Urumqi, Stanley Fish, and the Nature of the Sun

China Sends "Harmony Makers" to Urumqi - CNN

One should always be deeply apprehensive when China sends reps with coded names into the fray. Although those syringe attacks sound profoundly sordid. Best wishes to all involved.

What Should Colleges Teach? - NYtimes

Stanley Fish is running a great series on the teaching (and non-teaching) of basic writing skills to university students. As a college student, I admit I am often appalled at the level of writing skill supposedly college-level students display. Basic grammar and punctuation simply can't be ignored until a student waltzes their way into Freshman comp. I was lucky enough to have a few style task-masters in high school that eliminated that silliness from me before I hit college. Fish is on the right track.



The Top 15 Skylines of the World

I remember being blown away by the sheer height of Hong Kong. I felt as if I was stepping into a future that no one had told me about. We took the ferry around the island and I grew more and more amazed as the sun went down: They have buildings this big? This makes New York City look paltry, San Francisco look miniscule, London a mere imposter.

Turns out the HK skyline really is the most impressive in the world. I'd agree with most of these (having not seen Dubai or Shanghai). And San Francisco can't fail to stir the heart a little when it comes into view across the water.



Finally: Who doesn't love these guys? Infidels?

More Perspectives on the Destruction of Kashgar's Old City

Kashgar's Old Town Bulldozed - Far West China

A great blog post about the destruction of Kashgar's Old City from someone who actually knows the area. It's a good approach to the situation: the NYTimes articles posited the Chinese motives as essentially evil, whereas the actual boots-on-the-ground situation is much more complicated then that. (As in all things).

China Razes the Cradle of Culture - The National

Another excellent article about the destruction of Kashgar's Old City. The National brings up an issue I hadn't considered before: many of the residents of the Old City's jobs and economic livelihoods were centered in the city itself. Since the city has been throughly demolished, their livelihoods have gone kaput as well - and the government has not provided any jobs to replace them. Uighurs are also at a considerable disadvantage in competing for jobs against the Han Chinese, who the government repatriate in considerable numbers to Xinjiang's border cities. Further, the sense of community that evolved organically around the old city will be gone forever, and that's going to be a pretty considerable loss for the locals.

But perhaps the Uighur's loss is more collateral damage in China's no-holds barred rush to modernization then a malicious effort at "ethnic cleansing", as noted in the article:

“I don’t see it as a deliberate attack on Uighur culture, but part of China’s policy to modernise and develop,” said Dru Gladney, the president of the Pacific Basin Institute and an expert on Xinjiang. He said it had more to do with cultural insensitivity than politics.


Urumqi, one of Xinjiang's biggest cities and a pretty swell place as I recall. Clean air was sort of a compelling novelty.

China, as is abundantly clear from its treatment of its historical treasures, (knock it down, build a theme park on it, knock it down then build a theme park on it!) feels it cannot spare the time and expense of maintaining "living museums". They are attempting to go from an agricultural and backwards economy to that of a super-modern economic power in an incredibly contracted space of time, and the government isn't much concerned about the sentimental stuff that stands in their way. This same attitude is evidenced in the Chinese unwillingness to adhere to international emission's standards : as they reason, everyone else got to pollute and mess stuff up on their path to giant economy status, why can't we? Aesthetics, such as historical monuments and clean breathable air, are definitely a secondary concern in China's eyes. It's not attractive logic to us in the first world, but there also is just about jack shit we can do to compel them otherwise.

From the standpoint of an amateur observer, it's interesting to compare how China and India are going about the business of becoming large, modern economies. China seems to be considerably more efficient, but India doesn't seem to be as willing to forfeit its cultural soul. A ginormous and inefficient democracy (but still a democracy) versus a communist-capitalist totalitarian state. I for one am gonna be interested in seeing how this all works out in the next forty or so years.

Yet another good article about China's efforts to absorb cultures within its borders:

China's Final Frontier - Prospect

China Destroys Stuff to Save It Again (SURPRISE!)

To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It - NYTimes

Kashgar's Old City: The Politics of Demolition - open Democracy News Analysis

China's comically loose interpretation of "protecting" historical treasures comes to the fore again, as the government moves to destroy essentially all of Kashgar's Old City. The government claims the move was done in the name of "earthquake protection" - an argument that doesn't hold much weight considering the Taklamakan desert city has lasted for upwards of 2000 years. The cheerily named "Resident's Resettlement Project" has continued Many suspect China's Han Majority are destroying the old city - a cultural touchstone for the Uighur minority and a religious center - as part and parcel of their efforts to absorb the troublesome natives into China's Borg-like majority. The Old City's residents have been included in the process in typical Chinese style:

The city says the Uighur residents have been consulted at every step of planning. Residents mostly say they are summoned to meetings at which eviction timetables and compensation sums are announced.

Although the city offers the displaced residents the opportunity to build new homes on the sites of their old ones, some also complain that the proposed compensation does not pay for the cost of rebuilding.

For their part, the Chinese government think the demolition of the historically precious city won't harm Uighur culture any: they intend to replace the buildings with "Uighur style" architecture and tourist-friendly attractions.

Residents of the Old City, some residing in family homes that were built over 500 years ago, are being efficiently repatriated into Soviet style apartment blocks - which, as we saw in Sichuan province, may be less earthquake safe then the ancient homes they are leaving behind. (By this logic, we should really start knocking down and earthquake proofing a healthy majority of, say, Italy.)

According to a NYTimes commentor who had spent some time in Kashgar, the residents saw it coming:

The Chinese had recently built the ring road and the encircling sea of "toilet buildings" as people call them - cement and white-tile Stalinist-style tenement buildings - inhabited by Han migrants (and which are certainly not impervious to earthquakes, as we saw in Sichuan), which seemed to be constantly pressing inward on the old city and its mosque. The Uighurs bemoaned that it was probably a matter of time before their final enclave was destroyed. That time has unfortunately come, eight years later. - Joshua L.

However.

To begin, I am personally biased here. I visited Urumqui and Turfan two years ago, and very much enjoyed experiencing Uighur country - it's like nothing else I've encountered, and entirely apart from the rest of China culturally and historically. Uighurs, a Turkic group totally distinct from Han Chinese, have waged a war against the Chinese government's control of their traditional territory since 1949. Although the Uighurs managed to free themselves from Kuomintang rule in 1933 and 1944, creating autonomous states, they were forcibly subsumed into the mainland in 1949 - creating a very similar political situation to that of Tibet.

Unfortunately for the Uighurs, the Tibetans play much better to crowds then they do - they lack a cuddly Dali Lama, have little hippie appeal, and practice a Muslim faith that isn't particularly popular in today's Western sentiment. As a result, the Chinese governments push against the Uighurs has gone on without much comment from the rest of the world, and Save Turkestan stickers just haven't taken off in the same way Save Tibet decals have. For their part, the Uighurs occasionally violent tactics against Chinese control haven't done much to win them sympathy from the government - which has, as some suspect, used charity as a front for destroying Kashgar in the name of diluting even further the realm of Uighur influence. Unfortunately for the people of Turkestan, the Chinese government is almost certainly going to win this battle. The Chinese, as we know, are spectacularly good at absorbing other cultures.

Still, as some noted on the comments section of the NYTimes article, the moaning and dramatics from us first worlders is a typical example of educated rich folks telling poor rural folks what is culturally relavant and what should be saved. The Old Town of Kashgar may be picturesque, but it also has no sewer system, little sanitation, and indeed may be vulnerable to earthquakes - and perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to lament a bit of modernization in these people's lives. I've spent some time in Beijing's hutongs - a similar setup to what exists in Old Kashgar- and although they are certainly quaint, they are also dirty, cramped, odiferous, and overcrowded. Historical and rustic neighborhoods are not always great to actually live in.

In this instance, though, I'm not sure the "stay out of their bidness" arguments holds much water. Judging from my vastly limited knowledge, the Uighurs seem rather happy with their Old City and would rather not move into the apartment blocks the Chinese have thoughtfully set aside for them. They want to stay in their 500 year old houses and do whatever the hell it is they've been doing for the past 2000 years, which seems to me a legitimate desire.

But the Chinese Borg aren't interested in sentimentality or preserving culture beyond what drives the tourist trade - and the added perk of weakening the Uighurs made the destruction of the Old City almost inevitable. The Chinese are laser-focused on bringing their economy up to world standards and their profile up to that of a superpower, and the preservation of charming little mud cities is extremely low on their priority list - we may recall the Three Gorges Dam controversy. For my part, I'm sad as hell that I'll never get to see Kashgar's Old City, but in the end it isn't my battle. I can, as always only spectate and complain.