Mongolian Uprising In China – NRK Urix – Foreign News & Documentaries

I see young Mongolian girls’ black hair fluttering over their shoulders, and I think their answer says it all.

I’m in Hohhot in North China to see how he is doing after the riots this fall. Many thousands of students, students, teachers, and parents protested across much of Inner Mongolia. They react strongly to the fact that teaching in the Mongolian language will be replaced by Chinese.

This is the topic that the four students will not discuss. They don’t want to say a single word about what they think about the new curriculum.

I don’t blame the day.

Arrest

The Chinese government has no sense of protest and has used various methods to stop the uprising. They send police forces. At least 8,000 people are said to have been arrested.

Now the ice is in spots on the ground and I feel the cold on my body.

We have left the train station behind. The building in rid appears to be inspired by ger, the round tents that characterize nomadic life in the Mongolian steppes.

The Mongols are a proud people. They are descendants of Genghis Khan, known as the most powerful conqueror the world has ever seen. The Mongol Empire stretched from Korea in the east to Poland in the west.

An old ruling class. Now a Chinese minority, unless it’s less than it should have said.

Obstacles

Suddenly my colleague slaps me on the arm and says I should look over my shoulder. I am traveling with Björn Djurberg from Swedish Radio, who has now noticed two guards running in our direction.

In principle, we are allowed to report freely in most areas of China, but when there are sensitive issues, many obstacles can quickly arise along the way.

Several of our colleagues have been followed and escorted out of Inner Mongolia this fall. One of them was pushed to arrest with strangulation.

The guards we’ve seen stop and talk to each other. They may be considering whether or not they should feel called to service during their lunch break. They shoot us a few more glances, but then they turn their backs and move on.

We do the same, but in the opposite direction.

Perspective

There is not a single soul outside of the school we go to, and so we enter a small but well-heated restaurant.

Some young people have just finished their meal. They throw their bags over their shoulders and fall towards the exit. I ask them if they are Mongols. It’s not daytime. Do you speak Mongolian? Yes, the one can two words. You can say “hello” and “have it”.

They learn a little about Mongolian culture, they say, but not the language. Courteous and cheerful, they disappear in the winter cold.

The woman who runs the restaurant serves us hot soup with noodles and beef. I ask her if she knows the situation of the school children, but no, she is not Mongolian either and her children are adults, so she does not follow her very well.

In his opinion, it is important to learn a language. The more languages, the better for children. It gives them perspective, she says.

We thank them for the food and get into a taxi to see if we can find more schools. The driver asks us if we are Christian missionaries, and when he parks it is with a “God bless you and hallelujah.”

Threat of extermination

Our next taxi driver tells us that he is from the Manchu ethnic minority, but has never learned his native language. Mandsjurane is also a former ruling class, but now the language is its extinction.

However, it is not sentimental by itself. He sees the benefit in everyone who speaks Chinese, because it makes communication easier.

His words echo in the official explanation of the Chinese government. They believe that everyone, regardless of ethnicity, should have an equal chance of success, and then language is the key.

We head to the Hohhot Mongolian School, where most of the teaching is in Mongolian. Students are coming back from lunch. Shops along the sidewalk sell butter for tea and other local delicacies.

We wonder cautiously, knowing that the struggle for the Mongolian language at school is a sensitive subject. A store owner says no, there have been absolutely no protests here this fall. He has our peaceful game as always.

Silent protest

After a quarter of an hour, an old woman makes contact. He has a radiant face and sadness in his voice.

– I am Mongolian and I am very proud of it. But now I fear for the future, he says.

The woman tells him that she wants everything to continue as it is now. They have our Mongols generation after generation, and she wants her descendants to be Mongols too.

– The Chinese are more and more here. Soon they have taken over everything and there will be nothing left of us, he says.

The lady told me that the school was empty for students for a whole month this fall. Parents refuse to send their children to school. A silent protest.

Now the students are back in school. She just sent her granddaughter to the door.

Grenateplet

The government has announced that it is training in literature, politics and history which will now take place in Chinese. Skeptics claim that in practice there will be no more teaching in Mongolian.

– What is happening now is a cultural genocide, says Enghebatu Togochog by phone from New York. He is a member of the South Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) and he himself lives in exile.

Many of the Mongols living in neighboring Mongolia are also involved. In vain.

China often boasts of its multicultural empire. The country’s president urges the 56 different ethnic groups to embrace each other closely, like the nuclei of a grenade.

The peel of the pomegranate is undoubtedly hard. It leaves no room to break or take up too much space. The great efforts that China is making in this area indicate that there is a basis for fear. Fear that the grenade will explode.

People in areas like Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia are experiencing their ethnic identities becoming increasingly washed out. This despite the fact that your area has our law more autonomy than the provinces of China.

Nervous

Outside of the school in Hohhot, two friends say that they, as a minority, have had advantages in applying for higher education. Now it will end and they must compete on an equal footing with the Chinese.

A girl quickly withdraws her notes when I point to them with interest. The writing is Mongolian and the page barely stands out among the books he asks for.

The girls are nervous and we keep the conversation short. There is not a single policeman or guard in sight. This indicates that the situation is no longer so inflamed, but we do not want to risk young people becoming disabled to speak to us.

Some young people are willing to share their ideas. One of them said in a low voice that he was among the first to break up with the protest.

The family had no other choice. Parents’ heads try to give them other work assignments if they don’t send the zone to the school.

Warnings

The testimony is consistent with what happened in other parts of Inner Mongolia.

Parents and teachers have been warned. If they choose to have their children at home, they will lose the right to travel by plane and express train, or to buy nice houses. They run the risk of losing their jobs and the right to social assistance.

The New York human rights organization claims that more people have taken their lives, in protest or desperation, in an impossible situation.

Young people outside the school in Hohhot say the new rules are already in effect for the small school, but that the protests led to a postponement of the new curriculum for next year because of their footsteps.

– We are Mongols, we carry it in our blood, and the language itself is the root of our culture. Without language, culture is not viable, comrades say.

A plan

They don’t want all the training in Chinese, but they still don’t believe that they, as a minority, will come up with a protest.

Therefore, they have a long-term plan. They don’t give up and respond with youthful arrogance.

– We must study the best we can, to have influence. We want to save the minority of Mongolia. Therefore, we must make sure that the rules are changed, so that our language can be accepted throughout China.

When all the students have entered a long time ago, my colleague and I asked for an interview with the school. They reject us.

As we walk back to the train station, I notice that many road signs are adorned with Mongolian and Chinese writing. Up to this point.