This interview details the professional and personal journey of Mukaddas Mijit, a Uyghur artist and ethnomusicologist navigating the complexities of life in the diaspora. Mijit explores the systemic challenges she has faced within both Chinese and Euro-American institutions, highlighting how her identity is frequently subjected to different forms of racialization. In the Chinese context, she describes a colonial framework where Uyghur culture is manipulated into staged, state-approved performances of “happy minorities” designed to serve a political agenda. Conversely, she critiques the Euro-American perspective for often reducing Uyghur identity to a one-dimensional narrative of victimhood or an exotic relic of the past. Through her work in film, podcasting, and performance, Mijit rejects the need for “rescuing” Uyghur culture from the outside. Instead, she emphasizes the contemporariness, vitality, and individuality of Uyghur people, seeking to reclaim the right to define Uyghurness on their own terms.