(中文版在这里)

I talked a bit about my mother’s work as a government official in this podcast. Here’s some more information about her life before she was thrown into a concentration camp.

My mother Zöhre Talip (早然木·塔力甫) was a party committee member at Ethnic and Religious Commission (民宗委) of the city of Qomul before her retirement in late 2017.

My mother used to work in the “visit-benefit-unite” (访惠聚) project initiated during Zhang Chunxian(张春贤) era before her retirement. She worked as a village official for the local community: providing useful information about government red tapes, for example helping people get their welfare benefits, etc.

She managed to help build a new bridge for this village. The villagers named the bridge after her to show their appreciation. I’ve been to the bridge once. It is probably this one located at 42.886755N, 92.856015E, if I recall correctly.

Zhang Chunxian sent higher-level government officials like my mother to villages, at least ostensibly, to improve local governance. Mostly, he wanted to buy people’s hearts and minds with good public service. Those officials lived in office buildings in the village, not in people’s homes, unlike the unbearably intrusive visits under Chen Quanguo.

I also found this post online. It shows my mom hosting a meshrep for the village. Specifically, “Sprout Meshrep,” which celebrates green sprouts of the spring.