Former coal city fires up harmony

YINCHUAN－Yin Huaying is the leader of a team of female fashion models consisting of teachers, doctors, librarians and office secretaries, all aged in their 50s and 60s and from five ethnic groups.

"The team is one of the colorful activities organized by our community, through which we not only have fun, but also maintain close friendship," says Yin, a 52-year-old office secretary in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

The model team belongs to the Tuanjie community－which means solidarity－in the city of Shizuishan. Members of the team practice together once or twice a week and present performances at festivals and competitions.

Established in 1982, the Tuanjie community, a modern residential compound, has 3,843 households with 9,506 registered residents, including 785 people from 13 ethnic minorities.

"For over 40 years, residents with different ethnic backgrounds have lived harmoniously in our community. During the festivals of various ethnic groups, the whole community will celebrate together like a big family, exchanging gifts, food and good wishes," says Liu Juju, head of the service center of the Tuanjie community.

Liu says that the community has been engaging in artistic and literary activities such as dancing, singing, painting and calligraphy, to promote ethnic unity and is a fine example of the effort being made in Shizuishan to achieve that goal.

The city in north Ningxia used to be one of China's major coal-mining bases.

A former powerhouse for the whole region, and previously the source of nearly 40 percent of its GDP, the city's half-a-million population is mostly made up of former industrial workers and their families.

Since the late 1950s, with the development of coal mining in Shizuishan, workers from all over the country moved to the city, contributing to a new immigrant culture, while making the city more inclusive and diverse, with over 20 ethnic groups currently represented.

"Industrial development has laid a solid economic foundation for the work of ethnic unity in the city of Shizuishan," says Wu Xiaobing, an official at Dawukou district government in Shizuishan.

The city has recently built an ethnic unity exhibition hall at an industrial park, which was once the site of a coal mine, drawing many visitors.

"People used to care more about things within their own companies or communities, but now they have perspectives that stretch wider and farther," says Zhang Mingzhong, the United Front Work Department of the Shizuishan municipal Party committee.

Xinhua