Celebrating diversity in Xinjiang
The autonomous region in China offers visitors everything from traditional nomadic lifestyles to modern Disney music concerts.
THE history of the Chinese is marked by their wanderlust. There are Chinese who have made it good all over the globe, whether it is in South-East Asia, the United States or Africa.
Ge Yang Jin, 18, a dance student at the Xinjiang Arts Institute in China would like to travel the world.
She is among a troupe of nubile young women dressed in midriff-baring costumes that is dancing to the rhythm of the tabla, a Hindustani percussion instrument. The exotic sight and sound hit us like a thunderbolt – we certainly had not expected to see anything like this in Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
More than 40 journalists from 23 countries are on a government-sponsored visit that will introduce us to Xinjiang and its place in China’s “One Belt, One Road” economic initiative. The Belt Road initiative links cities like Beijing and Shanghai in the east with those in Xinjiang, Central Asia and Europe via a network of road, rail and sea routes.
“I want to go abroad. Maybe as a dancer, or an actress, I could do that,” says Ge, who has enrolled in a four-year dancing course at the institute, one of the best in Ürümqi.
Ge’s worldly passions are a stark contrast to the spiritual concerns of religious student Li Wa Yi Ding. And therein lies the tension between Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim minority groups and the central Beijing Government.
Li, 24, from the Xinjiang Islamic Scripture Institute, is content to return to southern Xinjiang when he graduates. The Uyghur entered the institute at 19; it is among the best for those who want to study the Uyghur language and Arabic.
“I learned how to read the Quran, a collection of Prophet Muhammad’s teachings, and from Imam Al-Hadi, (descendant of Prophet Muhammad), and Islamic laws. I have many options when I graduate. I can be an imam in a mosque, a teacher, or be a religious affairs officer. But I hope to work in an Islamic association,” he says.
Fees are kept low by the government and the school takes care of food and accommodation. About 50 students from the institute are sent to Egypt’s Al-Azhar University and other countries annually as government scholars.
There about are about 50 ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang, of which 13 are larger groups with the Uyghurs and the Kazaks being the largest. Up to 68% of Xinjiang’s 23 million population are Muslims.
Xinjiang has 24,800 religious venues, of which 24,800 are mosques; 59, Buddhist temples; 227, Protestant churches; 26 Catholic churches; and three, Orthodox churches, according to government statistics.
Yet the Beijing Central Government prides itself as a secular state, where religion and politics are kept separate.
Unifying force
Beijing believes that economic progress will help to unify the people, dilute differences, and bring about a cohesive social fabric for the good of Xinjiang and larger China.
“Xinjiang needs peace for businesses and investments to run well,” says a local government official.
Security is a lot tighter at Ürümqi Airport than it had been at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. Scanning machines and security personnel are stationed at the entrances and exits of malls and public offices in Ürümqi. Lockers to store your bags are provided at supermarket entrances.
At the Grand Bazaar in downtown Ürümqi where minority groups do business with locals and ingtourists, a riot a decade ago has reduced the number of Han Chinese patrons at a nearby supermarket. At the entrance to the supermarket building, a young Uyghur girl carries on with her brisk bread business, “one of the best around here”, according to an Ugyhur government official.
Although people from minority groups occupy positions in private and government sectors ranging from education and the police force to trade and other economic sectors, the groups want more autonomy.
Tradition persists
Some of Xinjiang’s Kazak minorities continue to lead nomadic lives, spending half a year in search of pasture for their herds of goats and sheep during summer, then retiring into the valley during the winter months. Xinjiang has six winter and summer months.
Says interpreter Zhang Jie Nian, a Han Chinese: “About 20 years ago, my Kazak neighbours would take our flock of sheep together with theirs in search of grass. Any young born during that period will be returned to us together with the flock. We’d leave some sheep with them as payment.”
Today, despite the modern highways like the G30 that links coastal cities Lian Yun Gang, Jiangsu Province, in the east to Khorgas in Xinjiang, flocks of goats and sheep at pasture can still be seen – and they are a sight to behold.
Camels are the other popular livestock. While they were prized as a mode of transport during the ancient Silk Road days, they are reared for milk today.
The Kazaks are also keen horsemen. In Lu Zhou Valley in the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, near a lavender farm, Kazaks race their horses as a hobby.
Says Zhang, “The nomadic Kazaks used to return to Lu Zhou Valley during the winter months where they also raised horses. But the modern way of life has caught up with the younger generation.
“New roads were built so the Kazaks move their sheep and cattle by vehicles in these parts today. The government thought this was a good place for tourism. In order to perpetuate their old haunts and grounds, a race course was built for about 100 renmimbi about five years ago. There are about 200 horses here.”
Modern lives
Some Kazaks lead more settled lives in government-built villages. Others work and live in big towns and cities. The government’s rationale is: you can use the land but you cannot own it. So the government, with private sector help, built housing communities for the Han Chinese and villages for the minorities.
The minorities prefer landed housing, with the house occupying the front part and the back portion used as a livestock pen.
Countryside tourism, where Kazak or Uyghur families open their homes to visitors for a couple of hours, is being promoted as a source of income.
Visitors are entertained with traditional dancing and horse riding and are given fruits.
“It is like a short homestay and it can improve their income. The villagers like opening their homes because they get to meet people from different countries,” says Zhang.
He adds that a Kazak village we visit in Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture has received 200,000 visitors in the last several years.
Promoting culture
This push to promote local culture is happening throughout the province.
At the Yining Crafts Centre in Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, one of five handicraft centres in that area, a picture of President Xi Jin Ping and two Kazaks reads “Xin Jinping stands with the minority groups in Xinjiang”.
In an Arts and Cultural Economic Park housing minority crafts near Ürümqi, sculptor Wang Zhongnin, an ethnic Russian, gestures at his display of busts and his work-in-progress.
The room, which is about 46sqm, is one of many in a building that promotes minority art and culture, be it painting, jewellery-making, traditional attire-sewing or other handicraft.
The government pays the rent and, in Wang’s case, pays for his trips abroad to promote his work. He pays for the utilities.
“Before coming here, sculpture using mud was a hobby. Coming here helped me to be more focused and I turned it into a business and a profession,” he says.
Since 2009, riots every couple of years have attracted global attention. The Chinese Government is trying to quell such insurgencies. But the vastness of China makes this a challenge.
Says a government official accompanying the media trip: “We want the press to see and know the real Xinjiang.”
Government involvement seems to pervade every level of development, from the individual to the community level, even in the performing arts.
“The government is serious about promoting the region’s diverse culture,” says Vice Party Secretary Gao Xue Mei at the Ürümqi Arts Theatre.
“Everything related to the performing arts is government-sponsored in Xinjiang and Tibet. The actors and actresses are on a government payroll,” she says.
Upstairs, an orchestra is rehearsing Disney’s Mulan and The Prince Of Egypt. Whether it is traditional dances, Western music or religious studies, the Beijing-based central government is a keen conductor.
