{"id":537,"date":"2009-06-02T13:44:42","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T08:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mohamediqbalp.wordpress.com\/2009\/06\/02\/china%e2%80%99s-attempts-to-modernize-ethnic-uighurs%e2%80%99-housing-creates-discord\/"},"modified":"2009-06-02T13:44:42","modified_gmt":"2009-06-02T08:14:42","slug":"chinas-attempts-to-modernize-ethnic-uighurs-housing-creates-discord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/chinas-attempts-to-modernize-ethnic-uighurs-housing-creates-discord\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Attempts to Modernize Ethnic Uighurs\u2019 Housing Creates Discord"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

China\u2019s Attempts to Modernize Ethnic Uighurs\u2019 Housing Creates Discord<\/h3>\n
\"The<\/p>\n
The government, citing danger and overcrowding, began moving Uighur families out of Kashgar\u2019s labyrinthine old city. (By Maureen Fan \u2014 The Washington Post)<\/span>
\nBuy Photo<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
By Maureen Fan<\/a><\/div>\n
Washington Post Foreign Service
\nTuesday, March 24, 2009; Page A08<\/div>\n

An Ancient Culture, Bulldozed Away<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

KASHGAR, China<\/a>
\n\u2014 For hundreds of years, Uighur shopkeepers have been selling bread and
\nfirewood along the edges of Kashgar\u2019s old town to families whose
\nancestors bought their traditional mud-brick homes with gold coin and
\nhanded them down through the generations.<\/p>\n

Now, this labyrinth of ancient courtyard homes and narrow, winding
\nstreets is endangered by the latest government plan to modernize a way
\nof life that officials consider dangerous and backward.<\/p>\n

Left behind are piles of brick and rubble, houses without roofs and
\nhurt feelings. It is the most recent fault line to develop between
\nChinese rulers and Xinjiang province\u2019s majority ethnic Uighur
\npopulation, a Turkic-speaking people who have long chafed under
\nBeijing\u2019s rule and who worry that their culture is slowly disappearing.<\/p>\n

Like Tibetans, Uighurs resent the influx of Han Chinese immigrants
\nwho dominate government and economic positions and have pushed for more
\nautonomy and economic opportunity. Some Uighurs have waged an
\noccasionally violent campaign calling for independence. Beijing has
\ncracked down hard during periods of unrest and its tough line against
\nsuspected separatists has made many Uighurs reluctant to speak on the
\nrecord about their objections to government policy.<\/p>\n

Here in China\u2019s westernmost city, a $448 million plan to move about
\n50,000 residents out of the old city and into modern apartment
\nbuildings kicked off last month with the first 100 families
\ntransitioning into government housing. Officials say some houses are
\ntoo far away from fire hydrants and that the old city is dangerously
\novercrowded. While the earthen homes have stood for centuries, the
\ndeadly earthquake that hit Sichuan province last May only added urgency
\nto the project<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause many houses were built privately without any approval, the
\nlife of residents is not convenient and the capability against
\nearthquakes and fire is weak,\u201d a local state-run news report said
\nrecently. \u201cOur target is every family has a house, every family has
\nemployed members and the economy will be developed.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 220,000 people, or 42 percent of the city\u2019s residents, live in the old town.<\/p>\n

On the streets, where some houses have already been demolished and
\nothers have been marked for removal, feelings of resentment were
\nevident. A bilingual education program begun in local schools several
\nyears ago, for example, had been welcomed by Uighurs who agreed that
\nlearning Mandarin Chinese would be good for business. But recently,
\nsome schools have started teaching just Mandarin, angering parents who
\nwant their children to also use their own language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want us to live like Chinese people but we will never agree,\u201d
\nsaid a 48-year-old woman in a red jacket and brown head scarf, who
\ndeclined to give her name. \u201cIf we move into the government apartments,
\nthere are no courtyards and no sun. Women will need to cover up to go
\noutside and we will have to spend money to finish decorating our rooms.
\nThis is our land. We have not bought it from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 60-year-old man with a neat beard and a wool hat expressed his
\ndisapproval as he walked to evening prayers along a narrow road that
\nwould soon be widened to 20 feet under the government\u2019s plan. \u201cIf the
\ngovernment gives me money, I will go. Everybody is unhappy about this,
\nbut government is government, we can do nothing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For now, community service officers are visiting families one by
\none, urging them to come to their offices and discuss compensation
\nplans for moving out. \u201cLet\u2019s see when they bring the bulldozers,\u201d the
\nwoman in the red jacket said. \u201cWe will talk then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chinese officials in Kashgar could not be reached for comment.
\nChinese authorities are often criticized for not being sensitive to
\ngroups outside their own majority ethnic Han culture. During the
\nOlympic Games, for example, officials could not understand objections
\nto their use of Han Chinese models and actors to stand in for members
\nof China\u2019s minority tribes.<\/p>\n

Large-scale, raw-earth building complexes are rare, according to Wu
\nDianting, a professor of regional planning at Beijing Normal
\nUniversity\u2019s School of Geography, who did field research in Kashgar
\nlast year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe buildings are very scientific. They are warm in winter and cold
\nin summer. The technology used saves material and is environmentally
\nprotective,\u201d Wu said.<\/p>\n

The old town is also one of the few authentic representations of
\nUighur culture left, he said. \u201cThe old town also reflects the Muslim
\nculture of the Uighurs very well \u2014 it has the original taste and flavor
\nwithout any changes,\u201d he said. \u201cHere, Uighur culture is attached to
\nthose raw earth buildings. If they are torn down, the affiliated
\nculture will be destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s Attempts to Modernize Ethnic Uighurs\u2019 Housing Creates Discord The government, citing danger and overcrowding, began moving Uighur families out of Kashgar\u2019s labyrinthine old city. (By Maureen Fan \u2014 The Washington Post) Buy Photo By Maureen Fan Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, March 24, 2009; Page A08 An Ancient Culture, Bulldozed Away KASHGAR, China \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}