I was in a hotel room in Carmel, California, when my phone rang; it was RTHK and I was to participate in a live panel discussion about the tenuous political situation and civil disturbances in Xinjiang , and the conflict between the Han 'immigrants' and ethnic Uygurs.
While I made my point that this is Ramadan month, and we could expect restraint from the Islamic population, I also reminded my host about some historical facts. Despite popular thinking to the contrary, the Han have been inhabitants of Xinjiang for centuries, long before Islam became the dominant religion for the Uygur. And neither did the Han become dominant in local government only after 1949. The last few warlords of the province, from the 1920s to the 1940s, were all Han.
That said, we cannot neglect the massive influx of migrant workers and soldiers since the 1950s, and the effect that huge population has had on a large but environmentally marginal area.
Though half a world apart, perhaps the history of early Chinese settlement in Monterey Bay in California, from where I write, can provide some insight for current affairs in western China. Cannery Row, made famous by Nobel author John Steinbeck's namesake novel, has its origin intertwined with the toil and industry of the Orient. A Chinese fishing village, from which 'China Point' derives its name, was established in the early 1850s, half a century before the first serious cannery came into being in 1901.
Before the arrival of the Chinese, the Spanish and Portuguese had in the 16th and 17th centuries gradually dislodged the indigenous inhabitants. In need of the coastal resources, the new 'white' immigrants evangelised, exploited and dispersed the natives.
By the mid-19th century, Chinese arriving from San Francisco or by ships directly from China began settling in the area near today's Cannery Row. Their sampans scoured the bay and they dried their catch of fish, squid and abalone in the way traditional Chinese preserved marine products.
The shanties by the ocean and repulsive odour of the fish soon rendered them unwelcome to the growing community in Monterey. By 1874, the rail head had reached Monterey Peninsula, and it brought more people from the San Francisco area and the rest of the country. The efficiency of the industrious Chinese became an element of envy among their many critics, and thus further fuelled the racial intolerance of their white counterparts.