Rectifying Names, Erasing Mongols:
The Unmaking of Mongolian Education in China
New essay out in Made in China Journal: “Rectifying Names, Erasing Mongols: The Unmaking of Mongolian Education in China”.
We chart how Mongolian-medium education is being hollowed out in Inner Mongolia—Putonghua [普通话] expansion, “unified” textbooks, and Mongolian relegated to the “local curriculum”.
Key point: school renaming is political. Dropping “Mongolian” from school names is “rectification of names” [正名] in action—paperwork that helps normalise erasure, consistent with Xi-era “soul-casting” [铸魂] and “forging [铸牢] identity and memory.
I’m especially grateful to have worked with a talented young Indigenous Mongolian scholar Soyonbo Borjgin who taught me a great deal. And thanks to the Made in China editorial/production team for making academic work open access and genuinely public-facing.