultural erasure, as well as turmoil in the Middle East, gave rise to a Uyghur militant movement far from home. Through vivid reporting and rare access to fighters and families, Feng, along with Uyghur writer Abduweli Ayup, explores how these Uyghurs, controversially, embraced armed resistance—and how their stateless revolution now shapes Syria’s fragile future.
What drove a few thousand men and women from the deserts and cities of western China to the front lines of Syria’s war? Journalist Emily Feng unearths the untold story of Uyghur exiles who fled China’s expanding police state—only to become a pivotal force behind the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. At the heart of this narrative is a startling paradox: Beijing’s repression, meant to crush dissent, instead scattered and radicalized a generation.
Tracing their journey from the crushed protests of 1990s Xinjiang to the Islamist battlegrounds of Idlib, this book reveals how a campaign of surveillance and cultural erasure, as well as turmoil in the Middle East, gave rise to a Uyghur militant movement far from home. Through vivid reporting and rare access to fighters and families, Feng, along with Uyghur writer Abduweli Ayup, explores how these Uyghurs, controversially, embraced armed resistance—and how their stateless revolution now shapes Syria’s fragile future.
Author
Emily Feng
Emily Feng is an award-winning international correspondent for NPR. She’s a regular contributor to NPR podcasts and member stations and she is also a frequent guest on U.S. and BBC radio and television programs. Previously based in Beijing, China for NPR, she now lives in Taipei, Taiwan.
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