China Fences in Its Nomads, and an Ancient Life Withers

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杰安迪, 从草原赶向砖房，中国牧民安置工程引争议. 纽约时报中文网, July 14, 2015
cn.nytimes.com/china/20150714/c14nomads/

, which is translated from

Andrew Jacobs, China Fences In Its Nomads, and an Ancient Life Withers. New York Times, July 12, 2015 (front page).

Quote:

"The more recent 'Ecological Relocation' 生态移民搬迁工程 program, started in 2003, has focused on reclaiming the region’s fraying grasslands by decreasing animal grazing.

"Many of the new homes in Madoi lack toilets or running water. Residents complain of cracked walls, leaky roofs and unfinished sidewalks. But the anger also reflects their loss of independence, the demands of a cash economy and a belief that they were displaced with false assurances that they would one day be allowed to return.

"Li Wenjun 李文军, a professor of environmental management at Peking University * * * in published studies, she has said that traditional grazing practices benefit the land. 'We argue that a system of food production such as the nomadic pastoralism that was sustainable for centuries using very little water is the best choice,' according to a recent article she wrote in the journal Land Use Policy [published by Elsevier; in English].

Note:
(a) Madoi  青海省果洛藏族自治州 玛多县

(b) "Rangelands cover more than 40 percent of China, from Xinjiang in the far west to the expansive steppe of Inner Mongolia in the north. The lands have been the traditional home to Uighurs, Kazakhs, Manchus and an array of other ethnic minorities who have bristled at Beijing’s heavy-handed rule."
(i) definitions
(A)  (n): "land used or suitable for range"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rangeland
(B) range (n): "an open region over which animals (as livestock) may roam and feed"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/range
(ii) rangeland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangeland
(a photo)

(c) "Over the past few years, the authorities in Inner Mongolia have arrested scores of former herders, including 17 last month in Tongliao municipality (内蒙古自治区)通辽市 who were protesting the confiscation of 10,000 acres."
(d) "he [a Tinbetan] turned maudlin as he fiddled with a set of keys tied to his waist.  'We used to carry knives,' he said. 'Now we have to carry keys.' ”

maudlin (adj): " [example] <He became maudlin and started crying like a child>"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maudlin