She is a Han woman who went to Xinjiang to teach the Uygur language. He is the son of poor Uygur farmers, educated and promoted by the Communist Party. The two married, and several times were named among the 'model couples' said to demonstrate unity between the Han and Uygurs. Lu Lansheng, 62, moved to Kashgar in southern Xinjiang in 1961 after she graduated from the Northwest Ethnic Institute in Shaanxi province as a teacher of Uygur. She never once returned to visit her hometown, Zhengzhou, in Henan province, even when her father died. She said her children were too small to travel. After 40 years in Xinjiang, Ms Lu looks and speaks like an Uygur. She combs her hair into a bun and wears the long skirts typical of Uygur women. 'The party's minority policy is excellent,' she said enthusiastically. 'Socialism is good. The Communist Party is good.' Her husband, Wusman Puerdi, echoed her sentiments: 'Yes, the ethnic policy is really, really good.' Before retiring last year, he was party secretary of Kashgar Finance Institute and the education department head. The couple's home is a designated stop for overseas journalists arranged by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region propaganda department. Such harmony is in sharp contrast to the repeated riots and ethnic tension reported in the past few years. In 1998, Xinjiang separatists planted bombs on buses and attacked government buildings and Han civilians in cities and towns across the region. According to media reports, police arrested thousands of Uygurs accused of separatist activity and executed dozens. Since then the region has seen less unrest. 'It was only the very few,' Ms Lu said. 'And it has been taken advantage of by some with special motives. Every nationality has somebody stage a fight or kill people, doesn't it?' After meeting and falling in love at a school where she taught and he was her superior, their marriage met great difficulties. As a farmer's son, Mr Puerdi had been handpicked by the Chinese Government to attend the Beijing Nationalities University and became a party member at 17. Ms Lu, however, was branded a rightist because of her intellectual family background and her criticism of the Government. She worked on a pig farm for 12 years. To show her contribution to ethnic unity, Ms Lu, who was finally made a party member in 1997 and has been held up as a model of ethnic unity by the Government several times, told journalists she even breast-fed a baby Uygur girl for three months, together with her own son, after the mother of the girl fell ill. She said her own life was saved during the Cultural Revolution by her Uygur neighbour when she was ill and lay unconscious on the floor at home. Despite the harmonious picture painted by the couple, statistics show that as many as 75 per cent of cross-ethnic marriages fail. 'Some Uygurs make it into the Han circle,' a Putonghua-speaking Uygur businessman said. 'They go to Han schools, to university. They are then promoted by Hans and used to regulate their fellow ethnic countrymen. But the numbers are few.' Although Uygurs are a majority in the region, they are under-represented in political and economic life. And although they are still a majority, they are called a minority, which reflects their true status. Uygurs comprised 93 per cent of the population in the early 1950s compared with 60 per cent now. The state controls four-fifths of business in the region. After the 1998 unrest, the Government started to modify its ethnic policies. More Uygurs were hired in government, but the highest level Uygur officials can reach is city mayor and National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference regional chairman, which are titles without real power. Ahdalaiti Ahbulizi, a former Uygur violin teacher at the Kashgar Arts School, became deputy director of the Kashgar Culture Department six years ago. Her main duty is to organise troupe and large-scale performances to showcase ethnic unity. 'When [central government] policies come to the local-level implementation, there are problems,' said a Uygur high school teacher who was sent to a Han school by his parents to improve his prospects. In the past few months, the Xinjiang Government has recruited about 50 new traffic-control officers in Kashgar. All women, 48 of them are Uygur and two are Han. Many of these Uygur traffic officers are university graduates who could not find better jobs. 'Hans would not like the traffic officer job,' the high school teacher said. Sometimes it takes Uygur graduates more than a year to find jobs and the Xinjiang Government has had to create the traffic-officer posts to ease the problem, he said.