MCLC: Kashgar on the move (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: martin winter (dujuan99 at gmail.com)
Subject: Kashgar on the move (1)
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I was in Kashgar in 2000. The Chini Bagh hotel is close to the old town
and the main mosque, right? Kashgar wasn't very modern back then. The
railway link to Ürümqi was new. There was some sort of an equilibrium, the
Uighurs could still say it was their city, center of the old Xinjiang.
There was a great little food stall in the old street on the way to the
mosque. We talked music with them. They have interesting instruments, and
guitar music is well appreciated. Across the street from the mosque square
there was a Chinese shop where you could get beer and so on to go with the
food. The stall owners wouldn't mind, though none of them would sell
alcohol. The Xinjiang wine was very good, just like in the Tang Dynasty,
as they say. That street across from the mosque square was a modern
street, cutting through the city. There were a few streets like that, one
with the big Mao statue. But they were few, still. There was a Xinhua
bookstore. The second floor was for books in Uighur. So I guess there was
Uighur in the schools, maybe more than now. Many women in the old town
wore veils, covering all of their face. I saw a woman lift her veil to
cross the street not far from the bookstore. She was young. Like I said,
it seemed like some kind of equilibrium. Enough tradition, education,
diversity and development to go around, hopefully. Maybe.

The main bazaar was the main business of Kashgar. It seemed that way, at
least. It was not Chinese.

There was a Russian guy in the hotel, I think he was from Kazakhstan. He
Had some sort of trading company, going back and forth. He liked to speak
English, and told me how Putin would bring the former Soviet republics back
to the fold and restore Russia's greatness. He was a simple, amiable guy.
But he was big and strong, and loved to pick fights. Fists and kicking,
right there in the lobby, the circle-shaped center of the hotel. Nobody
stopped it, for a while. I tried to get him to calm down. He was amiable
enough, and I was too small to count as a possible opponent, so he listened
to me.

Liao Yiwu has a story from visiting a notoriously separatist village in
Xinjiang, featuring music and singing. Great story. I translated it into
German, along with other stuff, for a book with a CD-CVD package. Nicky
Harman did the English translations. Here is the link again:
http://www.fly-fast-records.com/327.html

Martin