Aur yeh khail jaari rahai ga......CCP kay sath aur CCP kay baad bhi.
Awesome. I'm glad you made a post on your experience. Gives us a verified opinion on the matter.
Did you travel through Xinjiang? Did you talk to the Chinese Muslims about their point of view of the Chinese state when you were in China?
Yes, I did though Xinjiang was only up to Urumqi. Since we traveled by car we did get a glimpse of the country side. There was still some animal transport in the smaller towns en-route, Bactrian camels, and ponies, and some mules.
I got to know Shanxi best since my longest stay was in that province.
I would like to know more about the Chinese Muslim thoughts on the matter.
I had Hue Chinese Muslim colleagues both male and female but I didn't know they were Muslims until we started interacting off work. They knew who I was and their instructions to the office canteen regarding my food were rigorously implemented.
I talked freely with my Chinese Muslim colleagues, interpreted through a female colleague ( Muslim) who spoke fluent English.
I learned the following:
- Chinese Muslims enjoy a "no discrimination", policy by the Chinese government by law where they enjoy exactly the same privileges in education, employment , housing and medical benefits as their fellow citizens with the following exceptions:
1. Hue are allowed 2 children as against the one child family for Han
Chinese
2. Hue children are encouraged with special training to participate in traditional Chinese sports, such as archery, contact sports, swimming etc. because they seem to be lagging in these fields.
3. Intermarriage:
Though marriage between Han and Hue couples is infrequent the instances are growing. Usually it is Han men marrying Hue girls. In such cases the Han man would convert to Islam.
4. Hue are allowed worship during working hours as long as the time spent is made up with extra work.
5. There are also responsibilities:
Hue must serve in the armed forces like their Han fellow citizens.
Because Hue have two children they don't usually qualify for exemption from armed forces service on account of an only child policy applicable for a child taking care of an elderly or sick parent.
6. I visited a local mosque in a small town. The mosque was partially state supported but managed by a committee. It was old and I heard that it was likely to be shut down and demolished due to safety and hygiene concerns. There had been instances of these 1000 years old mosques collapsing and killing the worshippers. It was also difficult to clean and maintain. On my next trip the mosque was gone but there wss furious construction activity going on. A year and a half later a brand new mosque with air conditioning, heating , hot and cold running water was opened. The old mosque and the quaint strip of shops were gone and so was the traditional style but my Hue Muslim colleagues were comfortable with the change. They had a far cleaner, roomier mosque, with better amenities. The shops were regulated abd paid rent to the state instead of defaulting on their payments to the committee.
But this building code is not implemented selectively. All buildings must be inspected regardless if they are temples, churches mosques or Hutongs. Yes I saw the Hutongs disappear too even though like some of the mosques a few of these were left untouched as an example of the period architecture. Of course such relics could no longer be in use.
Eating out
I used my "no pork" card only in the restaurant if I was dining alone which was rare. The card was part of several picture cards I had such as requesting tea, milk sugar etc.
I later picked up enough Chinese to go out on my own but as you can see from my lost in the wilderness experience I would sometimes get into undesirable situations.
Pork if cooked properly is safe and eat.
Does that apply to the pork cooked by the
doms which is from the pigs eating out of the city garbage heaps? Couldn't be because the ICMR identified pork from garbage fed pigs both as a source of botulism and encephalitis.
In 1996 the
doms in the city of Patna in eastern India were rioting, because citizens were shooting the hogs on the streets suspecting them of carrying encephalitis.
India has an abysmally filthy pork industry. Drive through the night in any Indian city and you will see the hogs let loose by the doms to feed.
