You can never underestimate the arrogance of the imperialist. Just as the English convinced themselves that their cannons were having a civilicing effect on their colonies, China is confident that its presence in the lives of the people of Tibet and Xinjiang is ultimately for the best.
Tibet and Xinjiang, the most westerly regions of the country, are the only places where the 90 percent Han Chinese majority aren't the dominant ethnic group. The Communist Part of China (CPC) views the western provinces as integral and indivisible parts of China but also actively pursues a policy of sinicization (making it more like China, essentially), as if forcing a region to adopt foreign customs will somehow help them come round to the idea of completely changing their lifestyle.
You might balk at Chinese government's talk of a need to develop the "backward" Chinese Wild West, but the sinicization project has drastically improved the quality of life for most people in Xinjiang and Tibet. Life expectancy in pre-1951 Tibet was an insane 36 years, it's now over 65. And in Xinjiang, there's been a marked upturn for the Turkic Muslim majority.
The author having wine fed to him at Splendid China.
In 2010 alone, the Chinese government invested over 11 billion yuan (about 1.8 billion dollars) in improving infrastructure and schooling in Xinjiang. In fact, so much money is spent on improving the areas that many Han Chinese resent what they see as an unfair advantage for the ethnic minority groups. Life is considerably tougher for rural Chinese peasants than those in Tibet or Xinjiang, but nobody in China is going to start listening to them any time soon.
Guess what, though? Yep, those ungrateful bastards in the conquered West don’t quite see it that way. The dominant narrative in the western provinces—put forward by the Dalai Lama, Richard Gere, Steven Seagal, and hundreds of burning monks—is that the PRC are invaders and colonizers. Understandable, really, considering the PRC’s attempts to repress both Buddhist and Islamic religious expression in the region, as well as replacing local languages with Mandarin Chinese.
Political repression is pervasive and undeniable, and uprisings and rioting towards the end of the last decade in both Tibet and Xinjiang only led to tighter restrictions. Among Tibetans, this has led to over 100 horrifying self-immolation protests since 2009, the vast majority of them resulting in death. Despite the government's much vaunted drive to improve ethnic minority representation in political bodies like the People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), those who truly exercise power are almost exclusively Han Chinese, with most officials in the western region not even able to speak Tibetan or Uyghur (the language of the Turkic people).
Most Tibetan and Uyghur exile groups classify the government’s attempts at sinicization as cultural imperialism, a gradual form of assimilation that's snuffing out those regions' unique culture and history. Which brings us to...
A replica Chinese palace at the Splendid China park.
Splendid China: The Propaganda Theme Park for Sinicization!
In the week before Chinese New Year, I visited Splendid China – a place that might have been Mao's nationalistic vision of Disneyland. The park's stated mission is to condense "the Chinese history, culture, places of interest, folk arts, and customs" into one easily accessible destination in Shenzhen, about an hour from Hong Kong. And that includes little areas set out for the western provinces.
First things first: Splendid China is kind of fun. There are three genuinely incredible shows (or "ethnic cultural performances") fusing ballet, Chinese opera and acrobatics, and all the park employees—mostly recruited from ethnic minority regions—seem remarkably chuffed to be there. Maybe that's not surprising given they live in a city like Shenzhen, where pay is considerably higher than in the Chinese interior. After all, there are worse ways to make a living.
An Uyghur dance at the Splendid China park.
So why does anyone bother getting annoyed about this theme park? Well, looked at through the viewfinder of political and cultural repression in Tibet and Xinjiang, it starts to seem a little more sinister. Unsurprisingly, the curators of Splendid China's Tibetan and Uyghur villages have decided to omit any of the political and ethnic strife prevalent in reality. There aren’t many self-immolating monks featured in the "China Central Song and Dance Ensemble of Ethnic Groups,” either. Nah, it’s mostly fun stuff like yaks and butter churning performed by smiling staff, and—suffice to say—Buddhism and Islam don’t get much of a look in.
Kate Saunders, Communications Director at the International Campaign for Tibet, reckons that Splendid China is an example of the Chinese authorities’ attempts to “commodify and market Tibetan culture," while at the same time stamping down “almost any expression of Tibetan identity and culture” not officially sanctioned by the CPC. She tells me that the Chinese authorities “seek to dominate representations of Tibetan culture in order to assert ownership of Tibet."
A good example of the bizarre official narrative represented by Splendid China is the video of Peng Liyuan, wife of CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping, singing the "Laundry Song.” It’s a propaganda classic about how the People’s Liberation Army saved Tibetans from the unspeakable horrors of self-governance, but presumably isn’t considered a classic by the Dalai Lama.
Alim Seytoff, Director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, puts it more bluntly: “[Splendid China] is for propaganda purposes only. The whole idea of the park is to fool both domestic and foreign visitors that Uyghurs, as an exotic minority with a colourful culture, live happily ever after under CPC rule.” According to Alim, China’s “Han-chauvinistic policies towards the Uyghurs and other ethnic groups are destructive of multi-ethnicism and multiculturalism.”
Chinese propaganda about Tibet and Xinjiang—be it in theme park form or spouted by a CPC official—can often seem more than a little creepy. The Chinese government is doing some good things in the country’s western provinces, but altruistic imperialism is still imperialism. But what’s amazing is that while suicidal monks and political repression have led to hand wringing in Washington and London, in Beijing, the sinicization project is perceived as a success. Tibet is on course to be a majority Han province in the near future, effectively colonising local support for China.
Perhaps the only place the Chinese government really want their ethnic minorities to exist are as relics in their theme parks. Everyone else is better off Chinese.
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