Social barrier for Uygurs shut up in Guangdong factory after fatal fight
Ivan Zhai 13 September 2009
Food vendors, motorcycles and foot traffic are common sights at the main entrances of the half-dozen factories along Xingyuanbei Road in the industrial zone of Baitu town in Shaoguan , Guangdong - except at the last one.
The area in front of the Early Light (EL) toy factory is practically deserted, and there is a reason. Inside are Uygur workers.
They were moved there from another EL factory 30 kilometres away, in Wujiang district, after a massive fight on the night of June 25 between Han Chinese and Uygur workers that left two Uygurs dead and dozens injured on both sides.
Government officials say the incident was used by overseas Uygur groups to instigate riots thousands of kilometres away in Urumqi , the capital of the Xinjiang region from where Uygurs come, 10 days later that left 197 people dead and hundreds injured.
According to residents and businesspeople around the Xingyuanbei Road factory, the emotional scars from the fight still need time to heal - even though it wasn’t at that factory. Perhaps with new solutions, they say, the divide between the two ethnic groups can be bridged.
“I do not think we can work [with the Uygurs] in the same factory any more,” said Yuan Mengjun, one of about half a dozen EL workers interviewed outside the Wujiang factory. “The unpleasant feeling is still there.”
A female worker, Su Qin, said the fatal fight could have been the result of a big misunderstanding.
“We just could not understand each other, as few of them could speak Putonghua.” She said the language barrier had made it impossible for the two sides to make friends.
Early Light, a Hong Kong-owned company, previously had more than 16,000 workers in Shaoguan. To help improve Xinjiang’s economy, it was encouraged by authorities to recruit 800 Uygur workers from Kashgar in May and June.
The topic of the fight is still so sensitive that some workers declined to help locate people they know who had witnessed the clash; others claimed they had seen nothing of the fight because they lived outside the factory, though they had walked straight into it a few minutes later with soft drinks and fruit they had just bought.
The workers said that in the first month after the fight, Han at the factory often discussed what they understood to be the reason for the deadly clash - that young Uygur men had raped Han Chinese women at the factory - but state media rejected that story in early July.
As time passed, even those who had witnessed the fight stopped talking about it, these workers said. The event no longer affected their daily lives because, as a result of the fight, “we are separated”, Yuan said.
Immediately after the fight, local-government officials moved all the Uygur workers from the factory in Wujiang to the one in Baitu, whose 700-strong workforce is now exclusively Uygur. Residents say the authorities treat the Uygurs like treasure.
The owners of food booths and a small restaurant serving northern Chinese food close to the Baitu factory said they had not served any of the Uygurs because the Easy Light factory had its canteen cook Xinjiang-style food.
Xinhua reported that the city had opened a clinic, staffed around the clock, at the factory. It also reported that the factory had two new billiard tables and that a soccer pitch and basketball court were being built.
The authorities’ top priority, though, is the Uygurs’ security. A Uygur man at a nearby supermarket claimed to be a plain-clothes police officer sent from Xinjiang after the fight in June. Colleagues (he would not say how many) had also been sent to the factory to guarantee the Uygur workers’ safety.
National and local leaders have put a lot of effort into keeping the peace with the Uygurs since the fight, mostly because they do not want anything to cast a shadow over the October 1 National Day celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Zhou Yongkang , one of the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party’s highest decision-making body, who is in charge of public security, travelled to Shaoguan early this month.
The biggest obstacle facing the Uygur workers, who live mainly within the factory’s fences, is the same one as two months ago - language. Employees at supermarkets and a mobile-phone service store close to the factory said no more than a third of the Uygurs spoke Putonghua.
“Even if you meet them here, you might not have a conversation because most cannot understand you,” said Peng Shurong, 29, a Baitu native working at the supermarket.
The Uygur workers, who are mostly in their 20s and 30s, generally came to the supermarket in groups of at least five, two or three times a week, she said. They mostly came during working hours, and never after 8pm. “They’re polite, always smiling to me, but most of them can’t even say a simple ‘thanks’ in Putonghua.”
Residents including Peng said there were good people and bad in every ethnic group and it would be fine for the Uygurs to stay as long as the two groups remained somewhat segregated.
Others were less charitable, saying they wanted the Uygur workers to go back to their own region.
A young motorcycle driver said he still felt angry with the Uygurs for the riots in Urumqi.
“Why are the Uygur workers always in groups of 20 to 30 when they go shopping downtown? Because they fear being attacked by angry Han,” he said, adding that he had never spoken to the Uygurs.
The Uygurs will continue living at the factory, at least for a while. Officials say that for the sake of the Xinjiang economy, the Uygurs are entitled to jobs in more prosperous parts of the country. Uygur activists claim they have to look for work elsewhere because Han compete with them for jobs in Xinjiang.
With the republic’s 60th anniversary at hand, even if social harmony isn’t quite achievable, social stability is - even if it takes isolation to do it.
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Out of harm’s way, but far from normality
Social barrier for Uygurs shut up in Guangdong factory after fatal fight
Ivan Zhai
13 September 2009
Food vendors, motorcycles and foot traffic are common sights at the main entrances of the half-dozen factories along Xingyuanbei Road in the industrial zone of Baitu town in Shaoguan , Guangdong - except at the last one.
The area in front of the Early Light (EL) toy factory is practically deserted, and there is a reason. Inside are Uygur workers.
They were moved there from another EL factory 30 kilometres away, in Wujiang district, after a massive fight on the night of June 25 between Han Chinese and Uygur workers that left two Uygurs dead and dozens injured on both sides.
Government officials say the incident was used by overseas Uygur groups to instigate riots thousands of kilometres away in Urumqi , the capital of the Xinjiang region from where Uygurs come, 10 days later that left 197 people dead and hundreds injured.
According to residents and businesspeople around the Xingyuanbei Road factory, the emotional scars from the fight still need time to heal - even though it wasn’t at that factory. Perhaps with new solutions, they say, the divide between the two ethnic groups can be bridged.
“I do not think we can work [with the Uygurs] in the same factory any more,” said Yuan Mengjun, one of about half a dozen EL workers interviewed outside the Wujiang factory. “The unpleasant feeling is still there.”
A female worker, Su Qin, said the fatal fight could have been the result of a big misunderstanding.
“We just could not understand each other, as few of them could speak Putonghua.” She said the language barrier had made it impossible for the two sides to make friends.
Early Light, a Hong Kong-owned company, previously had more than 16,000 workers in Shaoguan. To help improve Xinjiang’s economy, it was encouraged by authorities to recruit 800 Uygur workers from Kashgar in May and June.
The topic of the fight is still so sensitive that some workers declined to help locate people they know who had witnessed the clash; others claimed they had seen nothing of the fight because they lived outside the factory, though they had walked straight into it a few minutes later with soft drinks and fruit they had just bought.
The workers said that in the first month after the fight, Han at the factory often discussed what they understood to be the reason for the deadly clash - that young Uygur men had raped Han Chinese women at the factory - but state media rejected that story in early July.
As time passed, even those who had witnessed the fight stopped talking about it, these workers said. The event no longer affected their daily lives because, as a result of the fight, “we are separated”, Yuan said.
Immediately after the fight, local-government officials moved all the Uygur workers from the factory in Wujiang to the one in Baitu, whose 700-strong workforce is now exclusively Uygur. Residents say the authorities treat the Uygurs like treasure.
The owners of food booths and a small restaurant serving northern Chinese food close to the Baitu factory said they had not served any of the Uygurs because the Easy Light factory had its canteen cook Xinjiang-style food.
Xinhua reported that the city had opened a clinic, staffed around the clock, at the factory. It also reported that the factory had two new billiard tables and that a soccer pitch and basketball court were being built.
The authorities’ top priority, though, is the Uygurs’ security. A Uygur man at a nearby supermarket claimed to be a plain-clothes police officer sent from Xinjiang after the fight in June. Colleagues (he would not say how many) had also been sent to the factory to guarantee the Uygur workers’ safety.
National and local leaders have put a lot of effort into keeping the peace with the Uygurs since the fight, mostly because they do not want anything to cast a shadow over the October 1 National Day celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Zhou Yongkang , one of the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party’s highest decision-making body, who is in charge of public security, travelled to Shaoguan early this month.
The biggest obstacle facing the Uygur workers, who live mainly within the factory’s fences, is the same one as two months ago - language. Employees at supermarkets and a mobile-phone service store close to the factory said no more than a third of the Uygurs spoke Putonghua.
“Even if you meet them here, you might not have a conversation because most cannot understand you,” said Peng Shurong, 29, a Baitu native working at the supermarket.
The Uygur workers, who are mostly in their 20s and 30s, generally came to the supermarket in groups of at least five, two or three times a week, she said. They mostly came during working hours, and never after 8pm. “They’re polite, always smiling to me, but most of them can’t even say a simple ‘thanks’ in Putonghua.”
Residents including Peng said there were good people and bad in every ethnic group and it would be fine for the Uygurs to stay as long as the two groups remained somewhat segregated.
Others were less charitable, saying they wanted the Uygur workers to go back to their own region.
A young motorcycle driver said he still felt angry with the Uygurs for the riots in Urumqi.
“Why are the Uygur workers always in groups of 20 to 30 when they go shopping downtown? Because they fear being attacked by angry Han,” he said, adding that he had never spoken to the Uygurs.
The Uygurs will continue living at the factory, at least for a while. Officials say that for the sake of the Xinjiang economy, the Uygurs are entitled to jobs in more prosperous parts of the country. Uygur activists claim they have to look for work elsewhere because Han compete with them for jobs in Xinjiang.
With the republic’s 60th anniversary at hand, even if social harmony isn’t quite achievable, social stability is - even if it takes isolation to do it.
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