China committing cultural genocide in Inner Mongolia, says scholar
China is committing cultural genocide in Inner Mongolia by demanding school subjects be taught in Chinese instead of the Mongolian language, said a scholar.
Under a new policy that came into effect on Sept. 1, teachers are required to know both Chinese and Mongolian, and those who are more fluent in the former are likely to be favored, putting jobs for ethnic Mongolian teachers at risk, said Japan-based Mongolian scholar Khereid Khuvisgalt.
Such pressures have had an emotional toll on many teachers in Inner Mongolia, Khereid Khuvisgalt said.
He pointed to the significance of music lessons that were originally conducted in Mongolian now being taught in Chinese. Mongolian music carries the culture, and the act to ban Mongolian music is akin to an erasure of culture, he said.
“From a young age, children would be brainwashed in terms of culture and music, making them lose their cultural identity,” he said.
Forcing young children in Inner Mongolia to use their second language of Chinese to learn would also prove detrimental to their academic performance, he added.
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