Tatar Tiongkok

Tatars (Chinese: 塔塔尔族; pinyin: Tǎtǎ'ěrzú; Tatar: татарлар, romanized: tatarlar) are the smallest of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the Chinese government. They are a Turkic people who mostly live in northern Xinjiang, around the Dzungarian Basin (Dzungaria). As of 2020, there are 3,544 Tatars in China, concentrated in the cities of Yining (Ghulja), Tacheng (Qoqek), Altay, and Ürümqi, as well as the herding areas of Burqin County and Qitai County. The Daquan Tatar Ethnic Township in Qitai County, which sits on the edge of the Gurbantünggüt Desert, is the only subdivision designated for Tatars.

The Tatars in China are descendants of Volga Tatars who migrated to Xinjiang from their native Idel-Ural region in modern-day Russia. The Tatars have traditionally acted as mediators between the Russians and the native Muslim peoples of Xinjiang. The first wave of permanent Tatar settlement in Xinjiang began in 1851, primarily in cities such as Ghulja (Yining). Tatars brought progressive ideas and new institutions into Xinjiang, where they cemented themselves in the cultural and political fabric of the region. Jadid schools (including institutions for girls), mosques, and libraries catering to the Tatar community were opened in the second half of the 19th century and in the first decades of the 20th century. During this period, many intellectuals were brought from Tatarstan to staff the schools and colleges.

The Tatar language in China is limited to conversation and singing among older adults. An archaic variant is spoken with influences from other Turkic languages, primarily Uyghur and Kazakh. Conversely, Tatar influences can be found in the Uyghur and Kazakh spoken in the far-northwestern border city of Tacheng (Qoqek). Almost all Tatars are multilingual and speak Uyghur or Kazakh in addition to Standard Chinese. In 1957, the Chinese government's Xinjiang Committee on Languages and Scripts recommended the adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet for Tatar that the Soviet Union had introduced that year, but the Chinese authorities never followed through.

Sabantuy, or the Plough Festival, is a traditional summer festival of the Tatars and is listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in China. A Muslim people, the Tatars in China also celebrate Islamic holidays.