<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal">China Ends Mongolian-Medium Teaching in Xinjiang High School<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">2017-12-22<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Email story<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Comment on this story<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Share story<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A teacher instructs a class in Xinjiang's Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture in an undated photo.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A teacher instructs a class in Xinjiang's Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture in an undated photo.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Photo sent by an RFA listener<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have banned the use of Mongolian as a medium of instruction in the last high school to offer it, prompting an outcry among the country’s ethnic Mongolian community, RFA has learned.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ethnic Mongolian pupils at the Bayingolin No. 3 High School in Xinjiang’s Bayingolin (Bayinguoleng, in Chinese; Bayangol, in Mongolian) Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture will now be required to use Mandarin Chinese in all classes and assignments,
under a Sept. 1 directive issued by Xinjiang’s regional education department.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“All classes offered in elementary and high schools must use Mandarin and written Chinese as the language of instruction,” the document orders. “They must also offer ethnic languages as a separate class.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ethnic Mongolians, who number some 43,000 in Bayingolin, took to social media to decry the downgrading of their language from medium of instruction to elective course, the New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center
(SMHRIC) said in a statement on its website.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The ‘ethnic language’ mentioned in the document is offered as a single, separate, and elective course just like a foreign language,” the group cited a Mongolian resident as saying. “It is no longer the language of instruction for any other
courses.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">An ethnic Mongolian resident of the area said the community was stunned by the move.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The wider Mongolian community is in a huge state of shock over the ending of Mongolian as a language of instruction at schools in the Bayangolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture,” he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“People are very concerned about Mongolian-language education in Xinjiang and also the continuation of Mongolian culture there,” the resident said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A nationwide policy<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">An official who answered the phone at the Bayingolin Bureau of Education confirmed the move, saying it is part of a nationwide policy to use only Mandarin as the language of instruction in China’s schools.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Asked if there are plans to end all teaching in ethnic minority languages, or to ban the use of non-Chinese languages altogether in schools, the official declined to comment, however.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I’m not too sure about that, and I can’t really comment, but we will be using the national language [Mandarin] in education,” he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The No. 3 High School was the last in the region to provide Mongolian-medium instruction, a Han Chinese teacher in the region told RFA on Friday.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“It used to be called the Bayingolin Mongolian High School, before they changed it,” the teacher said. “But it’s not as if everything is being killed off with a single blow and you can’t use ethnic minority languages any more. That wouldn’t
be appropriate.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But ethnic Mongolian dissident Hada said the move is part of a concerted effort by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to wipe out Mongolian in Chinese schools.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“They have banned the use of Mongolian script and language across the board,” Hada told RFA. “This has caused huge anger among Mongolians around the world, not just in [Chinese-ruled] Inner Mongolia.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I strongly condemn the authorities, and call on them to take immediate measures to restore all of their constitutional rights to [Mongolians],” he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Culture under attack<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Germany-based ethnic Mongolian rights activist Xi Haiming said the Chinese government is trying to eradicate Mongolian culture within its borders.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Mongolians overseas are definitely not going to sit by and watch this happen,” Xi said. “The Chinese government should immediately halt this barbaric policy, and restore Mongolian-medium instruction in schools.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Parents said via social media that they would petition the government to change the decision, appealing to regional officials to rethink the move, SMHRIC said, citing social media posts.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It said many quoted 19th century French novelist Alphonse Daudet, who wrote in reference to the banning of French during the Prussian occupation of France: “When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as
if they have the keys to their prison.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Reported by Qiao Long for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>