|
|
有讲汉人的, 在7/9 星期四,
Migrants Describe Grief From China’s Strife
 Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
Zhang Aiying, right, and Lu Sifeng, mourned their son, Lu Huakun, who was killed during rioting on Sunday in Urumqi, China.
By EDWARD WONG
Published: July 8, 2009
URUMQI, China — As young Uighursrampaged through the streets of this western regional capital onSunday, Zhang Aiying rushed home and stashed her fruit cart away, safefrom the mob. But there was no sign of her son, who had ventured backinto the chaos to retrieve another of the family’s carts.
 Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
Members of a Han Chinese family outside a government office in Urumqi,China, where they went to identify the body of a relative killed inriots last weekend.
“Call him on his cellphone,”Ms. Zhang, 46, recalled shouting to a cousin. “Tell him we want himhome. We don’t need him to go back.”
Her son, Lu Huakun, did notanswer the call. Three hours later, after the screaming had died down,Ms. Zhang went out into the street. A dozen bodies were strewn about.She found her son, his head covered with blood, his left arm nearlysevered into three pieces.
The killing of Mr. Lu, 25, was aruinous end to the journey of a family that had fled their poor farmingvillage in central China more than a decade ago to forge a new lifehere in China’s remote desert region.
Mr. Lu and his parentsare typical of the many Han migrants who, at the encouragement of theChinese government, have settled among the Muslim Uighurs, aTurkic-speaking race that is the largest ethnic group in oil-richregion of Xinjiang. The influx of Han, the dominant ethnic group inChina, has transformed Xinjiang: the percentage of Han in thepopulation was 40 percent in 2000, up from 6 percent in 1949.
“Wewanted to do business,” Lu Sifeng, 47, the father, said Tuesday, hiseyes glistening with tears as he sat smoking on his bed. “There was acalling by the government to develop the west. This place would benothing without the Han.”
But migration has fueled ethnictensions, as Uighurs complain about the loss of jobs, the proliferationof Han-owned businesses and the disintegration of their own culture.
OnSunday, Mr. Lu was among at least 156 people killed in the deadliestethnic violence in China in decades. Raging Uighurs battled securityforces and attacked Han civilians across Urumqi.
The riot hadevolved from a protest march held by more than 1,000 Uighurs to demandthat the government investigate an earlier brawl between Han andUighurs in southern China.
The government, apparently hopingto tamp down racial violence, has not released a breakdown of theethnicities of the 156 dead. But Mr. Lu’s father said that of more than100 photographs of bodies that he looked through at a police station toidentify his son, the vast majority were Han Chinese, most with theirheads cut or smashed.
Each victim had a number. His son was 51.
“Of course, in recent days, we’ve been angry toward the Uighur,” Mr. Lu said. “And of course we’re scared of them.”
Thefamily came from Zhoukou, in Henan Province, a poor part of centralChina. They grew wheat, corn and soybeans on a tiny plot of land. Therewas little money in it, and the parents heard of a way out: friendsfrom Henan had gone to distant Xinjiang and were making enough money tosupport relatives back home.
It was the late 1990s, and thecentral government had announced a push to develop the west, promisingthat investment would soon flow to those long-neglected lands.
Mr. Lu and Ms. Zhang went first. The younger Mr. Lu followed after graduating from junior high school.
Othersfrom Henan were selling fruit and vegetables, so the Lu family boughtwooden fruit carts. They got a spot at an open-air market off DawanNorth Road, on the border between Han and Uighur neighborhoods. Everyday, they pushed their carts to work at 8 a.m. and did not shut downuntil midnight. In a good month, the family earned $300.
“He wasn’t so satisfied with life here,” Ms. Zhang said of her son. “He was so tired here, and there wasn’t so much money.”
Nota day went by that they did not miss their hometown, Ms. Zhang said.But until this past winter, they had never returned for a visit. Theywanted to save the cost of train tickets.
They live in bareconcrete rooms on the ground floor of an apartment block opposite themarket. The kitchen has a makeshift two-burner stove a few feet fromthe parents’ bed. Most of their neighbors are fellow settlers fromHenan and Sichuan.
At the market, about three-quarters of the 200vendors are from those two provinces, the parents said. A handful ofUighurs sold fruit or raw mutton.
“Relations with the Uighurs were prettygood,” Ms. Zhang said. “There was a mutton stall beside the cart wheremy son sold fruit. On nights when my son didn’t want to bring his fruithome, he would ask the Uighur neighbor to keep the fruit inside hisstall”.
This past winter, the family took thenearly 40-hour train ride home for the first time. The parents hadarranged for Mr. Lu to marry a 23-year-old woman from home. The couplehad photographs taken: Mr. Lu in a white turtleneck lying beside hisbride-to-be in front of a beach backdrop; the smiling couple sitting ona white bench, each holding teddy bears in their laps.
The family returned to Xinjiang after scheduling the wedding for the end of this year.
On Sunday, as on any other day, Ms.Zhang, her son and a young cousin pushed four carts to the market. Mr.Lu’s father had gone to another province to buy fruit wholesale.
Abruptly at 8 p.m., the manager of themarket told people to shut down immediately. More than 1,000 Uighurswere marching through the streets to protest government discrimination.Street battles erupted when riot police officers armed with tear gasand batons tried to disperse the crowd.
The first wave of the rioters arrivedminutes later, weapons in hand. The younger Mr. Lu dashed home firstand Ms. Zhang followed him. When she got home, she found that he hadgone out again to rescue another cart.
She cried for three hours until she dared go out to look for him.
“I thought, If I don’t find a body, then maybe he’s in hiding and still alive,” she said. “But I quickly found the body”.
Mr. Lu’s father identified his son on Wednesday from a photograph at a police station.
“After we cremate the body, we’ll gohome with the ashes,” Ms. Zhang said. The father stared at cigarettebutts strewn across the floor. “We’ll never come back,” he said.
Huang Yuanxi contributed research from Beijing. |
|
狗仔卡
发表于 2009-7-18 13:21
提升卡
变色卡
抢沙发
千斤顶
显身卡
