100% Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure #37: Hami, where the Red Army entered Xinjiang Province to spread the Communist Revolution! Part 1 of 3. Short take on the Martyrs’ Memorial and a Buddhist public cemetery next door…

Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure Series. 2025: Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Shaanxi Provinces’ Red Tour. Short videos with transcripts, captioned photos, articles and commentary. The REAL Chinese people you don’t know!

https://radiosinoland.com/2025/07/27/amirjeffs-excellent-china-adventure-series-2025-hunan-jiangxi-fujian-and-shaanxi-provinces-red-tour-short-videos-captioned-photos-articles-and-commentary-the-real-chinese-people-you-don/

 

Comments

The Buddha in Muslim Xinjiang

History is filled with contradictions. I suppose it is incumbent on writers to sort them out. I have not impetus nor patience enough to sort through religious contradictions. I have no comprehensive understanding of the people of Hami, nor the city itself. Strangely, corresponding trips to a Martyrs’ Park and a Martyrs’ cemetery play up both the red revolutionary heritage of a city and its Buddhist heritage.

For whatever reason, Day 1 of our trip to Xinjiang has not revealed any significant Islamic backdrop. I expect this to change. But for now, a real contradiction exists.  Comrades have mused about this before. What does a philosophy of Zen and acceptance have to do with any sort of revolutionary mandate?

Walking through a public park celebrating a clear revolutionary mandate immediately adjacent to a grandiosely laid zodiac cemetery ought to be baffling to any soul, revolutionary or otherwise.

Overhead, military fighter jets watch over both an organically-laid Buddhist cemetery and a solemn and centrally-planned Communist edifice.

Photos by Jeff

Martyrs’ Memorial

 

Public cemetery next door

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