Zhang Renliang (张仁良), the former Jing'an district chief who was sacked last year in the wake of the devastating 2010 fire that ravaged an apartment building, killing 58 and injuring 71, has been given a political resurrection with his new appointment as deputy party secretary of Xinjiang's Kashgar prefecture. Zhang's new job comes just seven months after he was sacked from Jingan district, along with dozens of other officials that were either replaced, punished or jailed. more ›

Right at the edges of China's jagged borders sits Kashgar, once a strategically located crossroads between the east and the west, it's now set to return to its former glory. It appears that Chinese officials have spotted Kashgar as a new economic hub, opening up trade between the east and west, which makes Shenzhen look very 2006. more ›

Tea house and evening market, Kashgar in Xinjiang, from Josh at Far West China. more ›

• James Fallows finds a sign advertising for restaurant staff at a hotel in Kashgar. Basically, it says that "No Uighurs Need Apply".
• Zhong Dajun, a prominent economic consultant in China who is definitely more "nationalist" than "left wing", is now circulating a piece (Chinese only) called “The Xinjiang Incident Reveals Significant Flaws in Government Management.”
• The Globe and Mail's Mark MacKinnon describes getting kicked out of Kashgar... well, kind of kicked out of Kashgar.

• Sichuan peppercorns: "There's a war in my mouth." [Boing Boing] "Sichuan peppercorns, oh yeah! Raven of Made with Molecules after eating them wrote, "There's a war in my mouth." They create a riot of numbing and tingling sensations, particularly if you can get relatively fresh ones (i.e. not stale from sitting around in a Whole Foods bulk bin). Raven links to an abstract about the particular anesthetic-sensitive potassium channels inhibited by hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, one of the components of sichuan peppercorns that make them so exciting."
• Death of a Dystopian: The life and legacy of J.G. Ballard [Reason Magazine] "J.G. Ballard is best known for Empire of the Sun (1984), a largely autobiographical coming-of-age novel based on his upbringing in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman, and his internment in a World War II prison camp during the Japanese invasion. For those with darker tastes, there is the cult classic Crash, a wild, transgressive 1973 novel about a community of car-crash fetishists that was eventually made into a Cronenberg film. His writing is obsessed with the territories where the organic meets the inorganic; it is absurdist, bleak, vivid, and awake to the psychological effects of media and manmade landscapes. In the words of the novelist Martin Amis, “Ballard is quite unlike anyone else; indeed, he seems to address a different—a disused—part of the reader’s brain.”
• Life in jail for killing Chinese student [News.com.au] "THE killer of a Chinese student who was left to die after being raped and choked on a roadside verge has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Danny Adam Wright, 36, was found guilty of the wilful murder and sexual penetration of Chinese student Jiao Dan, 22, in the Perth suburb of Inaloo on October 8, 2007. Justice Michael Murray told the court in sentencing Wright today that it was a dreadful incident for which Wright had failed to show remorse. He sentenced him to life in jail with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years."

• To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It [NYT] "Over the next few years, city officials say, they will demolish at least 85 percent of this warren of picturesque, if run-down homes and shops. Many of its 13,000 families, Muslims from a Turkic ethnic group called the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs), will be moved."
• Diabetes more likely to strike the young in Asia [AP] "Without strong government policy, education and good clinical care, Asia's escalating epidemic could "erase economic gains made in recent decades," said Hu, one of the authors. Trends of diabetes in the region are influenced by everything from genetic makeup and cultural differences to smoking and degrees of urbanization, the JAMA study showed. But the most startling findings — which tended to vary from country to country — related to body mass and age."
• China Said to Harass Rights Lawyers [NYT] "Many of the lawyers have taken on cases, involving issues like Tibetan political activism and police brutality, that gained national and even international attention. The advocacy groups, Human Rights Watch and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, called the actions by the legal authorities part of an effort to intimidate the lawyers and their law firms into avoiding sensitive cases."

• Kashgar's Old Town Bulldozed; Is Uyghur Culture in Danger? [FarWestChina - gfw] "Within the narrow alleyways of this Old Town lie thousands of years of Kashgar’s history. Aged wooden doors and cobblestone paths have witnessed the passage of innumerable donkey carts, small Uyghur children and, in recent times, many foreign tourists. On the outside, these mud-brick walls seem at peace with their place in history but just beyond the padlocked door a crippling truth emerges. Squinting through the cracks in the doorway it is possible to see that these walls no longer house Uyghur inhabitants. Instead, they hide the heartbreaking destruction of Kashgar’s Old City. Over two-thirds of the city has already been leveled. History has been replaced by rubble; donkey carts by bulldozers."
• Chinese Singing Show To Go On, With a New Name and Conditions [WSJ] "While hugely popular, the shows also triggered hot debates. Some celebrated them for representing the victory of grassroots culture over official or elite culture, while others believed the show just encouraged young people to seek out overnight fame. Along with popularity came increased government scrutiny. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) released a series of specific measures to regulate entertainment programs (particularly talent shows) in 2007 and a planned 2008 season of Super Girls was cancelled. A spokesman for Hunan Satellite Television told the media late last month that a revival of the televised singing competition had been approved by the Sarft, though not without several conditions attached."
• Singapore promotes Mandarin [Danwei] "According to a survey conducted on incoming primary students by the Singapore Department of Education, the number of Chinese-language households in Singapore has been declining since the 1990s. Today, only 40% of households use Chinese as a primary language, while English-language households have climbed from 26% in 1990 to 60% today. To reverse this trend, the Singapore Promote Mandarin Council launched The Chinese Challenge on March 30, fun quizzes that let Singapore citizens and permanent residents personally experience the breadth and depth of Chinese culture, deepen their understanding of Mandarin, and improve their grasp on the language."

Photo from Marc van der Chijs more ›

The Turkestan Islamic Party which a fortnight ago claimed to have been responsible for a series of China bombings has just released a new six-minute video entitled “Call to the Global Muslim Ummah” (or brotherhood). With his face covered and a black turban, and armed with a Kalashnikov, the speaker urged Muslims in the Uyghur language to "choose your side". And for those attending the Games, he had this word of advice:

“Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are.” [Translation by SITE Intel Group]

Two Japanese reporters Shinji Katsuta of Nippon Television Network Corp, and Shinzou Kawakita of the Tokyo Shimbun were briefly apprehended, beaten by police and forcibly taken to a border police facility while they were in Kashgar trying to report on the deadly attack which killed 16 policemen. After a protest by the Japanese government, the Kashgar police and the local foreign affairs department apologised to the Japanese reporters. Austin Ramzy of Time Magazine was also in Kashgar, and reports that he was on the same flight with a man that had lost his lower right leg and was strapped to a stretcher that flight attendants say was one of the border guards injured in the attack. This video, filed by Ramzy, shows the area around the police station where the attack took place. more ›