杂志原文:New Story of an Old Street

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By staff reporter MA LI

EVERY Tuesday morning， Lou Jianbo， who runs a printing house， and Muhtar Abudurousuli， who runs a clinic practicing traditional Chinese medicine in Aksu City， Xinjiang， meet at the One Family Restaurant on Wangsan Street to check up on its operating conditions. This restaurant， unlike other restau- rants， has 44 pairs of shareholders. Lou， a Han， and Muhtar， a Uygur， the founders of the restaurant， are two of them. From acquaintance to business partners， the two businessmen gradually became good friends in life. Their story started from a social activity in Hongqiao Community in 2016.

Establishing Partnership

In December 2016， 54 commercial tenants on Wangsan Street and Xinglong Street became 27 counterparts under the pairing program carried out by the Hongqiao Community and Aksu Civil Affairs Bureau.

Well-known in southern Xinjiang， Wangsan Street and Xinglong Street are both commercial and pedestrian streets in the city. The difference is that 99 percent of the merchants and practitioners on Wangsan Street are Uygurs or other ethnic minorities， and 99 percent of the merchants and practitioners on Xinglong Street are Han people. After the twinning， the tenants gather regularly to promote development together， and have successively contributed to ethnic unity in malls， groceries， and stores. The One Family Restaurant was opened in this context.

According to Lou， the twinned pairs frequently communicate and carry out exchanges with each other. Food can narrow the gap， so he and Muhtar thought of opening a restaurant to provide a venue for friendly exchanges and interactions with more friends.

The restaurant was opened by crowdfunding. “This was a bold idea at the time. We had no idea how many people were willing to become shareholders，” Muhtar said， then added how they hoped to use this approach to invite more partners to participate， so as to promote exchanges between businesspeople of different ethnic groups.“It is not easy to run a restaurant，” said Muhtar. “At first， only three people were willing to invest in it.”

Fortunately， local community workers soon learned about the crowdfunding and provided their strong support.“We immediately became confident and actively mobilized friends and relatives， and told them about the restaurants business cooperation model and what we plan to do in terms of ethnic unity and poverty alleviation，” said Muhtar. The number of shareholders has since then grown from the initial three to 88， and the restaurant opened in January 2018.

Old Story of the Street

Wangsan Street is the only street named after a person in Aksu， and the story of Wang San is well known to the locals.

During Emperor Guangxus reign（1875-1908） in the late Qing Dynasty， a Tianjin businessman named Wang Fucai went to Xinjiang with a trade caravan. He fell from a horse and broke his right leg when he was purchasing Chinese medicinal materials in Aksu. He recuperated for more than a year in the home of a local Uygur man and they became sworn brothers. In order to deepen the brotherhood， the Uygur entrusted one of his twin sons to Wang Fucai as a foster son and changed his name to Wang San. Later， Wang San followed his foster father to Tianjin to learn Chinese medicine and business. When Wang San was 14 years old， Wang Fucai took him back to Aksu to find his relatives， but could not find them， so Wang Fucai built a bazaar on a large area of land over which Wang Sans old family house stood. As time went by， this bazaar slowly evolved into the present-day Wangsan Street.

Today， Wang Sans grandson Maihemaiti Tohti works in the radio and television station in Aksu. Since childhood he has been told his grandfathers story by his father many times. For many years， he and his father have not forgotten family traditions and actively upheld ethnic unity.

“In order to remember the friendship between the Uygur and Han people， my grandfather specially named my father Wang Shiying， and my father gave me another Han name， Wang Weihan. I also gave my son a Han name Wang Hanqing. We must pass on the tradition from generation to generation and maintain this beautiful and harmonious relationship between the Uygur and Han people.” He and his partner Zhao Qing are shareholders of the One Family Restaurant， and the two families communicate closely. Their children have also become good friends.

New Story of the Street

Avidly listening to Wang Sans story since childhood， Muhtar also wants to do something for ethnic unity.

Muhtar gained admission to the Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine to study Chinese medicine in 1984. After graduation， he put great effort into his studies and returned to Aksu in 1992 to practice TCM. According to him， Wang San used Chinese medicine to cure many Uygur people illnesses while he was there. He was largely influenced by Wang San in his decision to study TCM， and also wants to help others.

以上杂志原文:New Story of an Old Street的内容，节选自《chinatoday》杂志！