By Lindsay Beck, BEIWU, China (Reuters)
Mata Musing:
If one thought the "cultural divide" was confined solely to Americans... think again.
Read the above titled link and listen closely. You will hear the echo of commonality reverberating between the emotions of Chinese minorities and that of many socialist-leaning American minorities.
Point of fact, there is little discernable difference between America's "Affirmative Action" movement, and the Hui claims that China's one-child policy should not be applied to the Hui Muslim minority in rural China because ... "why shouldn't we have more - there are so many Han".
In one way, it's refreshing to know that humans, despite their geographical location on the planet, do share many base beliefs and desires despite ethic backgrounds and language differences. We are all made of the same composition.
On the other hand, it's frustrating to see that the notion of a minority becoming "equal" in the eyes of society requires more handouts and special handling - or a reverse discrimination - is just as prolific.
China, while no doubt pleased as punch with their financial industrial boom from disgruntled businesses relocating for survival, is probably less than enthralled by minority demands for special treatment. Perhaps they are missing the American outcome realized - that being reverse discrimination only serves to further divide citizenry and nations.
Welcome to the freedom fray, China. I hope you interpret history well and catch on fast.
If one thought the "cultural divide" was confined solely to Americans... think again.
Read the above titled link and listen closely. You will hear the echo of commonality reverberating between the emotions of Chinese minorities and that of many socialist-leaning American minorities.
Point of fact, there is little discernable difference between America's "Affirmative Action" movement, and the Hui claims that China's one-child policy should not be applied to the Hui Muslim minority in rural China because ... "why shouldn't we have more - there are so many Han".
In one way, it's refreshing to know that humans, despite their geographical location on the planet, do share many base beliefs and desires despite ethic backgrounds and language differences. We are all made of the same composition.
On the other hand, it's frustrating to see that the notion of a minority becoming "equal" in the eyes of society requires more handouts and special handling - or a reverse discrimination - is just as prolific.
China, while no doubt pleased as punch with their financial industrial boom from disgruntled businesses relocating for survival, is probably less than enthralled by minority demands for special treatment. Perhaps they are missing the American outcome realized - that being reverse discrimination only serves to further divide citizenry and nations.
Welcome to the freedom fray, China. I hope you interpret history well and catch on fast.
Excerpts:
BEIWU, China (Reuters) - Ethnic rivalries have sparked recent violent clashes in China, where the government has its hands full trying to control a country of 1.3 billion people as economic differences bubble into unrest with growing frequency.
Social disparities have long been the cause of dispute, but the clashes in the central province of Henan, the most violent in a string of unusually large recent protests, highlight a cultural fault line.
A car accident in Henan this month sparked days of riots between Han Chinese and members of the Hui Muslim minority that killed at least seven people, and analysts say ethnic differences could continue to be a trigger for unrest.
"These conflicts can be triggered by a meaningless -- in the ethnic sense -- event. But when they erupt like this, it's a sign there is a lot of tension that is most of the time covered," said Gilles Guiheux, director of the Hong Kong-based French Center for Research on Contemporary China.
Guiheux says economic disparity is behind the tension in Henan, a poor, corn and wheat-growing province of central China.
"Most of the economic opportunities created (contracts) are signed by Han people -- that creates problems all over China," he said.
But others say the Henan incident was also exacerbated by the opposite -- resentment among Han of the special status of China's 55 recognized minorities, which allows them to receive education subsidies, preference in school enrolment and the freedom to have more than one child.
"There's underlying resentment that cuts both ways," said one Western diplomat
(snip)
Analysts say that with no language of their own or large territorial concentration, the Hui, who number about 10 million and are thought to be descendants of Arab and Persian traders, are increasingly turning to religion to express their identity.
But Yang, who is one of three children, bristles at the suggestion it is unfair that minorities are excepted from China's strict one-child policy, part of a strategy of privileges to deter separatism, particularly in border regions like Tibet and Xinjiang.
"Why shouldn't we be able to have more -- there are so many Han. We are a minority," Yang said in the courtyard of the village's 500-year-old mosque.
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