Beruflich Dokumente
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Xinjiang
Let me begin with this lesser-known realm of
China, which lies west of the countrys
magnificent coastal cities that we are achingly
familiar withaway from the modern spires
of Shanghai, the grand history of Beijing and
the non-stop spinning factories of Guangzhou
and Shenzhen. Of them, Xinjiangan
autonomous region farthest away from
Beijing on Chinas fringeis practically terra
incognita as far as much of the outside world
is concerned.
One-sixth of Chinas landmass and
three times the size of France, Xinjiang is
huge. Its massive girth sits at the crossroads of
China and Central Asia, at Chinas extreme
western periphery, the confluence being
nothing short of a knot of spectacular diversity
of ethnic groups and landscape. From Mongols to Kazakhs, Russians to Kyrgyz to Uyghurs, all on a diverse
terrain ranging from windswept steppes to towering mountains and icy lakes to the unrelenting expanse of
the desert sands.
For me, Xinjiang had always seemed the ultimate magical destination. I had read about its lush,
rolling apple and peach valleys, Turpans grape trellis vineyards, and Hamis plump golden-hued, sweetsmelling melons. Then there were stories about legendary oases towns like Kashgar and flashes of its rich
musical heritage, of elegant compositions and vibrant melodies played out on stringed lutes such as the
dutar, tambur and rewap.
For the average Indian, Xinjiang may ring all too familiar a bell. The seventh-century Buddhist monk
Xuanzang crossed Xinjiangs famed Flaming Mountains (the Tianshan mountain range, where the red
sandstone mountains are indeed flaming red in colour) to come to India in search of true scriptures. Based
on Xuanzangs travels was the fascinating record of real geography, Record of the Western Regions, of
regions that lay west of Chinaparticularly India with vignettes of its social mores, its profound
religiosity and its landscape fraught with dangers. So enigmatic and appealing was Xuanzangs account that
it became a part of Chinas folklore in the form of the sixteenth-century novel, Journey to the West
(attributed to Wu Chengen). In this story, the Monkey King Sun WukongChinas version of Hanuman
who takes after the Indian Monkey God from the Hindu epic Ramayanaaccompanies the monk to the
West (India) in the search for true scriptures, meeting with all sorts of delightful (and not-so-delightful)
Urumqi-bound
I was not quite sure what to make of Xinjiang except to rely on literature, stories, anecdotes and hearsay
until my visit fell into place. My Urumqi trip in 2010 came on the heels of the noted Indian sinologist Prof.
Manoranjan Mohantys trip. Prof. Mohanty visited Northern Xinjiangthe capital Urumqi and the famously
charming oasis town of Turpan, which still stands somewhat frozen in time despite the winds of
modernisation. A complex centuries-old farez irrigation system is still in use, with some underground
tunnels spanning over 20 kilometers still in existence.
The contact in Urumqi was Chong Ge, who turned out to be a middle-aged, rather affable official of
the China Xinjiang Development Center of International Economy. He met me at the Urumqi airport,
surprise writ on his face: I thought you were a man!
At the airport and in a short while, the fact of a central government in denial became naturally evident.
I had vaguely known that there was only one time zone in all of China, but being there, the reality of Urumqi
following Beijing time dawned on me. By longitude, Urumqi ought to stand at least two hours behind. But it
was six oclock in Beijing, and so it was by the clock at Urumqis airport. The glare of the late afternoon sun
was ample proof that Beijing time had failed to clock in Urumqi.
Discovering Urumqi
I am not exactly sure about the antecedents and precedents of Li Bais office, but I could gather that it had a
mysteriously long reach. Li Bai, I thought, seemed defensive about Xinjiang (a common malaise among Han
Chinese in Xinjiang, as I discovered); she was quick to defend and display frequent fits of Han patriotism. In
between were lulls of humane interludes including an irrepressible can-do enterprise going all the way out
to help me. She was in many ways a typical Han Chinese who was not embarrassed to ask personal
questions. She seemed impressed that I had travelled to Europe and that I found Chinese food truly
palatable. I met an Indian who was strange, she said, He kept saying that Chinese vegetables were halfcooked. Li Bai finally seemed to begin to shed her apprehensions that I was a spy and scheduled a meeting
Shihezi surprise
The story goes that Xinjiang was once a rough and tumble frontier of sand and gravel. This is partly true.
Many Chinese indignantly contend that Xinjiang is seeing better days precisely because of the heartwrenching sacrifices made by the first generation of Chinese settlers who landed in Xinjiang in the 1950s
and 1960s, driven by nothing but the idealism of building and buffering the frontier. I had only heard and
read about one dusty small frontier called Shihezi, trumped as borne out of the blood and toil of the first
generation. Less known is the fact that Shihezi and such like miracles in Xinjiang were products of the
quasi-military Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a contentious outfit directly under the
Extreme embrace
There is no doubting the noble sacrifices, but Chinas embraceor rather, griphas undone it. The
demographic flood by way of migration and settlement as coaxed and sponsored by the Party dramatically
altered the demography. This, I thought, made the Kashmir case utterly different from Xinjiang. Kashmirs
special status is enshrined in Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which among other things prevents nonKashmiris from buying property in the state. Unlike Mao, Nehru had too much respect for Indias pluralism
and ethnic groups to tinker with the demographic layout of Kashmir.
Respect for pluralism has ensured that Kashmiri Muslims wear their veils, scarves, burqas, the men
grow their beard as they wishall these stand banned in Xinjiang as of July 2015, including clothing with
the crescent moon and star logo. AFP reported that a man from Kashgar was jailed for six years in March
(2015) for growing a beard and his burqa-wearing wife sentenced to two years.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. Kashmir is limping back to normalcy, but not
Xinjiang, which instead of blooming is bombing. A recent Bollywood film on Kashmir chronicled Indian
state repressionmentioning deaths, mass graves and alland was welcomed by the Indian public in 2014.
On the other hand, in the same year, a spate of knifings and bomb blasts originating from Xinjiang hit all
corners in China, indicating that the heavy hand is a solution only in the short run and ultimately achieves
little. Such a movie would not be possible in China, but healing requires admission as well.
Critics allege that migration is a festering problem, which draws the locals ire. Critics allege that
convicts, criminals and petty thieves came to Xinjiang, but the truth is quite complex: convicts aside,
illustrious Han Chinese political prisoners came as well. The poet Ai Qing (father of the well-known artist
Ai Weiwei) was amongst those subject to hard-core manual labour in 1959 and only came to be rehabilitated
in the twilight of his life in 1978.
But that does not take away the bite of the dramatic change in the composition of the population
owing to a deliberate migration policy, as the demographer Stanley Toops and the scholar Michael Dillon
indicate: the Uyghurs constituted 75% in 1982 but decreased to 48% in 1990 and dipped further to 47% in
2001. In contrast, the Han population shot up from 6.1% to 37% to 38% in the corresponding years. If
informal estimates are to be believed, of the 22 million population today, Uyghur comprise 40% and the Han
population ratio could be close to half.
On the other hand, the decrease is also due to outward migration to places considered more
conducive, facilitated by porous borders. Scholars have chronicled that in 1962, 100,000200,000 Kazakhs
crossed over to Soviet Kazakhstan.
Besides the demographic issue, the centre-periphery relationship between Beijing and Xinjiang has
stoked resentment. The political scientist Barry Sautman likens the relationship as one black, one
white (yi hei, yi bai in Chinese)referring to the primary products, oil and cotton. The Chinese
demographer Peng Xizhe concedes that Xinjiangs oil industry is proving attractive to migrants who make a
Party plays out the fable of Aladdin as it trades old for new
Another prominent landmark in Kashgar is the historic 500-year-old settlement described as the bestpreserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found anywhere in Central Asia. This settlement still
stands, now enveloped by modern trappings of housing blocks and traffic. The settlement is atop a hill: a
cluster of tightly packed mud and wood houses along narrow alleys.
The ticket I bought said (which I quote verbatim):
The famous poet Guo Xiaochuan have written like this. You do not know Xinjiang horse is strong
without entering Tianshan mountain. You do not know Xinjiangs wilderness without entering the
southern Xinjiang. You do not know Xinjiang history is so long without reaching Kashgar. While
how about not walking on this street? Then you know nothing.