The events on the fringes of the Chinese empire this week might sound confusing and exotic. But their roots are actually quite familiar.
The clashes between Uyghurs (WEE-GARs, a turkik-speaking, Islamic people living in the Chinese state) and the Han Chinese in Urumqi and Kashgar this week presented the ugly side of the ongoing ethnic or cultural evolution that occurs in cities.
Cities are not static in their economies or ethnic make-up. They evolve and change as new people and ideas and goods flow through.
This region was not always part of “China.” It was once a heart of the Silk Routes — a network of pathways that, off-and-on, for about 3000 years allowed for trade between myriad central Asian peoples and Europeans as well as Africans. Ethnic mixing and migrations were and are a part of that history. Besides Han and Uyghurs, this region is home to Russians, Tajiks (with striking blond hair and green eyes), the Kyrgyz, and others whose ancestors came to trade, escape, or simply seek opportunity.
More recently, resource-based economic development has resulted in millions of Han Chinese moving to the region, creating a tension with those whose ancestors arrived earlier. With closer linguistic, political and cultural connections to the seats of power, the Han often have the better personal and business networks that allows for higher prosperity in many cases. (Although some would argue a more sinister plan here — as in Tibet — on the part of the Chinese State, I’ve decided to use “Occam’s Razor” and summarize only what can be observed.)
In any city, individuals, families and cultures from different backgrounds coming together naturally creates tension — sometimes this is good. The edge allows for the creativity that is making cities the economic engines of the 21st century. But the tension can also result in feelings of being threatened. Unfortunately, not everyone thrives as cities change and evolve.
Think about the LA Riots in 1992; the arrival of Korean immigrants to a traditionally African-American neighbourhood contributed to the tensions that boiled over.
In France and Germany, which have seen tremendous immigration over the last decades, perceptions of ethnic and economic exclusion have contributed to violent conflict.
Fortunately, in many urban areas around the world, residents have become reasonably adept at getting along and more accepting of each others differences. Economic prosperity undoubtedly helps. Indeed, a key challenge for urban leaders in the 21st century may be to ensure that the cultural evolution that naturally occurs in cities and in neighbourhoods serves as a positive force, rather than a negative, destructive one.
Postscript FYI: Much of this came to me while researching schools for my son. I noticed the history of our neighbourhood school. It opened 98 years ago serving a population of primarily German and British decent, perhaps with a few Japanese students as well. By the 1950s the vast majority of students were of Italian origin. Today, 60% are of East Asian(or partial East Asian) decent although fewer than 30% have English as a Second Language. My area has gone from a series of Salish settlements, to a British outpost, to a European melting pot, to an Asia-Pacific and global place all in 100 years. That’s a lot of change to absorb — and yet it happened relatively peacefully.
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