River Town

吐逊·尼扎木

从乌鲁木齐回到北京后，去潘家园古玩市场跟卖和田玉的新疆人聊了聊。一个最大的感觉，新疆维族人可真是实在。先后跟三个人谈，问起他们的名字，他们总是坦然相告。我说中文怎么写，他们不会写，就把身份证掏出来给我抄，丝毫没有咱们内地人常见的那样警觉性超级高涨，即使这几位维族哥们后来知道我是记者。

其中一个哥们挺健谈，他的经历也挺有意思。吐逊·尼扎木，39岁，南疆阿克苏地区库车县人。他说自己年轻时不懂事，常打架，进过劳教所一年。在劳教所学法律，才知道原来以前跟哥们干的许多事是违法。看得出，这是他的真心话。跟我在路边偶遇，而非受官员指派接受采访，没必要讲那些假大空的东西。

他96年起离家到外地打工，转战兰州、西安、东北等地，做食堂、卖羊肉串等，后来到北京潘家园旧货市场帮亲戚卖玉器。提起参与7.5事件的南疆人，同样来自南疆的他丝毫没有替自己人开脱的意思，“打砸抢的那都是些不爱干活的人，成天就会到处混”。

7.5后家人担心他的安危，打电话叫他回家。他说自己一点都不担心会受汉人欺负。他说自96年出来以后从来没跟人打过架，“我待别人好，别人也待我好，和气生财嘛”。

对于被称为乌鲁木齐事件导火索的广东韶关汉疆工人冲突事件，吐逊也有他的想法。“工人打架，就应该找法院解决。”

目前吐逊跟妹妹、妹夫和妹夫的哥哥四人合租在潘家园附近，“一个月租金1800，”他把“隐私”全透给我了。

最近还计划到内蒙区参加一些巡回会展。“因为展会上卖东西赚钱多，虽然比在潘家园摆摊辛苦，”他说。

"From my first experience in China, I learned what it’s like to be different from everybody else. I learned to be patient. That’s the only way to learn Chinese in a place like that." -- Peter Hessler

刚写了上一篇关于Peter Hessler写写藏的文章的博文，没想到第二天到公司上班，就发现深度版王蔚岚同学做了一条他的人物专访 Peter Hessler champions 'average people' 。让我吃了一惊。什么叫无巧不成书呢？王蔚岚已经离开报社一个月左右了，她之前做的文章不早不晚，偏巧这时候才见报，看起来，我跟Peter还是很有缘分呢。

Peter讲到他除了已经发表的River Town和Oracle Bones以外，正在写他中国三部曲的第三本书，名为Country Driving，继续描述中国发生的翻天覆地的变化，预计明年一月正式出版。有兴趣的同学，可以注意跟进。

应小科的要求，跑西单图书城去给他买了本美国人Peter Hessler写四川涪陵两年支教经历的书，名为River Town——yes，you may have guessed，我05年开始至今的博客的名字，也是当年看了此书的结果。

书摆在桌上两三周还没寄出，却忍不住又翻起来了。看到Peter在茶馆偶遇对他穷追不舍的发廊小姐，最后竟然是那位经常早晨5点就打他电话企图劝他练F.LG的轮子替他解围骂走了那小姐，忍不住笑出声来。当初在美国看到这本书就难以放下的原因，也是因为这哥们在不紧不慢的绘声绘色讲他所见所闻的故事的时候、常常让人扑哧开怀吧。

合上书本，回到网上，不由自主又搜索他的文章。看到一篇他在《大西洋月刊（The Atlantic）》上发表的一篇名为Tibet Through Chinese Eyes的文章，讲他离开四川后去西藏考察后对西藏问题的认识。虽然编者按里面写的东西仍让人侧目（谁知道是不是又是带有色眼镜的编辑写的？），我却不得不再一次为Peter Hessler的文章拍案叫绝。这哥们审视一个地方、一个问题的时候，绝对不是大多西方记者那样的简单片面，直接拿一老框框套上。不是因为他在涪陵呆了两年跟中国人有了感情，就替中国人说话，也不是因为他是美国人就按美国的习惯思维来对中国或汉族人横加指责。我认为，所有要报道西藏的西方记者，都应该先读读他的文章，而所有对西藏问题真相感兴趣的中国人，也应该看看他的文章——西藏问题是一个很无奈的尴尬局面，一方面中央政府花费大量资金、人力、物力及特殊优惠给西藏，换来的却是不解甚至敌意；另一方面西藏人、如打赖所讲的、希望繁荣与发展，却害怕汉人的涌入破坏了他们的宁静、文化与宗教，甚至夺走他们的财富。而政府对藏人不满情绪的担心，反过来让他们对其宗教活动有意无意的限制，而这限制反过来又增加了更多的敌意。

其实Peter文章结尾的地方讲得非常真切。一个藏人找他哭诉，说他们被压榨得有多苦，他们的民族历史和社会将如何失落，“你一定要回去告诉你们美国人这里的情况，让他们知道可以怎样帮助我们……”Peter在心里苦笑，他想起在美国常常能看到一些汽车的后面贴着“Fre.e Tibe.t”的标记，但就是这些标记旁边，汽车尾号牌上常常就用的是一些已经消失掉的印第安部落的名字，而这些部落当初正是湮没在现代化的扩张进程之中，与当今中国是何等相似。

最后两句话，Peter是这样写的。“我点点头，跟他握了握手。但我不知道我回去能介绍些什么，也不知道美国的人们能替他们做些什么。也许，我们可以建几个赌场。”

"You need to tell the people of America what it's like here," he said. "You need to tell them what needs to be done." I nodded and shook his hand, but I realized I had no idea what I would recommend, or what the people of America could do. Perhaps we could build casinos.

我想起了美国西部的拉斯维加斯，又忍不住笑起来。

愈发的喜欢Peter Hessler了。他的文字，他的思想。

报社外国专家Peter是英国人，想不通为什么咱们报纸写到Internet一定要大写I，问我，这互联网不就跟电话电视一样，既然telephone、 radio什么的都不大写，为什么Internet非要大写？我说我也不知道啊，好像美国人都这么用，我们就沿用这个style了吧。我想起互联网不是美国人搞的么，就跟Peter说既然人家发明的，那就按他们的写也情有可原吧。Peter一听来劲了，“不，互联网是我们英国人发明的。不过是美国人有钱，他们才develop到现在的地步”。我心里暗笑，咋有点像我们中国人说啥都是我们古人就发明的一样呢？

Peter看出我的不以为然，回去居然搜罗出来下面的证据，在msn上贴给我。霍，so what？我笑他民族自豪感高涨，他居然强调自己不是英格兰人主宰的British，而是爱尔兰和苏格兰后裔，“都是想反抗英格兰人闹独.立的”，他说，然后想起了我们的西藏与新疆。于是我们扯开去了……

但他讲话，怎么颇有伦敦音呢？

peter:

I stand corrected...Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA (London, 8 June 1955), is an English engineer and computer scientist and MIT professor credited with inventing the World Wide Web, making the first proposal for it in March 1989. On 25 December 1990, with the help of Robert Cailliau and a young student staff at CERN, he implemented the first successful communication betwee

he invented the web..or Web...

吴钢g: hah, national pride. I trust you.

peter:I'm Irish! well - I have two passports

吴钢: hoho。you sound British, not Irish

peter: born in Britain, lived/worked in Ireland. father irish, mother Scottish

吴钢: but why speak British

peter: both want independence = and one got it

吴钢: ho. even Scotland wants to break away?

peter: same reason why the Uygurs and Tibetans speak mandarin - colonialism. Yes - and might get it in a decade

吴钢: what's so good to break apart

pete: it what happens when states become to big  - the expansion of europe has actually led to more independence claims...scots hate the English - like the Irish and welsh...You think china has problems!

吴钢: it's interesting that except for some Tibetans and Uygurs, the rest of China, 28 provinces/regions, just want to stay, and proud to be Chinese.

peter: of course, and so they should be proud but not every one in the UK is proud to be British

吴钢: poor Britons. what a splendid flash of its empire era - its global times, haha

peter: touche!

peter: rise and fall, fall and rise - like the tide, that what empires do best...Anyway, must do some work

FILE - In this file photo taken on Sunday, July 5, 2009 and released by the Xinjiang Government Press Office on Tuesday, July 7, 2009, a body and a burnt out car are left in a street following a riot in Urumqi, China. Police killed 12 people during the July 5 rioting in the western city of Urumqi, a senior official said, a rare acknowledgment by the government that security forces opened fire in the worst ethnic clashes to hit the region in decades. (AP Photo/Xinjiang Government Press Office, File)

美联社发的一张配中国官方宣布7.5事件中警方开枪打死12暴徒的图片，图片由政府新闻办提供。但图片的说明，却是让人感觉，这就是被警察打死的人之一，而不是***中可能被暴徒打死的197人之一。Sigh。

乌鲁木齐山西巷

Peace, Sweet Peace

The moment my flight from Urumqi landed in Beijing Monday morning, I took a deep breath of relief. Back into the capital city, I saw people strolling, chatting, drinking or simply idling - scenes that were so common and I used to take for granted, now appeared so dear to me. It was not just a feeling about “home, sweet home, “ but a comforting sense of peace, sweet peace.

Yes, the life in Urumqi has appeared to be going back to normalcy in the past couple of days. The streets around the People’s Square, where the July 5 riot started, were again bustling with buses, taxies, pedestrians and vendors selling barbecues and Western-style dolls. Dozens of cars parked in front of a two-story seafood restaurant, a lot that had been vacant for a week.

Yet the city is still under certain degree of uneasiness. Even in the last two or three days before I left Urumqi, reports of sporadic incidents kept coming to my ears, such as a Han got stabbed by two Uygurs in the day time, or an explosion occurred at the International Grant Bazaar, a must-see tourist attraction that has been closed and under heavy security watch since July 5.

It is the fact that people have to be constantly on the alert that troubles the city and its dwellers.

“My Uygur classmates have been very nice to me,” said Wang Beibei, a sophomore at the Urumqi Vocational University. She admitted that she would be afraid to visit Uygur-dominated areas for shopping alone.

A 22-year-old Korean-language major from Zhengding, a county about 300 kilometers south to Beijing, Wang said she had initially planned to settle in Urumqi or other places of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region after graduation.

“Xinjiang is such a beautiful place,” she said. “When you lie down on the grassland to look up into the night sky, the stars would appear so bright and close that you can reach them with your hands.”

Now she is not certain about her plan. “At least I’m not going to move my parents in as I had wanted before. I must make sure they have a peaceful life in their old ages,” she said.

Yilijiang Yiming, a Uygur fireman with Urumqi’s No.8 fire squad, said his wife did not dare to leave home in the following days after the riot. “She’s afraid of vengeful attacks from the Hans,” he said.

Last weekend when I tried to venture into an ally of Uygur outdoor market near Yan’an Road, thinking that my innocent smile would fend off possible hostile stares, as I often did when taking pictures in strange places around China, a police officer at the entry called me back from behind, asking me “better not go any further at this time,” as he could not guarantee my safety.

The watchful eyes of several Uygur young men behind a cardboard sign of “recycling old electronic appliances” also showed their suspicion of me as a Han.

I wish the smiles on the face of a Uygur lady at Shanxi Ally, where I barged in the other day in the name of buying a Uygur traditional scarf, was heartily. The ally was closed by police shortly after I left, for the rest of that day, I was told.

The city is recovering on its daily operation. The scars on people’s hearts, however, will take a much longer time to cure.

妈走了

7月12日，离5日的***，整整一周了。同一天，参加了一场葬礼，一场婚礼。

死者是40岁的汉族女营业员，在下班路上遭遇暴徒杀戮。10日在殡仪馆认尸的时候，亲人们看到她的头和脸上的窟窿。11岁的儿子似乎不知道失去母亲意味着什么，大人们从大厅唏嘘而出的时候，他在外面的台阶前，嘿嘿哈哈比划起功夫。

12日，遗体火化。他哭了。

给报纸写的文章（11-year-old attends mother’s funeral），我没怎么提到孩子的父亲，虽然在告别厅外，他悠悠地说，从认识她到现在，已经十几年了。

两年前离异，孩子归父亲。他说离婚不到5个月至今，他们俩又住一起了，“她就住我那里”。但陪同善后的政府工作人员李老师从死者姐姐那里了解的情况是，死者自己租住了房就在姐姐家附近。“她也没跟他复合，因为他已经另娶老婆，”李老师说。

李说在死者火化前的最后告别仪式上，死者的前夫表情淡然，根本没有情绪悲恸的迹象。另，在送火化前，前夫欲取下死者手上戒指，终于取不下来作罢。

按照政府的承诺，此次***中无辜死难者，每人家属将得到20万抚恤金。

我是在吃饭的时候，听到马路对面鞭炮声，才被吸引过去的。

在血色7.5事件的蛰伏与噤寒之后，终于出现了喜气与暖色。

生活，总要继续的。

向往已久的新疆，就如同我没有去过的西藏一样，充满神秘与异域民族风情的诱惑。没想到，一夜之间成行，却是在这个城市血流成河，死伤过千之后。

临行前看了无数血淋淋的维族群杀无辜汉人的照片与video，本已看得胆战心惊。上飞机前领导打电话来告知人民日报两辆车多人被暴民截留，车打烂，差点命都不保——说实话，我可以用scared来形容彼时的心情。民族冲突，双方逮住对方族的就杀，我一汉人，能置身度外？

差点晚了上飞机，也硬是把美国内华达的驾照给翻了出来，还觉得不保险，又翻箱倒柜找到了纽约警察局发的媒体通行证。K，到时候遇到暴民，我就讲英文，打死也要冒充老外，免得介入民族仇杀，小命休矣。

然后，我就在乌鲁木齐的街头了。看到数十辆军车警车一车车的运人来，酒店外警察日夜轮守巡逻，心里总算踏实一点。这不，今天跟俩老大硬是闯入了维族社区一个头巾店，整条街加出租司机就咱四个汉人，惹得维族通报们眼神一片。当时觉得还好啊。回来听政法委的人说，今天稍晚，那条街又戒严了。有点后怕。

重兵把守之下，暂时没有大的动静。大喇叭车一遍又一遍的在各条街穿行，告诫市民不要上了海外敌对势力的当，不要伤害了民族兄弟情谊。

明天不知道还有什么可做，就这样在Urumqi耗下去？

Money talks

吉利车行

下班的时候，大多已经是凌晨一点左右了。

小小的安娜总是喊饿，于是过去的几天里，习惯了在办公楼旁边的小摊，吃点，喝点。

昨晚打破了本组出报三个月以来的记录，居然在11：30前签版。可喜可贺，忍不住又喝了。

肚皮。最担心的是肚皮。这样下去后果不堪设想。

后海、银锭桥头一个酒吧。我已经是第二次去听他的歌了。

喜欢闹的，去其他家吧。

酒吧外有人在电话上告诉朋友到后海来碰头，却无法给出准确地点。

韩勇在麦克风里大声道，“告你朋友银锭桥！这么有名的银锭桥都不知道么！”