Editing Yangon (section)

=== Contemporary Yangon (1948–present) ===
Soon after Burma's independence in 1948, many colonial-era names of streets and parks were changed to more nationalistic Burmese names. In 1989, the [[State Peace and Development Council|military junta]] changed the city's English name to "Yangon", along with many other changes in English transliteration of Burmese names. (The changes have not been accepted by many Burmese who consider the junta unfit to make such changes, nor by many publications and news bureaus, including, most notably, the [[BBC]] and foreign nations including the United Kingdom and the United States.)<ref>{{cite news |department=Who, What, Why? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7013943.stm |title=Should it be Burma or Myanmar? |work=BBC News |date=26 September 2007 |access-date=17 April 2010 |archive-date=31 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131232458/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7013943.stm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35910.htm |title=Background Note: Burma |publisher=Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, US Department of State |access-date=1 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122194342/https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35910.htm |archive-date=22 January 2017 }}</ref>

Since independence, Yangon has expanded outwards. Successive governments have built satellite towns such as [[Thaketa Township|Thaketa]], [[North Okkalapa Township|North Okkalapa]] and [[South Okkalapa Township|South Okkalapa]] in the 1950s to [[Hlaingthaya Township|Hlaingthaya]], [[Shwepyitha Township|Shwepyitha]] and [[South Dagon Township|South Dagon]] in the 1980s.<ref name=mcy/> Today, Greater Yangon encompasses an area covering nearly {{convert|600|km2}}.<ref name=uncrd/>

During [[Ne Win]]'s isolationist rule (1962–88), Yangon's infrastructure deteriorated through poor maintenance and did not keep up with its increasing population. In the 1990s, the military government's more open market policies attracted domestic and foreign investment, bringing a modicum of modernity to the city's infrastructure. Some inner city residents were forcibly relocated to new satellite towns. Many colonial-period buildings were demolished to make way for high-rise hotels, office buildings, and shopping malls,<ref name="beyondrangoon">{{cite magazine |title=Beyond Rangoon |url=http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=5745&page=3 |date=1 May 2006 |author=Edward Blair |magazine=The Irrawaddy |access-date=30 August 2008 |archive-date=4 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101004130347/http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=5745&page=3 }}</ref> leading the city government to place about 200 notable colonial-period buildings under the [[Yangon City Heritage List]] in 1996.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Special Report |url=http://www.myanmar.gov.mm/myanmartimes/no87/New/14.htm |date=4 November 2001 |access-date=30 August 2008 |archive-date=22 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822213342/http://www.myanmar.gov.mm/myanmartimes/no87/New/14.htm }}</ref> Major building programs have resulted in six new bridges and five new highways linking the city to its industrial back country.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.myanmar.com/myanmartimes/MyanmarTimes17-333/b006.htm |title=Pioneering FMI City 'the best in Yangon' |author=Zaw Htet |work=The Myanmar Times |access-date=7 September 2008 |archive-date=14 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061114013535/http://www.myanmar.com/myanmartimes/MyanmarTimes17-333/b006.htm }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/cemm/eng/zt/zmjjqd/jmgxgk/t198979.htm |title=Yangon-Thanlyin Bridge |access-date=7 September 2008}}{{Dead link|date=July 2009}}</ref><ref name="ngamoeyeik">{{Cite news |url=http://www.myanmar.gov.mm/Perspective/persp2001/2-2001/nga.htm |title=Ngamoeyeik Bridge |author=Kyi Kyi Hla |date=1 February 2001 |access-date=7 September 2008 |archive-date=19 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091119074811/http://www.myanmar.gov.mm/Perspective/persp2001/2-2001/nga.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Still, much of Yangon remains without basic municipal services such as 24-hour electricity and regular garbage collection.

Yangon has become much more indigenous Burmese in its ethnic make-up since independence. After independence, many South Asians and Anglo-Burmese left. Many more South Asians were forced to leave during the 1960s by Ne Win's xenophobic government.<ref name=tmmt/> Nevertheless, sizeable South Asian and Chinese communities still exist in Yangon. The Anglo-Burmese have effectively disappeared, having left the country or intermarried with other Burmese groups.

Yangon was the centre of major anti-government protests in [[U Thant funeral crisis|1974]], [[8888 Uprising|1988]] and [[Saffron Revolution|2007]]. In particular, the [[8888 Uprising]] resulted in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of Burmese civilians, many of them in Yangoon where hundreds of thousands of people flooded into the streets of the former capital city. The [[Saffron Revolution]] saw mass shootings and the use of [[Crematorium|crematoria]] in Yangoon by the Burmese government to erase evidence of their crimes against monks, unarmed protesters, journalists and students.<ref>Burmese Human Rights Yearbook, 2007, http://www.burmalibrary.org/show.php?cat=1320&lo=d&sl=0 {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019065257/http://burmalibrary.org/show.php?cat=1320&lo=d&sl=0 |date=19 October 2012 }}</ref>

The city's streets saw bloodshed each time as protesters were gunned down by the government, most notably during the [[8888 Uprising|1988]],<ref>{{cite web |title=How a Failed Democracy Uprising Set the Stage for Myanmar's Future |url=https://time.com/5360637/myanmar-8888-uprising-30-anniversary-democracy/ |access-date=11 June 2021 |date=8 August 2018 |archive-date=19 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919162950/https://time.com/5360637/myanmar-8888-uprising-30-anniversary-democracy/ |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Saffron Revolution|2007]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Myanmar's Saffron Revoulution: 10 Years Later |url=https://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/saffron/ |access-date=11 June 2021 |date=22 April 2017 |archive-date=29 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529032745/https://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/saffron/ |url-status=live}}</ref> and the [[Myanmar protests (2021–present)|2021]] mass protests,<ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-03-14 |title=Myanmar protests: Demonstrators killed in bloody Yangon crackdown |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56395085 |access-date=2023-08-22 |archive-date=14 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230914112724/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56395085 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last= |date=2021-03-27 |title=Myanmar: more than 90 reported killed on 'day of shame' for armed forces |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/27/myanmar-military-protesters-shot-armed-forces-day |access-date=2023-08-22 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=22 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822071408/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/27/myanmar-military-protesters-shot-armed-forces-day |url-status=live }}</ref> all of which were started in Yangon itself, signifying its importance as the cultural centre of [[Burma]].

In May 2008, [[Cyclone Nargis]] hit Yangon. While the city had few human casualties, three-quarters of Yangon's industrial infrastructure was destroyed or damaged, with losses estimated at US$800&nbsp;million.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.mmtimes.com/no427/b004.htm |title=Long road back for industrial recovery |date=14 July 2008 |author=Ye Lwin |work=The Myanmar Times |access-date=26 July 2008 |archive-date=30 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430045910/http://www.mmtimes.com/no427/b004.htm }}</ref>

In November 2005, the military government designated [[Naypyidaw]], {{convert|320|km|mi|0}} north of Yangon, as the new administrative capital, and moved much of the government to the newly developed city. Yangon remains the largest city and the most important commercial, [[Economics|economic]] and cultural center of Myanmar. On 7 May 2005, a series of coordinated bombings occurred in the city of Yangon, Myanmar. Eleven people were killed in the attack, and one of the 162 people that were injured was a member of the [[Lutheran Church in Malaysia|LCMS]] mission team to Myanmar.<ref>{{cite web |website=Writing.com |url=http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1030057 |title=Bomb blast in Yangon, Myanmar |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927100426/http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1030057 |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=11 June 2021 |author1=LostWord |url-status=live |date=2005 }}</ref>
[[File:2021 Myanmar Protest in Hleden.jpg|thumb|A protest in Yangon in response to the [[2021 Myanmar coup d'état|2021 coup d'état]].]]
In the 2020s, life in Yangon was greatly affected by the [[COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar|COVID-19 pandemic]] and [[2021 Myanmar coup d'état|2021 coup d'état]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Myanmar locks down Yangon region after record jump in COVID cases |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/21/myanmar-locks-down-yangon-region-after-record-jump-in-covid-cases |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=Al Jazeera |date=21 Sep 2020 |language=en |archive-date=25 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230525163655/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/21/myanmar-locks-down-yangon-region-after-record-jump-in-covid-cases |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="a-65105276">{{Cite web |title=Life in Myanmar's Yangon after COVID and a coup |date=March 24, 2023 |first1=Michael |last1=Kemp |url=https://www.dw.com/en/life-in-myanmars-yangon-after-covid-and-a-coup/a-65105276 |access-date=2023-08-22 |website= DW |language=en |archive-date=8 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408124325/https://www.dw.com/en/life-in-myanmars-yangon-after-covid-and-a-coup/a-65105276 |url-status=live }}</ref> The city was the location of [[Myanmar protests (2021–present)|mass protests]] in response to the coup.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Anti-coup mass protests take place in cities across Myanmar |url=https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/anti-coup-mass-protests-take-place-in-cities-across-myanmar/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=Myanmar Now |language=en-US |archive-date=22 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822113922/https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/anti-coup-mass-protests-take-place-in-cities-across-myanmar/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The pandemic and protests prompted authorities to enforce numerous [[COVID-19 lockdowns|lockdowns]] and [[curfew]]s. The city's economy subsequently slowed.<ref name="a-65105276"/>