Black and White Cat

Translated from a blog post by 27-year-old Uighur photographer Kuerbanjiang Saimaiti during the National Day holiday:

The people of Xinjiang are “welcome” throughout the country
Saturday, October 3, 2009

Yesterday I arrived here in Shenyang for the first time, and for the first time experienced the “warm” hospitality of the people of Shenyang. Because of this “warmth” I nearly had to sleep by the side of the road last night.

I was exhausted after a day of hard work and started to look for a hotel. The result was more than three hours of unnecessary hassle with no hotel allowing me to stay. When I phoned to book a room, they all said they had vacancies, but when I got to the hotel service desk the clerks would tell me boldly, as if it was perfectly right to do so, “We don’t accept Uighurs here”! Even after I’d produced all my documents, they still refused. I asked them who had ordered this. They said the Public Security Bureau. That really is going too far! I went to many hotels and everyone’s attitude was just as firm, looking at me as if I was a criminal! There was absolutely no goodwill in their eyes. Originally, I thought this was a pretty good city but now I was really disappointed with it!!! In the end, I made them get someone from the local Public Security Bureau and they made multiple photocopies of all my documents. They seemed to suspect my papers were forged…. I tried everything I could to persuade them and finally managed to get them to let me stay. I used my mobile phone to record their conversation with the person from the PSB and originally planned to put the recording here for everyone to hear. But then I thought that really isn’t necessary. Maybe trying to understand their point of view was the only way I could console myself at the time. I can be understanding about this incident, but if other people were in my place would they? What on Earth kind of good can this kind of behavior do? How long will this kind of situation go on? At least I understand Han Chinese and I could communicate with them. If this happened to people who had just come out of Xinjiang on business, or to tourists, would they really have had to just sleep by the side of the road? Could the national government really make regulations like this? I think it’s just that the local government’s way of doing things and thinking is excessively shallow.

I lay on the bed for a while to calm down and calmly and carefully thought about it. Actually, the attitude of these staff during this period is understandable. But isn’t the Shenyang government’s extreme targeting like this worth reflecting on? Another funny thing happened to me this morning. I had to send an email back for work so I found an internet cafe near the hotel and went up to the service counter.

“I need to use the internet. How much is the deposit, please?”
“Ten yuan,” the clerk said straight away without looking up. “I need to see your ID card.”
I got out my ID and said, “Here you are.”
“Sorry, your ethnic group can’t use the internet.”
“Why not?”
“State regulations.”

There was nothing I could do but laugh about it and leave. I went to another internet cafe and the reply was the same….

The blogger soon deleted that post (for now, at least there’s a copy here) and wrote this follow up:

We will always be one family!
Monday, October 5, 2009

Several days ago, something funny happened to me when I went to Shenyang and I simply wrote down what I felt about it at the time. I never thought that in just one day the hit rate would soar to more than 2,000. I’m really grateful to all the friendly people who showed concern for me. You made me feel the warmth of our big family! What I really had never expected was that all those bored people overseas who earn fifty cents for a post would repost what I’d written over and over again on foreign websites stirring up a whole lot of unnecessary comments. I really am furious about this. At the time, I used gentle words to describe my feelings and I pointed out that after the incident I could completely understand the attitude of the clerks. This was just a fault in the work of the local government and it doesn’t represent the views of our whole country! We can’t narrow-mindedly look at one part and allow it to pollute the whole environment. My original intention was to stress that Uighurs are one of the 56 ethnic groups in our great Chinese nation. We will never split away! We can never be parted! At the end of the year, I’m going to put on a big photographic exhibition which will display Uighurs’ cultural history and beautiful scenery! What I want to express is that Xinjiang has been a part of China since ancient times! The reason I’ve put so much effort into this is because I want, through my own meager efforts, to reduce misunderstandings a little bit, and create a little understanding, using pictures and words to draw us closer together! Once again, I want to stress that we should fully oppose the actions of those bored people overseas and I hope you will not use an individual like me to stir up trouble. I am an individual who deeply loves his country, his ethnic group and his homeland. Whatever your political aims or political organization, you should have a good think about your actions. Finally, I want to say, as a Chinese person, we should be proud of how glorious our country is now!!! Whatever ethnic group in China you are from, we will always be one family! Whatever corner of the Earth you are in, please don’t forget that our mother is China!!!

It’s hard to tell how widespread Kuerbanjiang’s experience in Shenyang was during the National Day holidays. There were scattered allegations on the internet of hotels refusing Uighurs in other parts of China, one of them in Anhui, but they were quickly deleted.

A similar situation existed in Beijing last year in the run-up to the Olympics.

On May 9, 2008, several Han and Uighurs went to five hotels near Beijing West Station and the Minzu University of China (previously known in English as the Central University of Nationalities). In each of the hotels, Han were offered a choice of rooms. Uighurs were refused in all of them. Mostly, the excuse given was that there were no vacancies. In one case the Uighur was told he couldn’t stay in the hotel because the computer scanner was broken so they couldn’t process his ID card. This problem mysteriously resolved itself for the Han guest whose card was swiped immediately. When the Han customer asked the hotel staff how the machine had managed to fix itself, the reply was that it only applied to “that person” (the Uighur), “not to us” (Han).

The next day, the group went to 20 hotels and guest houses in Beijing’s Haidian, Shijingshan, Fengshan and Xuanwu districts to ask if they would accept Uighur guests. Only eight of the 20 said yes. Of those eight, only the Shangrila said yes without any hesitation. The other seven said yes only after careful consideration, and many of them also said that the Uighur guests would have to be prepared to be investigated.

The cause of this reticence was discovered after the Olympics. Police had told all hotels that any Uighur or Tibetan guests must immediately be reported. The New Dominion translated one such notice issued by the Public Security Bureau:

To all inns and bathhouses of the administrative district:

In compliance with a request from the local PSB substation, starting today, investigations will be carried out on the lodging circumstances of all individuals of “Tibetan” and “Uyghur” ethnicity residing at inns and bathhouses of the Haidian District. Reinforce inspection and verification of any lodger matching the description above and report all cases to the local dispatch station.

Furthermore: every inn and bathhouse, when registering travelers, must double-check and accurately fill out the registration form.

All who receive Tibetan or Uyghur individuals for lodging must immediately report to the local dispatch station.

Officer to Contact: Wu Hu Cell Phone: 13801093916

Huayuan Dispatch Station On-Call Phone Numbers: 62014692 62032656

So, it appeared that there was no ban on Uighurs or Tibetans staying in any of the hotels in Beijing, but accepting them as guests would result in a whole lot of hassle. It was much easier to just lie and say they were fully booked. This may have been what happened in Shenyang at the beginning of this month. However, in his original blog post Kuerbanjiang said he was told immediately and explicitly that they did not accept Uighurs, suggesting that the police really may have ordered a ban.

Security is one thing. But if you want to encourage resentment, give ammunition to your enemies and encourage separatism, this is a pretty good way to go about it. Not everyone is as understanding as Kuerbanjiang Saimaiti.

(See also, from The New Dominion: The Uyghur Civil Rights Movement: No Uyghurs in our Hotel and Uyghurs Speak Out on Hotel Restrictions. And also: A Day of Pain, describing a Tibetan’s experience in Beijing in April last year. This is the sort of thing that tips some people over the edge.)

UPDATE: I’ve just discovered that China Digital Times has also translated the first of Kuerbanjiang’s posts, so you can compare our translations if you want. There are differences, but it’s funny to see how much is the same.