Organizer: Wurlig Borchigud, East-West Center
Chair: Almaz Khan, University of Washington
Discussant: Caroline Humphrey, King's College, Cambridge
The Chinese state identifies socialism and the Han Chinese culture as an advanced/modern embodiment of the Chinese nation, while defining Mongols and other ethnic minorities as backward/traditional sociocultural groups in need of modernization and transformation by the Chinese socialist state. This panel questions the state's fixed and binary identification of ethnic citizens by examining the dialectical interplay of national, group and individual identity development among Mongols in Inner Mongolia.
The panel pools for the first time Inner Mongol scholars from China who have been trained in the West and have done substantial research in their own society. The four panelists explore from different angles how the Chinese state's national construction manifests what Michael Hechter (1975) calls "internal colonialism" in the hybrid colonial subjugation of Inner Mongols. Bulag studies the newly emergent cult of Ulanhu, a deceased Mongol leader, and the state's impact on the Mongolian group affiliations. Hao questions the essence of Inner Mongolian "autonomy" as defined by the Chinese state. Jirimutu examines the sociodemographic characteristics of the Mongolian and the Han populations. Khan focuses on the transformation of naadam (traditional Mongolian games) into a "nationality sport" to illuminate how Mongol tradition has been deconstructed and re-negotiated along the theme of modernity. The discussant will bring a comparative perspective on the politics of Mongolian identity representation in Mongolia and Russia.
A Sociodemographic Profile of Mongols in China, 1990
Jerry Jirimutu, University of Texas
This paper examines the demographic and social characteristics of the Mongolian population in relation to those of the Han population and the ethnic minorities as a whole in China. Using a one percent sample of the 1990 Chinese Census, the study covers the demographic variables of population growth and distribution, age and sex structure, fertility patterns, infant and child mortality level and life expectancy associated with it, and inter-provincial migration. The socioeconomic variables under examination are educational status, occupational and residential (rural/urban) distributions. The study focuses on the differences in the above variables among Mongols, ethnic minorities in general and the Han. Changes in the sociodemographic variables for the Mongolian population during the intercessory period from 1982 to 1990 are also examined whenever such data are available for comparison. These comparative analyses lead to a better understanding of the demographic structure and socioeconomic standing of Mongols, relative to those of the ethnic minorities as a whole and the majority Han in China. Furthermore, the findings of the study have practical implications not only on the future demographic changes, socioeconomic development and political participation of Mongols as an ethnic minority, particularly in Inner Mongolia, where over 70 percent of Mongols reside, but also on the ethnic relations in China in general.
Inner Mongolian Nationality Autonomy During the Chinese Economic Reform,
1978-1991
Tomochelor Hao, London School of Economics and Political Sciences
Questioning the essence of Inner Mongolian "autonomy" as defined by the Chinese state, this paper illustrates how the Chinese economic reform from 1978 to 1991 ironically reduced the Mongolian nationality's socioeconomic and cultural autonomy in Inner Mongolia. On the other hand, it reveals how the state system of nationality autonomy in China has been deconstructed through the Mongolian autonomous movement since 1947. This study presents the links and discrepancies between structural practice of nationality autonomy in Inner Mongolia and the resurgent nationalistic sentiments among Inner Mongols.
The Cult of Ulanhu in Inner Mongolia: History, Memory, and the Making of National
Heroes
Uradyn Erden Bulag, University of Cambridge
Since the death of Ulanhu in 1988, the controversial founder of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region and the Vice President of China, there has been a concerted effort from both the Chinese Communist Party and the local Inner Mongols to promote his personality cult. Mausoleums and theme parks have been built in his honor; cadres in Huhhot have organized to pay homage to him and study his thoughts. A special research institute and a foundation have been built in his name. Through examining the motivations of both the Chinese government and certain Mongolian groups, this paper traces critical implications for the construction of contemporary Inner Mongolian identity. Opinions split between Eastern Inner Mongols, Western Inner Mongols, and Ulanhu's native group the Tumed Mongols, as to whether Ulanhu should be (1) a hero of China; (2) a hero of all Inner Mongols; (3) a hero of Western Inner Mongols; or (4) merely a hero of his Tumed Mongols. As Rubie Watson (1994) has argued in her analysis of memory and museum construction in China, the study examines how a national hero gets constructed and contested among various competing factions in China. This paper thus makes a contribution to our understanding of history, memory, and national identity in the transnational region of Inner Mongolia.
From Naadam to Nationality Sport: Inner Mongols and the Chinese Nation/State
Almaz Khan, University of Washington
This paper examines the process through which naadam (traditional Mongolian games or the annual gathering where such games are held) has been transformed into a modern sports institution inscribed with multivocal meanings and agendas. The paper aims to draw the following conclusions: (1) such reworking and reforming of ethnic traditions is an integral and indispensable part of China's on-going project of national construction-not only in terms of structural construction, but more profoundly, in terms of the construction and imagining of a modern Chinese nation or the Zhonghua minzu identity; (2) contrary to the Western conceptual paradigm that pits (ethnic) society against the state or perceives the state as a society-proof, separate, knowing power sculpting at will a passive, non-participating social body according to an a priori national blueprint, this paper hopes to show through the naadamexample that state and society are two porous entities that more often than not merge into each other to produce new practices and subjectivities. The modernization/"minzu-fication" of naadam, in this sense, is the hybrid product of a negotiated collaboration that involves the active agency of Inner Mongolians as well as, if not more significantly, the Chinese nation-state and the dominant society.