Category: Uighurs

Creative destruction, or destructive creations? Part 2, in with the new?

18 June, 2009 (17:03) | China, Cities, Slums, Theory, Uighurs, Urban Renewal | 3 comments

[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]

In yesterday post, using as our text a New York Times article on the proposed comprehensive slum redevelopment of Kashgar, Xinjiang:

Kashgar, though, is not a typical Chinese city. Chinese security officials consider it a breeding ground for a small but resilient movement of Uighur [...]

Creative destruction, or destructive creations? Part 1, out with the old?

17 June, 2009 (09:35) | China, Cities, Slums, Theory, Uighurs, Urban Renewal | 2 comments

When you demolish an urbanized informal or ancient settlement, are your motives pure or impure?
 

Guilty or innocent?
 
If you are Robert Mugabe, the answer is clear: it’s slow genocide by bulldozer. 
 
If you’re the City of Boston in the 1950’s, the answer is likewise clear: your motives were good even if your outcomes were bad.
 
If [...]