Page 32 - AT

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 27 November 2018

China’s model village of ethnic unity shows cracks in façade

By EMILY WANG migrants arrived in recent already has been complet- crackdown on Muslims in speak Uighur and cannot
Associated Press decades. ed, and a giant sculpture Xinjiang has made it risky communicate with her Ui-
HOTAN UNITY NEW VILLAGE, “’Ethnic unity’ is a euphe- of a pomegranate is promi- for ordinary Muslims to dis- ghur neighbors, but she
China (AP) — In this corner mism for taming, breaking nently placed at the center cuss their religious prac- says the layout encourages
of China’s far west, rows of the Uighur people,” says of the village to symbolize tices, and when speaking interaction.
identical white concrete Joanne Smith Finley, an unity. to reporters in front of gov- In a greenhouse a few
houses with red metal roofs dozen meters away, Uighur
rise abruptly above the Abudu Mijiti has just begun
sand dunes of the harsh planting chili with his wife.
Taklamakan Desert. A Chi- He moved to the village
nese flag flutters above the three years ago to make a
settlement, and a billboard more stable living. Two of
at the entrance says, “Wel- his three children go to the
come to the Hotan Unity local school and are fluent
New Village.” in Chinese, he says, as a
This is a Communist Party government minder looks
showcase for its efforts to on. “For us, it’s good, it
tame the Xinjiang region, helps learning our national
the heartland of China’s language,” he says. “And
often restive Uighur Muslim because our next-door
minority and an unforgiv- neighbor is Chinese, as we
ing terrain. The free or low- go in and out, it helps im-
cost houses are assigned prove ethnic unity.”
alternately to Uighurs and On the surface, the picture
Han Chinese, who work presented at the Hotan
side-by-side in greenhouses Unity New Village reflects
and send their children to the government’s vision of
school together. It is the an “idealized place,” says
future the party envisions David O’Brien, an expert
for Xinjiang after a massive In this Sept. 20, 2018, photo, an Uighur child plays alone in the courtyard of a home at the Unity at the University of Notting-
security crackdown that New Village in Hotan, in western China’s Xinjiang region. ham. “Every single part of
has sent by some estimates Associated Press it is the official narrative,”
more than a million Muslims O’Brien says. “The narra-
to internment camps, and expert in Uighur identity at In Hotan, there are signs ernment observers, he in- tive is, water will flow to the
many of their children to or- Newcastle University in the that the government’s ex- sists he was never a Muslim. desert. The narrative is, if
phanages. U.K. “This is putting flowery periment is making inroads. Another Uighur farmer in his you come here great op-
But a closer look at what bright wallpaper over a Uighur farmers toil along- early seventies, Muzitohta- portunity awaits you. The
the party calls “ethnic damp wall, a rotting wall.” side Han Chinese to farm hon, says he is no longer a narrative that people will
unity” reveals what isn’t Construction of the vil- crops in what was once Muslim. Uighur and Han vil- be secular, they will learn
there: mosques for Muslim lage began in 2014 with a barren desert land, and lagers do seem united by Mandarin.”
worshippers, or traditional planned investment of 1.7 both groups live in modern at least one factor — their Yet the settlement remains
Uighur brick homes, of- billion yuan ($247 million). houses equipped with gas, desire to escape poverty. only partly inhabited. The
ten adorned with pointed The goal was to build 5,000 electricity and water. A bill- Rural areas in Xinjiang, in- city says there are 534
arches and carved deco- homes and 10,000 green- board displays a picture cluding Hotan, rank among households in the com-
rations. In their place are houses, according to lo- of President Xi Jinping and the poorest in China, with pound, but most of the
colorful murals of what cal reports, to turn a large a group of Uighur elders many families lacking even houses are empty. A drive
authorities consider to be swath of desert into farm- joining hands and, accord- the most basic utilities and through reveals rows of
scenes of unity, such as a land and create a shared ing to the caption, “linking food. The financial incen- empty greenhouses and
Uighur man and his family prosperity among Uighurs hearts.” Yet there are also tives are also a key draw house after house with a
holding a Chinese flag. and Han Chinese. signs of enduring mistrust. for Han Chinese from other sign that says “sealed off”
In the village’s new pub- Around the same time, the As elsewhere in Xinjiang, impoverished regions of patched onto padlocked
lic square, Uighur children Communist Party came high walls around homes China. Last May, 58-year- or chained gates.
banter with Han Chinese forth with a new strategy fo- are topped with barbed old Xiao Erying, who is Han Under the sweltering des-
children in fluent Mandarin, cused on ethnic mingling. wire, and police officers Chinese, moved to this vil- ert sun, one Han Chinese
the language of the Han Subsequently, at least one stand guard from behind lage from her hometown farmer tending to her plot
majority, rather than in their county offered financial fences at the entrance of in the southern province of of Chinese chives com-
native tongue. Young Ui- incentives for Uighur-Han the village. Adults don’t mix Hunan, over 4,000 kilome- plains that water is scarce
ghur women wear Western intermarriages, while others socially — at night, a group ters away. “It is better than and her previous batch of
clothing without the heads- have launched programs of Han Chinese dance in our hometown,” she says, chives had to be thrown
carves that are part of tra- encouraging Uighur fami- the square while the Ui- as she rakes sheep, chick- out.
ditional Muslim dress. lies to move into Han Chi- ghur residents chat among en and cow manure inside Even when the crops work
While these are voluntary nese residential areas. themselves on the sidelines. her greenhouse. out, the chives sell for less
settlements with economic China is building several A Uighur farmer who For 60,000 yuan ($8,700), her than one yuan (14 cents)
benefits, experts and Ui- such mixed settlements in moved to the village last family bought a two-bed- per kilogram.
ghur activists believe they Xinjiang. A similar village September says authori- room home with a small or- “Not even enough for
are part of an aggressive is under construction as ties provided him with free chard and two greenhous- food,” she grumbles. “You
government campaign to a tourist attraction near housing and utilities, two es. The two grandchildren cannot feed yourself just
erode the identities of the Kuqa, around 600 kilome- greenhouses, a small or- she lives with are given free working on greenhouses.”
Central Asian groups who ters (372 miles) from Hotan. chard with grapevines and tuition, school lunches, and In the absence of govern-
called the region home A concrete yurt known as a barn with sheep, chick- even a free set of clothes. ment minders, the woman
long before waves of Han the “solidarity farmhouse” ens, and pigeons. But the Xiao admits she doesn’t goes on.q