Exodus of Kashgar
At two time zones from Beijing, a border city, a crossing along the legendary route of the silk, beyond
the desert of Taklamakan, in the deep Western China, this is where the
city of Kashgar is located or, better, resurrects. The cradle of the
Uigurian civilization, this antique city still shines under the boiling sun of Xinjiang as the emblem of resistance, like the last act of witness of a century-old culture that is about to die out crushed by the Chine government iron grab. The land of silk and spices merchants, Kashgar, has since a long time modified
its historical appearance in favor of an unavoidable and probably
physiological modernity: the arrival of the railway, of the airport, a
reasonable flow of tourism contributed to modify its physiognomy. Despite
the evident signs of progress, the strong Islamic faith, the proud
Uigurian spirit that one can still breathe in the old districts, seam never to abandon this city. The
soul of the Uigurian culture still resists. It resists till when its
roots are cut, till when its blood is dried out. And this is exactly
what the Chinese government is trying to do. When the Xinjiang
population revealed its will to become independent from the rest of
China, the central government immediately answered with the intervention of the army: two-hundred Uigurian
deaths during the riots in July, 2009. By an act of internal
colonialism, Beijing is uprooting the culture of this people in favor
of the “official” Chinese culture that uniforms and unifies the whole country under the same flag, the same religion, the same way of thinking and behaving. We might say that in Xinjiang a real ethnic replacement is taking
place: the Uigurian are being eradicated in favor of the Hans (the main
Chinese ethnical group). The project to erase this century-old culture
is affecting also the Kashgar city planning. The plan includes the
demolition of the old historical districts, that are UNESCO patrimony .
The activity has already started: the old mud and straw walls are being
picked down while the bulldozers fill up the truck boxes with the
debris. The old craftsmen shops for copper chiseling, wool carding, are
destined to disappear forever, together with the colors and perfumes of
the old . At the same time, a few kilometers from downtown, Chinese
masons work at full rate to construct new buildings that will house the families that automatically decided to move over. The new flats are granted free in exchange of a voluntary move.
Otherwise, Beijing will know how to convince the families to change
home. In the meantime, under the statue of Mao, who, with his hand
stretched out seams to still lead Chine towards a profitable future,
the advertisings of the new districts cover up the walls, leaving a sign of restlessness and concern on the faces of the Uigurians.