All posts tagged: Bingtuan

The Giant Buddhas of the Western Region

Published by Darren Byler

The giant 41 meter Buddha faces directly west. It seems to embrace the new construction on the other side of Bright Red Mountain in on the Northeast periphery of Ürümchi. Behind him the constant ring of hammers and the roar of Bingtuan Construction Engineering Company trucks rises from the still unfinished wing of the brand new Hilton hotel and the alien-looking international expo center. Every few minutes the low industrial roar is punctuated by the “dong” of a giant bell just to the left of the huge gold figure. Chants of “A-mi-tuo-fo” are carried intermittently on the breeze. The temple complex is symmetrical. Gates and bridges; fierce gods of war; giant rock gardens made of plaster; hobbit-style caves made of grape arbors; opposing ornate temples filled with auspicious jade from Hotan for middle-class consumers; matching rows of elephants bearing Tibetan prayer wheels line the causeway. In the center of the complex is a rotund reclining Buddha covered by dozens of naughty golden children. People place their wishes inscribed on red ribbons here. They light incense …

The Story of the Production and Construction Corps

Published by Darren Byler

A rifle and sword tied together with a red flag over a meter of Gobi sand welcomes visitors to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Museum in the city of Shihezi – 136 kilometers northwest of Ürümchi. This museum, filled with patched and dented artifacts and hundreds of large scale historical photos, is the premiere monument to the Han experience of the recent past in Xinjiang. It shows us the narrative of experience necessary to understand the history of the people who self-identify as “constructors” (jianshezhe) of Xinjiang. The Bingtuan, as the Corps is referred to by locals, is a state-sponsored farm system that is spread across the territory of Xinjiang – an area as large as California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico combined. Hundreds of regiments are still in operation 60 years after their founding. Out of this population of around 3 million military farmers, 90 percent are Han. The exhibition begins with giant images of people (at that point, in the early 1950s, mostly men) tilling the soil by yoking themselves …

Hong Qi, the Uyghur Folksinger who grew up Han

Published by Darren Byler

The Uyghur Chinese musician and poet Hong Qi celebrated his forty-first birthday last May 6. He doesn’t know if that day was really his birthday. He said his mother just guessed. There is a lot that Hong Qi doesn’t know about his origins. He is one of those rare Uyghurs who grew up thinking he was Han. Hong Qi was born into a situation of extreme poverty. Hotan—the prefecture in the south of Xinjiang where he lived until age three—is the poorest prefecture in the nation. According to government statistics, in 2012 the average per capita income for the 2 million Uyghurs in Hotan was $183. Although he was born in a prefecture where the population was more than 90 percent Uyghur, Hong Qi didn’t realize he was Uyghur until he was 16. That was when his Han parents told him he was adopted. Like many military families in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Hong Qi moved a lot as a kid. He spent significant portions of his childhood in Ürümchi. He read a …