The recent clashes in Ukraine between protesters and the government, and then the new government and Russia, have brought to light once again the difficulties that can arise when political boundaries of sovereignty do not align with cultural boundaries. This is no new phenomenon, however—it has been happening throughout history. Iraq, Sudan, Indonesia, and the Balkans, to name just a few, have all experienced territorial instability in recent years. These conflicts often play out through borders on maps, but they also affect architecture. Ethnic cleansing prompted by boundary conflicts is often accompanied by the erasure of a culture's built environment; the physical constructions, such as homes, infrastructure, and monuments, of the targeted group are removed as part of the machination of conquest. This is happening in a particularly clear way on the outskirts of Western China's "new frontier," in the city of Kashgar. Image via The New York Times. Five years ago, the Chinese government decided to modernize the Old City district of Kashgar, home to the Turkic-speaking Uighurs, a Muslim population who never fully accepted the Chinese government after they were conquered in 1949. This "modernization" meant demolishing 65,000 homes and displacing 220,000 Uighur residents. ...
The recent clashes in Ukraine between protesters and the government, and then the new government and Russia, have brought to light once again the difficulties that can arise when political boundaries of sovereignty do not align with cultural boundaries. This is no new phenomenon, however—it has been happening throughout history. Iraq, Sudan, Indonesia, and the Balkans, to name just a few, have all experienced territorial instability in recent years. These conflicts often play out through borders on maps, but they also affect architecture. Ethnic cleansing prompted by boundary conflicts is often accompanied by the erasure of a culture's built environment; the physical constructions, such as homes, infrastructure, and monuments, of the targeted group are removed as part of the machination of conquest. This is happening in a particularly clear way on the outskirts of Western China's "new frontier," in the city of Kashgar. Image via The New York Times. Five years ago, the Chinese government decided to modernize the Old City district of Kashgar, home to the Turkic-speaking Uighurs, a Muslim population who never fully accepted the Chinese government after they were conquered in 1949. This "modernization" meant demolishing 65,000 homes and displacing 220,000 Uighur residents. ...