Enzat Tohti Photo: VCG

"The new media platforms in the new era give me the opportunity to bring Xinjiang people's humor to audiences around the country and even the world through our short videos," Enzat Tohti, a young entrepreneur from the Uygur ethnic group who is a national political advisor from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said in an address at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, showing Xinjiang youths' confidence in front of the cameras of domestic and foreign media.

Enzat Tohti's production team has been trying to show the real and interesting stories coming out of Xinjiang by producing comedy videos and short films with distinct local features. Through these brilliant works such as the online short video series Anar Pishti, which debuted in 2016, his team has become a sensation on Chinese social media.

During an interview on Tuesday ahead of a plenary session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the young committee member shared how he uses short videos to narrate Xinjiang stories and send out an invitation that welcomes people from both around China and abroad to visit Xinjiang as spring arrives.

Enzat Tohti recalled a happy time in his childhood, saying that when he was 12 or 13 years old, he liked to use his digital camera to shoot all the fun things happening in his yard, which he then played on the TV. Adults and children from different ethnic groups would come and gather around to watch these funny videos. Since then, he decided to record the life, food and scenery of Xinjiang with his camera, especially stories about various ethnic groups uniting together.

True to form, at the end of his speech, Enzat Tohti promoted his hometown, saying that with the arrival of spring, he hopes more people can travel to Xinjiang, make friends with the people of the region, and record all the region's beauty through their own videos so they too can tell stories about the autonomous region.

The speech got a warm welcome from netizens, who commented that Xinjiang is one of their dream tourism destinations and that they are willing to share the beauty of Xinjiang with more people.

Enzat Tohti's team has excelled at taking advantage of the cast's comedic talent to narrate stories happening in the daily lives of Xinjiang residents in a humorous way. Based on in-depth research, the writers and performers work together to refine scripts and fill them with interesting details.

Besides Enzat Tohti and his team, other young people in the region are also using diverse ways to show the charm of their hometowns. 

For instance, 20-something photographer Ma Hailun has taken aim at local fashion to demonstrate regional characteristics such as unibrows, henna dye and colorful long dresses, as well as clothing worn by herders. Her goal is to use these photos to debunk some of the stereotypes people may have about the beautiful multi-ethnic place and add a layer of cool to the region in the minds of others, she told the Global Times.

Some young people in Xinjiang are willing to share their daily life on video platforms such as Bilibili. A Bilibili user from southern Xinjiang named "Ayituna" who has nearly 100,000 followers said she wants netizens to see the real lives of people from the various ethnic groups in the region.