Comments on: Demonstrations in Urumqi – Official Response

By: a chinese

a chinese — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:34:50 +0000

You are quite right, if more poeple like you would stand out, we han people could know more about them. Han people didn’t discriminate Uyghurs purposely, it was only due to the lack of communication.

Any way, hope things could turn better.

By: Ralphie

Ralphie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:33:26 +0000

@a chinese. Your example is classic. If you look at history and even the contemporary world, one typical sign of prejudice is ungrounded phobia. The Europeans used to think that Jews carry disease, the whites used to (and some nutheads in the small towns might still) think that blacks, and Latinos carry disease, Latinos are assumed to be illegal immigrants and criminals, the whites in the late 19th century limited Chinese only in chinatowns in several cities in west coast, and henceforth “chinatown” used to be a word to scare children… Do those people subjectively fear the minority group? You bet. And I have no doubt that you and the Han people you mentioned subjectively feared Uyghurs too. But that doesn’t mean it’s reasonable fear.
Besides, I have no idea how you come up with your number.
Lastly, now that you admit there is this fear (or misunderstanding, in my opinion), don’t you think it is time for BOTH sides to reach out rather than deepening the fear? If you agree, then the first step is not convincing one another how scared you are or how scary the Uyghurs (or the Han) are, but rather try to understand each other.

By: a chinese

a chinese — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:26:25 +0000

I didn’t say all Uyghurs are vicious, but how many percent of Uyghurs will be friendly to han people? I totally agree more is better, but if let me guess, I can only say maybe it’s around 50% or less.

When traveling to Xinjiang, most han people dare not to talk or make deal with Uyghurs, including me.(I are longing to be there for sightseeing but haven’t so far ). Because I’m afraid to get in trouble, even in han region of eastern cities. Why? Are we wrong? I hope I’m wrong.

If you say that I’m worrying unnecessarily, I’ll be very glad to hear that.

By: Ralphie

Ralphie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:17:50 +0000

I agree with dawutjan. People create stereotypes without even noticing it. “a chinese” just gave us an example when he says the Uyhgur students also seem arrogant. My universe! They SEEM arrogant. I have seen enough heavily tattooed, pierced, or motorcycle gangester lookalikes treating elders very nicely on the bus here (not in China). Sure, they SEEM vicious. But they might not be as vicious as you think.
In a homogeneous society such as China and Japan, prejudice can be easily related to a person’s ethnic background because ethnic characteristics on the physical level is so easily identifiable.
As a matter of fact, there are arrogant people everywhere. If you go to the KTV or bar districts at night in most of the cities in China, you see tons of people whom you would normally take as thugs. They do get drunk and fight over their girlfriends or whatever in the public. AND, the majority of them are Han. BUT, you won’t say, geez, the Han people look vicious. That’s because you consciously know the thugs here don’t even make up 1% of the population in the city. Yet, you pick out a couple Uyghur students in the eastern cities who mere SEEM arrogant and somehow you can use this to prove a point. I’m sorry, you just managed to provide a piece of evidence of prejudice.
Like dawutjan said, it’s bizarre to ask people who are discriminated against to change the view of the people who are discriminating.

By: a chinese

a chinese — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:32:30 +0000

http://www.zaobao.com/special/china/cnpol/pages2/cnpol090708.shtml

Many han people think the government is too partial to Uyghurs, and they are bullied by Uyghurs(maybe someone not so educated) from time to time.
This is true from my own experience.

=======

骚乱已使得整个乌鲁木齐几乎陷入瘫痪，街道上几乎所有商店都关闭。35岁的设计公司老板王建昆昨天动员公司的20名员工参加游行，他在受访时说：“出现今天的惨剧是政府不作为的结果，是多年来对维族一味退让，最后养虎贻患的结果。”

　　他说：“今天游行既是给维族一个震慑，也是对政府的一个警告。如果维族胆敢像以前那样欺负汉族，我们一定会还以颜色。对于政府，如果你不能保护我们，我们就会自己动手保护自己。今天的棍子就是我们的武器，我们不会任人欺负。”

　　一个家住南门的中年妇女陈秀英（38岁）昨天也和丈夫以及12岁的儿子一起游行，一家三口都拿了一根棍子。她受访时说：“我家就在维族聚集区，现在我是有家不敢回。维族太欺负人了，这次我们汉族是忍无可忍，大家才持棍棒走向街头，展示我们汉族的力量。”

By: a chinese

a chinese — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:05:03 +0000

The most important system of information and representation in the world is in the hands of western countries, but china didn’t give up, still try best to show the positive part of china.

What’s more, I don’t believe something just because anyone or anything say that until I saw it with my own eyes. The government also lies sometime, for example, the cause of “Shaoguang Event”, I still guess some Uyghurs did something really bad, and not fortuitously.

By: dawutjan

dawutjan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:02:11 +0000

@a chinese: you say the Uyghurs are responsible for improving their image in China. How is that supposed to come about, when the entire system of information and representation in China is in the hands of Han Chinese? You seem to lack the most basic understanding of how ethnic stereotypes are formed and perpetuated.

By: a chinese

a chinese — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:53:27 +0000

China’s image in the world was also kind of vicious, but you see, it’s taking lots of actions to improve the image, and now we already can see some positive results.

By: a chinese

a chinese — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:47:15 +0000

I hope Uyghur could do something to clear up the misunderstanding, especially the high educated ones, if there was prejudice. Do sth good to improve their images, this could only be done by themselves.

I have seen some Uyghurs, besides the little thieves I mentioned, also some students in a top university in china. I didn’t say the Uyghur students are vicious, but they also seems kind of arrogant(just a little).

I, and maybe most han people, don’t see Uyghur as enemies, we would like to have them as friends, peacefully and happily, under the same eaves, we should be family. But what we saw disappointed us again and again. I understand every ethnic group has good guys and bad guys. I just want to see more good part of Uyghurs, and the high educated ones may have more responsibility. Don’t isolate themselves and provoke conficts, it’s not a good end for both sides, see palestinian and Israel, is that what they want?

By: Ralphie

Ralphie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:48:14 +0000

@a Chinese: you left out a major party in this conflict: the people. I am sure you realize that among all the Han people you know, most of them would agree with your point, that is, when it comes to crimes, Uyghurs are more vicious than Han. You might also notice that the very word Uyghur in everyday speech can often indicate violent criminals. These are evidences of prejudice. People who create, or help spread prejudice are to blame too. Hitler would not be able to persecute the Jews without the help of the strong prejudice against the Jews in the German society. To think that somehow the government can solve all the problem is unrealistic, especially when the problem is deep rooted ethnic tension.