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qforqazaq · 8 months

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Hmm, I think you might be overthinking this thing a bit.

For starters, Q-pop never really stuck tbh, it was something only a small fraction out of mainly K-pop obsessed fans were invested in because it was generally easy to parasitise on that part of the audience. And, well, that was the initial clever plan, wasn't it.

Q-pop never had the infrastructure in the first place (as if the other parts of the KZ showbiz had lol), hence 91 being the pioneers and the current sole representatives of the genre. Albeit, if we consider "Q-pop" to be that knock-off genre based on the said inventions of the South Korean entertainment machine.

If we are to consider Q-pop being "contemporary popular songs in the Kazakh language", however, as, I think, Yerbolat had mentioned a while ago, I would argue that Q-pop is actually prevailing - thriving even - since now the local music in Kazakh is a lot more popular than, say, Russian music from Russia as it used to be the case 5 years ago. I'd say nowadays people in KZ have as many Kazakh hits in their Apple Music/Spotify/Yandex Music playlists as whatever American/British/other Western international celebrities' concoctions.

Also, it's not really about their appearance - I don't think people on average actually care about this at this point. Don't get me wrong, Kazakhstan is still quite a homophobic country, but come on, this hair colour debate is so 2016. And no, I don't think the guys individually are homophobic, in that regard my general impression was that the Almaty creative hipster scene is rather liberal. Unless you're a new guy who just dropped out of conservative nowhere.

In either case, I would say the bad PR with the whole earrings/hair dye controversy in the group's early days played in their favour overall, as more people got to know them, including those who didn't even listen to K-pop.

I would also argue they sort of gave up on the whole "giving Asian pop boyband vibes to get the attention of impressionable 14 year olds" since around the album 91, because that one sounded extra trendy, not at all K-pop-ish, with all those sound effects and auto-tunes and such.

That's not even the point though.

The point is they sort of waited it out a bit too long, missed the window of opportunity, I suppose, with all that COVID break, and probably Yerbolat kind of mulling things over for a bit longer than needed. While they were off, all those other acts showed up and kept spitting out content after content. And all of a sudden we have the whole variety of the local music that basically allowed for the situation that I already illustrated: when you can legitimately have playlists packed with only songs made in KZ, at least 90% of them would be in the Kazakh language, and all of that is actually produced by, intended to and listened by the local youth. This fact alone is simply phenomenal to the point that if I was told this could be a thing a mere decade ago, I wouldn't have even believed it. And there I was trying to promote the Kazakh pop music to my Kazakh friends 5 years ago which mostly raised unamused eyebrows, eh. I was ahead of the time, I suppose, an early adopter of sorts (to the point of having an actual blog about it) as the same friends listen to the Kazakh music now, what a fucking surprise.

But where were we?

Ah, Ninety One slowed down and that didn't help the traction when competition started popping up.

And, well, the market proved to be more in favour of mostly hip-hop/rap single or double acts that are cruder/more authentic in delivery with less censorship, and not exactly polished boybands with elaborate choreography routines. Although, I must say, the guys still have the fanbase, it's just not as ardent as it used to be because, well, you know, life happened, the kids grew up, time flies, what can you do. It's been 8 years, after all, those 14 year olds are at least 22 now, and are probably collectively having their respective graduation ceremonies at their respective universities or something.

Come to think of it though, the 91 guys must have still contributed to these Zoomers' propensity to listen to the contemporary Kazakh music without the whole colonial brainwashing and the inferiority complex of the generations prior.

Anyway, the point of this long incoherent monologue: it's not about the earrings or hair dye, but the missed timeframe + changing tides of the market trends/tastes when it comes to the local music.

Also, I don't really think they can afford to actually split up - the local showbiz is poor af, it's not like anyone from the group had accumulated a fortune to secure a prosperous future with comfortable lifestyle. Just a reminder that we're not in the States where the music industry's contributions to the GDP is equivalent to the GDP of this entire country (no, seriously, Google it, the KZ GDP is only around 20 bils more.) I must point out they did live off those McDonald's/inDrive/Otbasy Bank commercials after the Juz split only thanks to the Ninety One™ brand that still holds some value.

If they do want to continue as solo acts though, it would require some serious marketing chops, and a bit of luck to catch that trend wave with whatever content they'll individually decide to produce.

They'll need to monetise their ventures somehow too, so I would expect more commercials - whether or not they'd be able to secure serious sponsorship contracts while not being under the Ninety One™ brand is one big question though.

All in all, can't say I know the answer to your question, I just know that times have changed, the K-pop rage had peaked in around 2017, Q-pop never took flight, and Ninety One are probably trying to reimagine themselves to stay relevant in the today's market.

Towards a grand unified theory of what's going on with Ninety One right now.

Like all theories, this one can't be taken seriously until it's been scrutinized and tested. So I'll say the same thing I said about my Gap speculations: if you know I'm wrong or misinformed, please please please please tell me.

In the last couple days I've gotten access to three pieces of information I didn't have before, that have led me to say, okay, maybe this is what happened. The first was an Instagram reel from a fluffy entertainment site reporting on the original TikTok live, which quoted Ace directly (machine translation; I put this one through both Google Translate and Yandex Translate and they didn't differ much):

We'll keep putting on concerts until winter. Then we plan to take a break for an indefinite period, 1, 2, maybe 3 years. Maybe each of us will go our own way. Maybe our direction will change. We want to rest and take a break from our current image. Even if we come back, everything might be different than before. [emphasis mine]

The second piece of information was another fluff piece, on TikTok's self-reported "sounds of the summer" in Kazakhstan. Irina Kairatovna made the list, as did Kalifarniya, and a couple non-Kazakh songs (a remix of "Makeba"; Teya Dora, who's Serbian, I believe), but Ninety One did not.

And the third piece, courtesy of the lovely @bbcblackjack, was that Kalifarniya was previously in a Q-pop group called Divine, but has since renounced Q-pop; while I can't quote his words directly, he apparently used the kind of homophobic language that Ninety One has never, in my knowledge, stooped to using.

So here's what I think happened, told chronologically.

The combination of the pandemic and the MadMen arrests devastated Q-pop as a whole; when Kazakhstan's music scene finally began to revive, in 2021, there weren't a lot of Q-pop groups with the resources to start making inroads on the scene again. Instead the momentum shifted to IK and other hip-hop artists. Which should have stood to benefit Ninety One once they went independent and started making up for lost ground in 2022. I think within Pop Almaty (my nickname for the indie-ish popular-music scene there) itself, Ninety One is respected and regarded as peers: hence the IK collaborations, ZaQ cutting a track with De Lacure, and Yenlik appearing in the Yeski Taspa series. (Also remember that the guys were awfully reluctant to condemn Shiza acting up onstage when asked about him during the Zamandas interview.)

I think they expected that respect to carry over into their public image. ("Bata" is their "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," but it's also a boomy, Future-influenced track: a hip-hop move as much as a pop one.) But it didn't: they were still "Q-pop." And that hurt them in three different ways:

The general way of trends changing; what was cool three or six years ago isn't so likely to be cool now, in pop music. So the fans who had been listening to "Aiyptama" and "Kaytadan" at age 14 had moved on, and...

...because there was no real Q-pop infrastructure, they couldn't pick up a new Q-pop-oriented audience easily. (Contrast to K-pop, where new ZEROBASEONE fans have ready opportunities to discover the likes of SHINee and Infinite.)

But whereas the popularity proved transient, the homophobic unpopularity stuck: Ninety One was still dealing with the real-Kazakh-men-don't-wear-earrings bullshit.

(This is where Kalifarniya's new popularity comes into my argument. In the video for "Puerto Rico," he's dancing sensuously on a beach while wearing an oversized pink suit: in other words, using artsy idol imagery to his own advantage. Squint and you're watching a BTS solo video. But because he was willing to distance himself from Q-pop and the supposed Gay Cooties, the public's willing to accept the idol presentation on its own terms.)

#3 would explain why they had trouble with touring last year—the canceled gig in Turkestan, the canceled-and-rescheduled gig in Shymkent—and why they didn’t really have a tour this year. I find it very hard to believe that they didn’t plan to go to places like Kostanai and Semey and Oskemen to promote their second full album, and easier to believe that they planned to and ran into enough opposition that they eventually gave up in frustration and just settled for one Astana and one Almaty concert.

“But, Jessica,” you ask now, “they were able to go to Semey and Aqtobe and the like in 2017, 2018, 2019; what’s changed?” That’s a weakness of my theorizing. This is very speculative and you should take it with enormous amounts of salt, but here’s a possibility: one downstream consequence of Bloody January might be that local akimat now have a little more power relative to federal officials in Astana, and that new empowering might embolden said akimat to say, no we will not have these dyed-haired pooftahs coming in from Almaty to corrupt our innocent youth, thank you very much. Might, maybe, who knows, if you think I’m going too far out on a limb please do tell me. (Another possibility: the actual costs of booking the shows and traveling to them have gone up enough to make the trips no longer worth it.)

Meanwhile our dudes were spending the second half of 2022 and early 2023 refining the album and spending money. I don’t mean just getting the office (though given the hiatus plans, I am curious how long a lease they signed). But my understanding is that they were financing the Yeski Taspa series, and they also paid for the “Symbaim” music video, which was probably a decent outlay. This may have been financially risky; they may have been doing insufficient future-proofing, or putting more weight on Gap to save them then it turned out to be able to bear. (I don’t think they said specifically that they were financially as well as emotionally exhausted; I’m reading that factor into events, and may be wrong.) But it makes perfect sense. First of all, they are hardly the first startup whose first-year reach may have exceeded its grasp. Also, like I keep telling y’all, Pop Almaty is a small town, and Ninety One not only want to keep their own good reputations in this small town, but grow the town’s economic prospects if they can, for themselves and for the people they care about who also live and work in this small town—Veronika, Bibotta, Assiya and the other dancers, Nurs Bazarbay, their friends such as Ne1tron and Ray and Kyle Ruh, Ace’s brother. ZaQ in particular (and Boss Yerbolat before him) has been very consistent in arguing that they want to succeed not just for themselves but for a larger musical and artistic community.

But that meant they had to regain popularity with Gap. And they didn’t. I don’t know why they didn’t. Like I said, I think “pop goodness but also processing the helplessness and frustration they felt over Bloody January” might have been too loaded for their potential K-pop-adjacent fans but too pop for fans of IK and Shiza. They might have gotten away with it in 2019, when Q-pop didn’t look done and dusted, and they bet they could still get away with it in 2023, and lost. But like pretty much everything else here, that’s speculative.

The big, obvious risk, then, is that abandoning their “current image” will mean they finally go along with what seem to be prevailing expectations of public homophobia. (This is an aside, but the anthropologist Alice Evans recently wrote an interesting essay reporting on recent research suggesting that homophobia gained currency in parts of the former Soviet Union, including Kazakhstan, after widespread first- and second-hand experience with prison rape during the gulag era.) I don’t know. I can’t guarantee you that they haven’t made homophobic statements already; I can only tell you that I’ve been bracing myself for such news for years now and it hasn’t reached me yet. It’s entirely possible that part of “each of us going our own way” will include divergence on this issue, too—that one or more of them, but not necessarily all four, will publicly run from the Gay Cooties. (To be entirely frank, I have my guesses as to which members would be more or less likely to take such a stance, but my predictions are almost always wrong—remember, I was the hotshot who thought “Su Asty” was going to be a ballad—and I’d rather not tar any of the dudes preemptively or wrongly, and especially not both.)

What I don’t think is going to happen (although see above re my prediction track record) is that they’ll completely abandon their commitments to Pop Almaty. Those commitments will vary in focus and scope; Alem’s are more likely to be in the contexts of his TV work and Veronika, for example, and ZaQ’s to the larger hip-hop scene. They have said in the past that they planned to release solo work; this hiatus would give them the chance to do so without Eaglez breathing down their necks for more group work.

I’m less sure about whether we’re going to continue to get OT4 hanging out for our amusement. Maybe cameos on each other’s Instagram or Ace’s TikTok, but the likes of Space may be part of the image package they want to get away from. We may run up against the paradox where the bro-dom looks weaker but is actually stronger, once they can just be close friends pursuing related but separate interests and don’t have to market their bro-dom to us so hard.

I’m feeling… well, still cranky. Gap is a good album! If my narrative is right then they took a risk, in insisting that they could be dyed-haired pop stars who dance onstage and still have something to say, and it didn’t pay off. And neither they nor Eaglez had any right to demand of the universe that it pay off, but still: arrrgh. And there’s no guarantee that what they come back with, if they ever come back as four again, who knows, will inspire me the way Gap does. Meanwhile, if it isn’t already obvious, I would really like them to stay away from the public homophobia, and it’s entirely possible that they won’t. In short: change means uncertainty; uncertainty is not fun.

But it’s also possible that all this will work out to their, and our, benefit: the guys get to support each other doing a wider variety of projects, and we get to listen and watch. Pessimism isn’t necessarily a virtue. So after this I’m going to quit trying to combat the uncertainty by speculating all over the place. Like I said, y’all tell me where I’ve gone off track.

#ninety one #kazakhstan

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qforqazaq · 9 months

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Well, there's no other way to talk about it, is there?

People need to write a news piece for views, and it's just another one of calamities happening everyday in different parts of the world - experts are not and never will be expected to actually sympathise with the subject matter. They absolutely don't have to, really. By the end of the day, it all becomes dry, depersonalised pages in history books.

What I appreciated though is to find many messages on Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp by many friends and acquaintances I've met over the years all over the world, even those whom I was never close with, asking about my wellbeing which truly was heartwarming.

Friends from London, Paris, LA, Dubai, Berlin, Munich, Kuala Lumpur, Vancouver, Hong Kong - there were even people whom I met only once in my life, and happened to remember I was from Kazakhstan, who cared enough to dig up my social media page in their followers list and write a line to make sure I was indeed okay. If that wouldn't make anyone feel anything but grateful, I don't know what could. Honestly, that was a sort of thing that can restore one's faith in humanity.

It did mine.

So, in the end, it didn't even matter whatever those news outlets were writing. Journalists and political scientists can theorise all they want - it is their job, after all.

Come to think of it, people are always going to care about stuff they've encountered personally anyway. And I'm glad I had people even in the outskirts of my social circle who cared, despite having no connections to the country whatsoever, only to me as a person, and that is more than enough tbh.

Other than that, having a grudge against the very evidently eurocentric world that didn't care enough about a country in the middle of socioeconomic nowhere also known as "Central Asia" sounds rather counterproductive imho. Might as well try to make it a "somewhere", at least by sharing the culture - popular and otherwise - in a silly little blog like mine, I suppose.

P. S. Btw, I've just learned that the construction of Notre Dame de París started in 1163 and was largely completed by 1345 that is exactly 120 years before the inception of the Kazakh Khanate. Isn't that an interesting thought?

Knowing that one (1) architectural masterpiece will always be more culturally significant than entire, well, cultures.

Criminal proceedings against citizens accused of taking part in the protests that rocked Kazakhstan in January 2022 are still ongoing, according to BBC News Russian. More than 5,000 criminal cases were opened in the wake of “Bloody January,” including ones against people who died in the unrest. The targets of these posthumous trials include six people who were killed in Almaty, two who were killed in Kyzylorda, and seven who were killed in Taraz. Kazakhstanis have termed them the “trials of the souls of the dead.”

One of the defendants in question is Shyngys Tastanbekov, who was 34 when he was killed. Investigators alleged that he took part in the protests and that four other suspects who also died during the unrest attacked the president’s residence and the city administration building. All five of them were convicted, and the ruling was upheld by an appeals court in June. The court did not hand down a sentence, citing the defendants’ deaths.

Zhaksylyk Dolda, the lawyer representing Tastanbekov’s family, has denounced the trial as political, citing procedural violations committed during the investigation phase. The prosecution’s “evidence,” for example, included video footage that showed Tastanbekov standing in a crowd. Under Kazakhstan’s Criminal Procedure Code, the prosecutors are required to show the video to the defense in its entirety, but the clips used to convict Tastanbekov had been edited. According to Dolda, nowhere in the video is Tastanbekov seen attacking any buildings or police officers.

Additionally, investigators did not commission any expert analyses of the footage to prove that the person it shows is actually Tastanbekov. The BBC noted that he was initially charged with terrorism and attacking government structures as well but that those charges were ultimately dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Tastanbekov’s relatives do not believe he committed the crimes he was convicted of. According to his sister, Shynar, the prosecution’s evidence is self-contradictory; among other things, some materials say that Tastanbekov was killed on January 5 outside of the president’s residence in Almaty, while others say his body wasn’t found until January 7 and was in a different location. Shynar also said one investigator asked the family to sign a confession statement confirming that Tastanbekov took part in the protests. When they refused, according to Shynar, the investigator threatened them. Shynar maintains that her brother did not participate in any riots or seizures of government buildings but simply attended a peaceful protest to help the other demonstrators “convey the people’s desperation to the authorities.”

In January 2022, the Almaty authorities opened a criminal case over Tastanbekov’s murder, but his death was never investigated, his lawyer told the BBC. According to Dolda, in the first examination of Tastanbekov’s body, a police officer noted that he had a through-and-through gunshot wound and burn marks on his lower leg, but the burn isn’t mentioned in the official forensic report. Dolda believes his client may have died while being tortured, but the court did not take this possibility into account. Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General has acknowledged that security officials tortured some people who were arrested in connection with the unrest, and a total of 203 criminal cases were opened over alleged instances of torture and abuse of authority. To this day, it’s unclear who fired at protesters.

International human rights organizations have called on the Kazakh authorities to conduct an independent investigation of the January unrest, but Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has maintained that involving international experts is unnecessary. As of June 2023, only 12 people had been charged in connection with protesters’ death, according to the BBC. According to human rights advocates, more than 40 cases opened over protesters’ deaths have been dismissed or classified.

Seven other people who were killed during the protests have been convicted of participating in mass protests in the city of Taraz. According to journalist Yesdaulet Kyzyrbekuly, none of the suspects’ parents believe the authorities’ account of their childrens’ deaths. One of the people convicted, Andrey Opushiev, was 17 years old when he died. He died from a bullet wound after being shot in the back, and his jaw, teeth, fingers, and left leg were broken. Despite his family’s pleas, the authorities have not investigated his death.

#kazakhstan #kazakh khanate #qazaqstan #central asia #kazakh #qazaq

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qforqazaq · 9 months

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Hmmm

The only thing I can say about the events of the Bloody January 2022, having stayed in the city where all the "fun" and action was happening - it was scary.

Admittedly, it was exciting at first, since that was the first time when anyone witnessed protests flaring up all over the country, people going out to the streets as one. It had never happened before, protests were always some very small isolated events by activists mostly in Almaty, maybe in Astana - super rare, never lasting and doing much.

Reading/watching how people in different cities gathered for protests one by one was nothing short invigorating. And it was all in social media, of course, mostly Instagram, or independent news channels, because the government wouldn't let the official channels to roll anything related to that.

Anyway, seeing on Instagram how that huge crowd in Almaty was moving towards the centre as one in a peaceful protest was inspiring, giving hope for some changes, for a brighter future. I think some of us were hoping for it to become a colour revolution of sorts.

I remember there was someone who was stuck in their office just next to the Republic Square and was streaming live on Instagram how the crowd reached the Square, and there was police with shields and helmets, or were those soldiers? Or whoever the fuck were those. Then they started throwing stun grenades at the crowd, and that was the moment when you kind of realised that well, this shit of a government wouldn't back down, would it?

The live video went on for some time, and it was alarming to watch: a lot of smoke, and noise of people shouting, and grenades going off. The people who were streaming this stopped the video, and I don't remember if that was when the internet went down, or was it afterwards, but one thing was clear: I could hear the stun grenades coming off in the distance despite living on the other side of the city.

I'm not sure I remember all the events in the correct order, but shortly after the crowd went into the city hall and someone started the fire, and I've read they've been beating up those soldiers who were basically 18 y.o. boys serving in an army or something. I think the violence has triggered violence, and, well, honestly, people were fed up with the management for far too long so the bitterness is understandable.

What is not understandable though is that there were reports of some group coming in and starting to distribute the guns which I have no idea where they got from (Kazakhstan is not the States, you can't just get guns anywhere). Which was already suspicious, and did look like a setup tbh. Many people believe it was a diversion from the government to create the chaos, and make it an excuse to call everyone terrorists and shoot without warning.

In either case, amidst the chaos marauders jumped into the opportunity to take whatever they could get their hands on. People were crashing and raiding shops, stores, restaurants, cafes and everything in between. Considering how much the general population got fucked socioeconomically in the past decade (I mean our currency alone was devaluated thrice, it is now worth 3 times less than it did in 2013), it is no wonder why so many people didn't mind start stealing shit while they could. And, well, people were angry, the pent up decades long frustration is never a good thing, what can I say.

Anyway, the internet was cut off, and we've been in the blackout for more than a week, I think. Those were the longest days that probably everyone had ever experienced.

While we've been in the communication lockdown, we've only received those laughable SMS messages from the government telling everyone to stay indoors, while they're having their anti-terrorist operation.

The news of Tokayev asking the CSTO for help with Russia at its helm was the most alarming thing I've heard. In all honesty, it really was a pretty fucking terrifying thought, because having Russian military forces on our ground where the country is destabilised only invoked stuff along the lines of "wait, hang on, are we going to be Ukraine 2.0?" Because we know what happened to Crimea. And in retrospect we now know what happened a month later.

Oh, also considering that right before the internet was shut down people have been ironizing over all those private jets that have been spotted on Flightradar24, leaving Almaty one by one, because, of course the fucking government elite and oligarchs would promptly flee on the first opportunity. They're the last people who would even care about country's wellbeing, obviously.

Knowing this + the news of the CSTO aka Russian and Belarusian military forces coming a few days later basically solidified this feeling of the country being majorly fucked. Yeah, because losing independence to Russia would be a fucking fiasco to say the least, who even in their right mind would want to live in the Soviet Union 2.0?

Honestly, my other thoughts were questions on how people actually apply for refugee status, because living under the Russian occupation was the last thing I wanted to do with my life, thank you very much. I might be biased, but I do think that was the sentiment and fear that majority of the people shared, learning about "receiving help" from the CSTO.

Oh, and a thought of "ok, how the fuck have I even found myself in this situation? I should've probably stayed in Canada, yeah, everything seems so clear in the retrospect, doesn't it. 'Let's go back to Kazakhstan', she said, 'Kazakhstan's got potential" she said, 'there's hope, look at so many creative people putting out cool things now!' she said. Potential my arse, this failure of a country wasn't worth shit after all."

Yeah, I know, I must be fun at parties. Honestly though, you can now see what might be another reason for the lack of any inspiration to write anything on this blog. But I digress, where were we?

Ah, so, yeah, such thoughts got very pronounced when a day or two later they restored the internet connection for an hour or so, and the first thing I've read on the news was - guess what? - that Novak Djokovic's Australian visa was revoked because he didn't want to be vaccinated, so won't be able to compete in the Australian Open. And there was a huge debate about it in every media outlet's comment section.

"Vaccinated?" I thought, "Ah, yeah, COVID is a thing, we are sort of still in the middle of a pandemic right now, aren't we. And people care so much huh. Btw, can I also have problems like these, please? You know, the" white-people kind". When you're debating over getting an avocado toast or eggs Benedict on a brioche bun for breakfast, while discussing whether or not Djokovic should be allowed to play in Australia. Can I? Please?"

You know what I also found bloody hilarious? Not a single news source said anything about what is happening in Kazakhstan. Bloomberg, the Economist, New York Times, Reuter, BBC. Not a single one. Nada.

And then that was another one of those bittersweet thoughts bordering hysterical: "Haha, yeah, how could I forget: nobody, in fact, gives a flying fuck about this piece of shit of a country. Why would they? Nobody even knows where it is on the map, oh, the fucking irony. Novak Djokovic is infinitely more valuable to this world even as a news piece than Kazakhstan's possible ceasing to be a country at all! Talking of priorities, ha!"

Okay, all the news came rolling down eventually, because, of course, they did, but only towards the end of the whole ordeal. And still, the fact that the world at large is indifferent about what is happening in this particular country was quite strikingly evident.

If we are to steer back to the ordeal in question, I don't think anyone believes in that 20k terrorists attack. There are many speculations and theories, a very popular one being that:

Somebody at the top used the ensued chaos to initiate the power struggle with a goal of coup d'etat that Tokayev had to revert, which is why he asked for Putin's help.

Nazarbayev must've fallen from Putin's and/or elites' grace, considering how much more freely/boldly Tokayev had started acting in the aftermath.

I don't think anyone planned or orchestrated the protests. It was just something that flared up like a piece of dry wood, the spark being those gas prices hikes. It was never about gas prices, that was just the proverbial straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, so whatever started at Zhanaozen had finally, for the first time ever, spread like a wildfire across the country, culminating in Almaty.

The shit with a group of people showing up and starting to distribute the guns among the protesters was shady af, that looked like a setup by the government to cover this all up as terrorist attack and get a control over the situation.

Not sure if Masimov who was accused of high treason was actually the one trying to use the situation and promptly stage the coup d'etat or he was just a scapegoat, while the real mastermind behind the scenes left the stage unknown.

Long story short: we still don't know shit about what actually happened. We all just know that we had a collective existential crisis and dread along with trauma and at least one thought about emigrating elsewhere.

Everyone, at least in Almaty, had come out of this scarred at least mentally, others physically, and some people did not live to tell the story at all - and that is the saddest part.

Two weeks after the events it was surreal to sit in a patio, casually sipping your latte at a hip coffee shop in the city centre as if nothing happened. It feels surreal to recall all this now, as it feels like it happened in a different lifetime or a parallel reality. The time blurs the edges though, and it makes you realise that human brain and psyche learns to accept everything.

Political instability is a pain in the arse - I can tell you that much.

And my desire to only have white-people problems have crystallised and solidified back then, but one thing is clear: getting that comically caricature sense of privilege would be rendered impossible, having witnessed this "revolution-that-did-not-happen".

#kazakhstan #qazaqstan #qandy qantar #кровавый январь #bloody january #january 2022 #almaty #қанды қантар

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qforqazaq · 9 months

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Online Database of Qazaq Arts and Crafts

On August 1, the Union of Artisans of Qazaqstan launched a database of traditional Qazaq ornaments, which features extensive bibliography, symbolism and look of the ornaments by region. From the site:

For 12 months the project team went on research expeditions to museums of Aktau, Ural, Kostanay, Kyzylorda, Taraz, Aktobe, Turkestan, Shymkent, and Pavlodar. In addition, the team visited local artisans in the villages of Kyzylorda, Mangistau, Zhambyl, Aktobe, and Turkestan regions.

The meaning of every pattern, its symbolism, region of origin, when and for what it’s used, traditional colors scheme, materials and techniques used are the information the Union studies, documents and adds to the online database of Kazakh traditional arts.

Here is the link. The site is in Russian, but you can translate it in the browser.

#kazakhstan #qazaqstan #kazakh #qazaq #central asia #art

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qforqazaq · 10 months

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Ninety One - GAP album in a nutshell:

1. BIZ - major hip-hop aka "you'd be nothing without me" vibes

2. JUR MAPELEP = Ninety One x Stromae, i.e. the running joke of Kazakh being related to French due to many phonetic similarities has been utilised to its fullest. Bravo, ZAQ, you've outdone yourself when it comes to the phonetic wordplay. Have it on repeat

3. ÁPEREM AI - some Shawn Mendes vibes, I guess? A bit of One Direction too. An upbeat summer song

4. TARTTY - gives off some loungey summer feeling, when you're just comfortably chilling on a beach with a cocktail. Or possibly on a boat. Initially, was expecting some beat drop/development that didn't happen. Which is why "loungey"

5. BLUE = Ninety One x The Weeknd, obviously. Although, some might argue the whole synthypop sound is more related to Moldanazar. Ace is still cosplaying The Weeknd though

6. OTTEGI = Ninety One x Last Dance by BIGBANG, just listen to it, I'm telling you. I'm not even a BIGBANG fan but that song was an instant association. OTTEGI belongs to a classic bittersweet editing sequence in a K-drama where the main character fxcked up and is reminiscing all the happy moments with his gf. And I don't even watch K-drama, but I know that they play songs like that in such moments. Should mention the vocals though. And Alem did the thing

7. DUNIE = Ninety One x Owl City. Took a while to understand what it reminds me of, not sure how I even remembered the band's name, as I've heard only few of their hits. The first impression though was that it's an OST from the same K-drama, but this time for a happy video sequence in the end of the final episode. The OST for a happy ending of sorts

8. EGO = Ninety One x Die Antwoord, I'm telling you! Or just Ninety One on acid. And I did not recognise Ace's voice. I don't think we had a jumpy techno/cyberpunk with neon lights and 200 BPM, or how many were there. Good to have a variety I guess

9. ZULYM = Ninety One x Starboy by The Weeknd, at least the beat. Sort of cool night life vibes. Ace is cosplaying again. The Bala's part sounds fun. Nonetheless, I'd be looking forward to this song on the concert

#ninety one #91 ninety one #gap album #qazaq #q-pop #kazakh #kazakhstan #Spotify #stromae #bigbang #die antwoord #shawn mendes #the weeknd #owl city

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qforqazaq · 11 months

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Neat

Hi! I’m back! Pls take a look at my kazakh spider-girl 🕷️🇰🇿🕸️

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qforqazaq · 11 months

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Will you come back to this blog? No pressure if you don't have the time, interest etc

A good question.

I ended up being a lousy blogger, aren't I.

To be fair though, I've started this blog back when I was living abroad, fueled by nostalgia and hope for the brighter future of the country seeing all those artists, singers, creators and all their creative output based on sheer enthusiasm. I came back to Kazakhstan at the end of 2017.

My motivation to write was stripped after that Denis Ten incident in July 2018. I don't think it was recovered ever since, and a year later I got busy with the job at a startup, and have written anything after that only once - that would be the post about the Old Turkic script.

It's been 4 years since then, and within that time I've actually ended up hanging out in a creative circle, so I've got to know personally most of the artists I've been writing about, becoming privy to many details of their lives because Almaty is tiny and everybody knows each other. In other words, considering the circumstances, writing about the local creative scene became somewhat weird - even though I don't hang out in those circles anymore.

And, well, it's easier to be patriotic when you're not in the country, I suppose. Huh.

To answer your question: I am still busy with the job and all, although that might be considered an excuse on its own. The real reason must be that I don't have the same enthusiasm to write much about whatever is happening here anymore.

Can't say that I will not return to the blog, because who knows.

I can answer to questions from time to time, I guess? When the inspiration kicks in, that is.

Apologies for the long-winded answer that honestly kills the mood, but it is what it is.

Thanks for dropping by, anyway.

Cheers

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qforqazaq · 11 months

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Thanks for the reference @tomirida - good to know someone remembers my work although it's been 4 years

I second everything that's written except for a few comments:

The part with the tea isn't true for everywhere: as someone from Atyrau, we don't like when the tea cup isn't actually full - it's quite annoying to constantly ask for a refill, while in Aktobe it is indeed considered to be the most respected way to serve tea.

There's an alarming trend of some people getting into the doctrines of Salafi/Wahabi Islam bordering religious fanaticism especially in the Western and Southern part of the country. Other than that, Kazakhs do really blend Islamic traditions with Turkic/Tengrism customs which is much better for the national integrity imo

Kazakhs really do love their toasts, and do not shy away from practically harassing their children into saying toasts in front of guests in any possible occasion - probably every child at least of my generation has a PTSD in one form or another, recalling the sheer fear of speaking to a huge crowd of relatives. Oh, and making them sing or recite a poem of sorts in front of everyone has always been on the table for the family entertainment too :'D

The part about incorporating traditional elements in the clothing is very true and it's evolving too - a few years ago it's only been adding some ornaments to a piece of clothing, while this Nauryz in particular I've seen a lot of people wearing a taqiya (that's a hat), and some jewellery like earrings with traditional Kazakh design and sholpy (they look like coins on thin chained strings that are tied to hair). There are many other elements of jewellery which became popular but I'm not an expert so have no idea how many of those are called.

The Golden Man for sure made the Saka tribes the most prominent ethnic group among many of our ancestors. There's a whole legend recited by Herodotus on the Saka queen Tomiris and her confrontation against the Persian king Cyrus the Great. Check it out on Google. Also, a friend of mine, Madibek Musabekov, published his own comic book called Golden Warrior following the plot of that legend but with a fantasy twist with some family drama into it. It is only available in Russian and Kazakh, you can check out the first chapter in Russian for free here

Also, is it too obvious to say that our cuisine isn't based on rice? And we don't eat with chopsticks. In general, we don't associate ourselves with East Asians or any other Asians for that matter. Even among Central Asians we probably only consider Kyrgyz people as our closest relatives due to the many similarities in the language, culture, common Soviet past and, well, Kazakh-Kyrgyz families are not uncommon. The whole issue of "who we think we are and who we'd like associate ourselves with" is the whole other topic for discussion, because being "Russian-speaking (mostly) Asian-looking people with Turkic roots, nomadic heritage and very mixed genetics who are also pagan Muslims stuck in-between two hegemonies" isn't very easy to say the least - in short, it's complicated.

I hope this addition helps in some way.

Fell free to throw some other questions, I'll try to answer if I'll have the time.

Cheers

I have a question for Kazakh people

I have a question for Kazakh people, i hope you answer it!!

I'm writing a Kazakh character. I found the name ''Arma'' years ago, which I think means ''dream'' or related to that. I found other meanings from other cultures too. But I always imagined the character as Kazakh. My question is, can you use Arma as a real name? or is it just a word?

And do you have any recommendations for how to write a more accurate Kazakh character? What would you want to see from a Kazakh character?

(the story is placed in a fictional country, that has people from different cultures from our world.)

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qforqazaq · 1 year

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A fun fact:

Apples, tulips, and, well, cannabis originated on the territory of modern-day Kazakhstan.

The said territory can also accommodate the entirety of Western Europe and there'll be some extra space left too.

Ah, and the very first satellite was launched from here too, as did the very first man in space - Yuri Gagarin!

And let me wrap it up with a popular jam by lovely Yenlik - probably, our only Kazakh female artist of this genre (wrapping it up with a rap, that is)

Have a listen if you will hehe

And OP, prepare for self-care or the internet will come after you

Okay fuck it if this post reaches 666k notes by the end of 2023 I'll practise basic self care

Why 666k? Because it's funny and impossible so good fucking luck

#i love the internet #made in kazakhstan #kazakhstan #random facts #fun facts #Yenlik #kazakh #qazaqstan #qazaq #tulips #apples #cannabis #bothany #biology #Spotify

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qforqazaq · 5 years

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Old Turkic Script

What’s up, people?

I am finally back to get you that cultural meta teased in the 91-Men Emes MV review, oh yeah. Let’s kick it off with the Old Turkic script, shall we?

Old Turkic script aka Orkhon-Yenisei runes is the script used by the Göktürks aka the Original Turkic People of Altay.

Again, a little disclaimer here: please-please-please keep in mind Turkic does not equal Turkish, as Turkic refers to the large ethnolinguistic group that includes many different descendent nations and languages while Turkish are the people and the national language of Turkey. Hence, Turkish is a part of the Turkic ethnolinguistic group, as German is a part of Germanic group, not vice versa. We’re clear on that? Good, let’s carry on.

So, the Old Turkic script.

Was first discovered in the form of 8th-century stele inscriptions in the Orkhon Valley of the modern day Mongolia, hence the first part of the runes’ name. There is also a Yenisei variant from 9th century that was used by the Yenisei Kirghizs (aka the ancestors of the modern Kyrgyz people of Kyrgyzstan btw) in Siberia, hence the second part of the name.

The alphabet was used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic Khanates during the 8th to 10th centuries to record (guess what) the Old Turkic language that is, as you probably guessed, a direct ancestor of the Kazakh language. The scientists are not quite sure about the origins of the Orkhon script: some say it was derived from variants of Aramaic alphabet, others - that it was derived from Chinese characters, derivation from tamgas explanation holds its ground too (tamga - a seal or stamp used by Eurasian nomads as an emblem of a particular tribe, clan or family. Still sort of used by Kazakh tribes, I suppose? Very casually so, without much fanatism. I’ll touch on tamgas whenever I get to talk about the Kazakh tribal system.) As a Scandinavian history nerd, I personally always had strong associations with the Younger Futhark script of the Medieval Vikings.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the Old Turkic script was mostly inscribed on stone steles, hence comes the visual similarity with the Scandinavian runes as they were also carved on a stone block, and you must understand the logistics of writing anything on stone is much different from writing on a piece of parchment, for example. What were the content of those stele inscriptions? Pretty much boasting about “how cool the dude who leads us is”. I know, nothing new. Ah, and by the way, the words in Orkhon-Yenisei are written from right to left.

Nowadays, the Old Turkic script is usually used and pretty much worshipped by the followers of the Pan-Turkism ideology. For some Kazakhs the Orkhon script is sort of a way to discover, appreciate and go back to the ethnic pagan origins as it usually comes with rediscovering of Tengrism as a national and historical legacy, which, I think, is quite cool in its unique fashion.

Conclusion? Ancient runes are tight! hip and trendy.

And major kudos to the Ninety One and Co’s creative decision to highlight and shoutout to this part of history incorporating it in the pop culture piece.

#Old Turkic #Tengrism #Pan-Turkism #kazakh #Kazakhstan #Qazaq #Qazaqstan #linguistics #Younger Futhark #Orkhon-Yenisei Runes #ancient scripts #Turkic people #Ninety One #Men Emes

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