Observation I
Does Architecture Dream of Upheavals? - Part II
How Far is Kashgar from Shenzhen?
Kashgar is a special case. Not only in that it is the new economic frontier of Northwest China, it is also a site of conflict. With the area designated as a Special Economic Zone in 2010, rapid demolition and construction has begun to proliferate on the homeland of the Uyghur. To further densify and intensify the urban area of Kashgar, the government policy rewards migrants and local Uyghurs who contribute to the massive urban restructuring project. The policy that allows two children per family subsidized housing and subsidized post-secondary education has attracted a significant amount of Han population from all over China to settle in Kashgar, alongside the opportunities in the construction and trading industry. In order to further the development of a Special Economic Zone, Shenzhen was appointed by the government of China to support Kashgar’s development. This move will obviously introduce a completely new species of urban conditions into the ecology of Kashgar thereby changing the city’s urban fabric and cultural landscape.
After the coastal development during the Deng Xiaoping regime[14] that fostered Shenzhen as the most capitalized Special Economic Zone in China, the development shifted to the western region of China. This shift was to improve the living conditions of the less urbanized regions of China. This mostly consisted of autonomous regions of Guangxi, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and the municipality of Chongqing.[15] The total area makes up 68% of Chinese territory and is home to numerous cultural minorities; the Uyghurs among them. Although considered to be “underdeveloped” by the Chinese government, the city of Kashgar was anchored at the Tarim Basin, an Oasis in the desert historically known for the production of fruits, crops, and animal products, and nowadays the production of fossil fuel. Kashgar’s border condition with fourteen countries confirms its status as a trading hub between China and Central Asia. As early as Han Dynasty (circa 1450s), Kashgar as a portal of the Silk Route had already confirmed a trading relationship with foreign establishments in Central Asia. The trading connections also introduced the Sunni Islam practice to Kashgar and other parts of Xinjiang. 90% of the population of modern day Kashgar is Uyghur Muslim.
Michiel Hulshof and Daan Roggeveen’s book regarding their Go West Project How the City Moved to Mr. Sun [16] has an interesting line describing Kashgar’s position in China: “Kashgar is closer to the Mediterranean than to the East China Sea, and closer to Istanbul than Shanghai.” [17] The city itself is closer to Central Asia not only in geographical terms, but also from a cultural perspective. Its social economic context, religion, culture, and the arts differ greatly from the costal developments of China. Although Shenzhen SEZ proves the rapid “city-making” strategy successful, the method is clearly not meant to fit all future SEZs as Shenzhen, unlike Kashgar, has very little recorded history before it was announced as an SEZ. Although it is considered a disadvantage, the absence of a dominant urban fabric makes the site extremely easy for a Tabula Rasa development: implementing a Special Economic Zone. In contrast, Kashgar’s long history has gathered an extremely vibrant mixture of different cultures which poses difficulties on its way towards “a global city”. A generic fishing village where Shenzhen was founded is much easier to restructure than a city of historic importance like Kashgar. Not only a social economical restructure will impact the regional cultural context, the urban fabric also has to go through violent transformations in order to accommodate this rapid urbanization.
One of the largest dilemmas of Kashgar’s development plan is the urban renewal of the Kashgar Old City. Described by architect and historian George Michell Kashgar: Oasis City on China’s Old Silk Road, 2008 and Michael Wines in The New York Times (2009)[18] , stating Kashgar “the best-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found anywhere in central Asia”. The critical opinion on the fiery development of Kashgar carried out by the government of China also speaks to the difficulties Kashgar is struggling with. The vernacular architecture of Kashgar of mud-straw houses connected by small alleyways have not only been homes to the Uyghurs for hundreds of years, but are also an important touristic attraction according to the Chinese government, who see the value of Kashgar being one of the most important destinations on the Silk Road. Excluded from the UNESCO list [19], the vernacular architecture that contributes to Kashgar’s unique fabric is left to deteriorate by forces such as climate change, seismic activities, and poor maintenance. The vernacular dwellings, although structurally unstable for a seismic zone, are easily repaired, and all materials are reusable and sourced locally. Generations of Uyghurs constantly repair their inherited homes, making these fragile mud-straw constructions last hundreds of years. The Chinese government, according to Michael Wines in his journal, due to safety concerns has started razing the “unstable” vernacular architecture and replacing them with generic apartments reflecting no cultural context, and concrete replicas of Islamic dwellings that seem to be more structurally stable. The protection strategy that attempts to raise the tourism value is in fact erasing the authenticity of Kashgar. No tourist would visit a city of replicas, an edited and reproduced history indifferent from an artifact without its context.
While Kashgar struggles with its rich history being razed by ignorant bureaucrats, Shenzhen fears the opposite. The city is paving its own way to becoming as competitive as Beijing and Shanghai in the global context. There is some trepidation that Shenzhen will evolve into a generic city with no cultural sediments or preserved history. [20] This fear raised a series of concerns around Shenzhen’s heritage. Is the residual of the pre-SEZ fishing village that can be dated back to Song Dynasty, Shenzhen’s cultural heritage? Or is the SEZ-era “Villages in the City” , this extremely high density substandard dwelling clusters situated right at the city’s business district, a heritage? The former is undeniably a heritage establishment due to its age and its vernacular architecture, but is the latter too? The clusters of “Villages in the City”[21] are often migrant workers’ first point of contact with the city due to the low rental rate, proximity to the city centre, and compact lifestyle offered. Illegally constructed to maximize the number of dwellings per parcel of land, the gap between two buildings only offers the width of one person: the neighbours can literally shake hands with each other from opposite balconies. In these “substandard” communities, the migrant workers thrive. These “Villages in the City” are homes of the people who pump new blood into Shenzhen, yet it would seem that they are not worth a place in the history. These substandard buildings are not designed to sustain the occasional earthquake of flood. The dark alleyways are breeding sites, not only health and safety hazards but also of rebellious gangs cause difficulties to the city authorities. The substandard conditions press the land value substantially lower than its surrounding neighbourhoods. In the eyes of the city authorities and the more financially settled city dwellers, these substandard “Villages in the City” have to be replaced by new healthier communities that offer sunlight in every room and carefully placed Cantonese restaurants and the famous Seattle-originated coffee shops in lieu of cheap breakfast shacks, which will raise the living standards and land value to match the normal standard of Shenzhen. The result is gentrification, because no migrant worker can afford to live there anymore even if they are offered dwelling units at the exact same location. They will be forced to the outskirts of Shenzhen just as the Uyghurs were “introduced” to new developments at the periphery of Kashgar SEZ.
How far is Kashgar from Shenzhen? Geographically, the distance is 5000km, from China’s western most urban area to the South-China Sea. Economically, an almost 90% difference in the two cities’ GDP leaves Kashgar a long way to catch up. In 2013, the GDP per capita of Kashgar is RMB 15,016, in comparison to Shenzhen’s RMB 136,947 (according to the China’s Economic and Social Development Report) [22]. In terms of prospect, will the two be more similar? The demolition of the old mud-straw dwellings in Kashgar will give room for quality apartments, attracting investors to purchase, raising the land values. The native dwellers, the Uyghurs will be forced to close down their family businesses in the city and move to the periphery. Similarly, if Shenzhen’s “Villages in the City” receives a redevelopment, the migrant workers who are the foundation of Shenzhen’s heterogeneity will be forced to move to the peripheries only reachable via the light rail — a prolonged journey from spaces of living to spaces of pride.
When heterogeneity is erased, it reduces the distance between the two cities, Shenzhen and Kashgar, to zero: both with beautified and romanticized histories, both drawing a future inside replicas and empty façades.
To make Kasgar the next Shenzhen is clearly a radical leap not only in the monetary value an individual can generate, but also in the basic infrastructures, policies, business opportunities, and cultural developments depicted as tools of reversing the stereotypical “disadvantaged” Uyghur image. However the continuous upheavals in the region have led the government to suppress the damage of social disorder by targeting the Uyghurs directly. Making up 90% of the population of Kashgar, the original inhabitants now seem unwanted by the migrant Han population. Ironic? Although the government of China is consistently supportive in making Kashgar the next Shenzhen, in the waves of riots, upheavals, and terrorist attacks, the future of Kashgar is still unclear.
The challenges Kashgar faces are vastly different from Shenzhen’s 35 years ago. Being the Pearl of the Silk Road, Kashgar bears numerous vernacular and ethnic heritages. However, the radical urbanization that is capable of bringing the same wealth that founded Shenzhen has put Kashgar in a difficult situation: conflicting the old and new. Modern cities in China are spatially and socially zoned. The division between the migrants and Kashgar town-dwellers draws a clear line between the rich and poor, and in the case of Western China, between the Han and Uyghur. According to How the City Moved to Mr. Sun, “The danger lies in the forming of neighbourhoods where poverty and hopelessness coincide with a high concentration of a certain ethnic group- that is a recipe for tensions”[23] The tension is the exclusion of the less advantaged groups from an urban scenario, the rejection of a seemingly chaotic coexistence. The distance between Shenzhen and Kashgar is in fact necessary, as the two will never be “matched” or measured at all. The city’s vibrancy comes from a mixture of conditions, scenarios, and sometimes issues. The upheaval that swirled Kashgar into fear, can now be read as a longing for coexistence that constantly mediates and negotiates between the leading culture and the minorities.
Next >> Observation II
14. Deng Xiaoping lead the “Reform and Opening” of China in1978, an ambitious economic reform to encourage foreign trade and investments. Special Economic Zones were created in the south of China, which gave investors tax reductions in exchange for benefits such as revenue and technical knowledge.
“Quick guide: China’s economic reform “, BBC News, last modified November 6, 2006, accessed March 31 2015,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5237748.stm
15. “KASHGAR: THE NEXT ECONOMIC BOOMING HUB — ANALYSIS “ Eurasia Review, published June 28 2014, accessed November 30 2014, http://www.eurasiareview.com/28062013-kashgar-the-next-economic-booming-hub-analysis/
16. How The City Move to Mr. Sun: China’s New Megacities is an illustrated narrative on 13 cities in China that are thriving under the civil and economic development. The book discusses in detail the unstoppable urbanization in the next batch of Chinese megacities. As the book unveil its story: “Twenty years ago Mr Sun was a simple Chinese farmer. Today he owns a block of flats in the centre of a city of millions. And he didn’t move an inch.”
17. Hulshof, Michiel, and Roggeveen, Daan, How the City Moved to Mr Sun, 298, SUN 2010
18. “To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It
“ New York Times, published May 27 2009, accessed March 12 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/asia/28kashgar.html?_r=0
19. Being excluded from a recognized organization such as UNESCO will increase the difficulty for Kashgar to obtain fundings and academic support towards the city’s heritage protection.
20. Note from Editor: In comparison to cities evolved over hundreds of years with, Shenzhen was a man-made city. Urban strategies prototyped in Shenzhen resulting in its architecture and urban fabric will be easily duplicated and reproduced elsewhere to construct another new city alike. The duplicable urbanspaces can exist regardless of the situation of its site with no reflection of history and context. It is generic.
21. Notes from Author: I spent many summers in Shenzhen traveling a cross the city to get to work. The bus rout always cross a “Village in the City” picking up a full load of migrant workers to the business district. They pick up breakfast at street-side shops right before squeezing themselves onto the bus. Passing through the narrow streets, the almost slum-like community unfolds its own ecosystem within: A grocery store owned by an elderly couple may double as a daycare for its neighbors; a hardware supplier offers cheap printing and bookbinding in his little store; a flower shop sells bubble tea adding a little romance in the dark alleyways… There are also bars, clubs, disco, and late-night diners of western influences with exaggerated neon lights. Anything that can be found in the vibrant business district of Shenzhen, there will be its sized-down doppelganger hidden inside these “Villages in the City”.
22. Data obtained from China Knowledge
“Kashgar (Kashi) (Xinjiang) City Information”, China Knowledge
http://www.chinaknowledge.com/CityInfo/City.aspx?Region=Western&City=Kashgar%20%28Kashi%29
“Shenzhen (Guangdong) City Information”, China Knowledge
23. How the city moved to Mr. Sun ,193
