Mongolian Ethnicity and Linguistic Anxiety in China

Abstract

Language is one of the official criteria of defining a nationality in socialist China, but it simultaneously has been subjected to an "ideology of contempt" by the Chinese regime that builds nationality only to destroy it. This article examines the linguistic anxiety displayed by the Mongols and their controversial language revitalization efforts in a social environment in which they have become an absolute minority even while they have formal autonomy under their name. The tremendous cost—both emotional and economic—at which such language maintenance comes suggests that nationality in China may not be understood as primarily cultural but, instead, as political. As more Mongols lose their language, arguably the last bastion of their "nationality" status, they face the prospect of becoming a deinstitutionalized, depoliticized, and deterritorialized "ethnic group" in a racialized "Chinese Nation." [Keywords: language, nationality, ethnic group, Mongols, Chinese National Multiculturalism]

Representations of ethnic minorities in China's university media

“…(Translated and cited in Jenner, 2001, p. 73) This ideology cultivates a dual image of ethnic minorities; that is, represented as 'Others' to denote pluralism and as 'us' to denote unity. Yet it is argued that China's pattern of multiculturalism exposes minorities to an 'internal Other' (Bulag, 2003). Gladney (1994b) describes how ethnic minorities are constructed as 'Others' in China's state-sponsored media.…”

“…The distinguishing feature of this socialist country is its directive and top-down approach in identification and categorization, social positioning, and representations of ethnic groups. This approach is referred to as duoyuan yiti geju (pluralistic unitary structure) 1 by Fei Xiaotong (1992), or 'Chinese national multiculturalism' in Bulag's (2003) term. These two interpretations share a similarity in construing ethnic relationships in terms of 'group ranking', that is to say, the subjugation of ethnic minority identities to an overarching and honorable identity of the Chinese nation.…”

Trilingual Education and Mongolian Ethnicity

“…After a decade, however, trilingual education is confronted by a new challenge, one not posed by the market economy but by linguistic anxieties resulting from it among Mongolians themselves (Bulag, 2003). Opponents blame the trilingual education program for playing a part in bringing about a mercy death to the Mongolian language in daily life and in schooling.…”

Stages of language shift in twentieth-century Inner Mongolia

“…In the 1940s, the Hetao region was entirely Chinese-speaking apart from a small number of Mongols ages forty and up (Wang, 2000). In the 1990s, Mongolian was in the process of being lost among urban and upwardly-mobile Mongols in Dongsheng City in the Ordos area (Bulag, 2003). In the mid-2000s, Mongolian youth were using less Mongolian and more Chinese compared to their parents (Lim & Ansaldo, 2016).…”