Source: Ethnic ChinaLit (1/2/25)
The Battle over Politically Correct Designations for China’s Borderlands
By Bruce Humes
The word “Tibet” has been replaced by “Himalayan World” accompanied by “Tibetan art.”
Labels matter. As Confucius (reportedly) said:
名不正，則言不順
言不順，則事不成
If names are not rectified, then words are not appropriate.
If words are not appropriate, then deeds are not accomplished.
— The Analects (Trans. Raymond Dawson)
New politically correct designations for China’s traditional frontiers — homelands to Tibetans, Mongols and Turkic Muslims — are emerging, but their usage outside the Middle Kingdom is proving controversial.
According to a report by Radiofrance (le mot “Tibet” supprimé), two major museums in Paris made changes to their labeling of Tibetan art in 2023 and 2024. On the explanatory panels in its galleries, Quai Branly began replacing “Tibet” with “Xizang,” China’s name for the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Then Musée Guimet — which houses one of the largest collections of Asian Art outside of Asia — repackaged its “Nepal-Tibet” section as “Monde Himalayen” (Himalayan World).
These changes were noted and vigorously critiqued by French scholars, who accused the museums of bowing to pressure from China in its campaign to force the outside world to accept its colonialist terminology. “Is it the job of museums to rewrite history at the behest of an authoritarian regime? “ queries French Tibetologist Katia Buffetrille, according to Radiofrance.
In October 2024, Quai Branly relented and removed the term Xizang from its galleries. But Musée Guimet has not abandoned its “Himalayan World.” An unnamed source in the report admits that “the word Tibet is something we want to avoid. This could provoke reactions from China. But it’s not true that Guimet wants to erase Tibet from people’s minds. The important thing was not to use the Chinese term ‘Xizang’. There was a desire to preserve something. It’s not a retreat, it’s an adaptation.”
“The word Tibet has not disappeared from the Musée Guimet,” insists museum president Yannick Lintz. But in fact, it rarely appears any more, replaced by the expression ‘Tibetan art’,” writes Radiofrance.
Xiongnu Empire, Khan deemed sensitive
“Chinese authorities have launched a campaign to change the term that people use to refer to Mongolian culture and to the cultural and historical heritage of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) in a move aimed at eroding Mongolian identity and sense of homeland,” according to ‘Northern frontier culture’: How China is erasing ‘Mongolia’ from Mongolian culture, published by Australian Strategic Policy Institute in August 2024:
The Chinese Communist Party’s new official term, bei jiang wenhua [北疆文化], meaning ‘northern frontier culture’, eliminates reference to Mongolians, one of China’s 56 officially recognised ethnic groups. Since July 2023, Inner Mongolia state media articles, official websites, party statements, party-organised children’s activities, and official social media posts have widely promoted the phrase. The party’s regional propaganda office has also founded an academic journal dedicated to ‘northern frontier culture’, and Inner Mongolia’s premier state-run academic institute has opened a ‘northern frontier’ research centre.
The adoption of the term appears to be part of the CCP’s growing campaign to weaken Mongolian ethnic identity and instead push a Han-centric national identity through the elimination of Mongolian language education and other measures.
After completing a record-breaking 151 sell-out performances at the Mongolian State Academic Theatre in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a planned run of Tamgagui Tur performances in Inner Mongolia’s Hohhot were abruptly cancelled by the Chinese authorities in September 2023.
Set some two millennia ago in the early days of the Xiongnu Empire, the fictionalized story — a tragedy — depicts the heroic Archug Khan’s struggles to build a lasting dynasty by ensuring his heir is legitimate and worthy of his throne.
According to an article (失传玉玺) by Anand Tumurtogoo, on the eve of the performance in Hohhot, the Chinese side suddenly informed the cast and crew that they were to be moved 300 kilometers away to Ordos for the show. Just before the first performance was to begin there, the power supply was reportedly interrupted, and in the end, the show did not proceed.
“The terms ‘Xiongnu Empire’ (匈奴帝国) and ‘Khan’ (可汗) seem to have aroused the concern of the Communist Party of China,” said a spokeswoman for the theater group, according to Tumurtogoo’s report.
Not to be deterred, the stage production, entitled The Mongol Khan for British audiences, began a two–week run at the London Coliseum (Nov-Dec 2023). The Mongolian original is known as Tamgagui Tur, literally “State without a Seal,” and the Chinese adaptation (失传玉玺) means “The Lost Seal.” For a review of the London performance, see here.
Islamic names not kosher
In China has renamed hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns, we learn of the latest policy in its ongoing campaign to make Xinjiang look and feel like mainstream, Han-dominated China:
Hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns have been renamed by Chinese authorities to remove religious or cultural references, with many replaced by names reflecting Communist party ideology, a report has found.
Research published on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the Norway-based organisation Uyghur Hjelp documents about 630 communities that have been renamed in this way by the government, mostly during the height of a crackdown on Uyghur that several governments and human rights bodies have called a genocide.
The new names removing religious, historical or cultural references are among thousands of otherwise benign name changes between 2009 and 2023. According to the two organisations that conducted the research, the apparently political changes, which mostly occurred in 2017-19, targeted three broad categories. Any mentions of religion or Uyghur cultural practices were removed, including terms such as hoja, a title for a Sufi religious teacher, which was removed from at least 25 village names; haniqa, a type of Sufi religious building taken from 10 village names; and mazar, meaning shrine, which was removed from at least 41 village names.