Comments on: Old Kashgar: Reconfiguring Space With Bulldozers

By: OpkeHessip

OpkeHessip — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:53:01 +0000

Hey, ren,

I’m inclined to agree with you… The government is pretty equal-opportunity when it comes to knocking things down and building them back up. This is a process going on all over China.

By: ren

ren — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:55:08 +0000

The same thing happened last year in Beijing itself, when a historic area was bulldozed and rebuilt for Olympic tourists. Needless to say, it was a disaster, with the same before-hand promises of making it even better. I made a post on my blog: http://the-apple-eaters.blogspot.com/2009/07/preservation-of-cultural-heritage.html

So, I’m not sure if accusing the government of trying to eradicate Uighur identity, in this case atleast, is fair. The Chinese gov does equal-opportunity acts of lunacy and idiocy.

By: Mike Fish

Mike Fish — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:53:05 +0000

Will one day, in the not so distant future, the citizens of China ask themselves and their leaders what happened to the beautiful history that was knocked down so recently and replaced with crap and why?

By: morimoto

morimoto — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:40:04 +0000

Hi.

Petition to UNESCO World Heritage Committee
Award Kashgar UN World Heritage Status and Stop its Demolition!
http://www.petitiononline.com/kashgar/petition-sign.html

thanks!

By: OpkeHessip

OpkeHessip — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:53:21 +0000

I honestly wish I knew the answer to that. Nothing I have found suggests the source of labor. This article here tells us that local people are invited to come and help tear down buildings. Typically, labor on any major construction project in Xinjiang consists of Han migrants or XJPCC workers. I was told, at least, that even the renovated Uyghur-style center of Yarkand was built by Han laborers.

By: ET

ET — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:47:05 +0000

Thanks for the piece. I think you have made some excellent points, especially in regard to the human impact. To add to your comments, I’d like to highlight the lack of any meaningful participatory process which empowered Old City residents to manage the development in their community. Lastly, I’ve added some links, among many, from the Chinese media, which report on the demolition.

http://www.xj.chinanews.com.cn/newsshow.asp?id=65702&ntitle=2340ab2b98a8919ffbf81b1685c9070d

http://www.xj.chinanews.com.cn/newsshow.asp?id=65729&ntitle=f48f9196d221900ece284bab63411bdf

http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/02-28/1582506.shtml

By: swan

swan — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:24:55 +0000

You know the new complexes being built are Uyghurs being employed to work on them? What i mean is, are jobs being created for the uyghurs in the process of modernization.