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Accepted Paper:
From Nationality Language to Mother Tongue: Changing Parameters of Language Politics in Inner Mongolia
Uradyn E. Bulag
(University of Cambridge)
Paper long abstract:
This paper explains how language became a singular issue between the Mongols and the state, and why the survival of the Mongols as an ethnic group in China is now perceived to depend on the Mongolian language alone. This paper discusses two concepts that the Mongols used during the protest to frame the Mongolian language: minzu yuyan (in Chinese) or ündestnii hel (in Mongolian), i.e. (minority) nationality language, and muyu (in Chinese) or eh hel (in Mongolian), meaning mother tongue. While the former activates a "rightful resistance" that is set in the language right enshrined in the Chinese Constitution, it proved less effective in a regime that rules by policy rather than law. The frame of mother tongue, on the other hand, does not invoke legal or constitutional rights but appeals to "basic" universal principles about what constitutes "humans" that transcend national and ethnic politics. As such, it is emotive, calling for an intense response, as manifest in the death of at least 11 parents and teachers who killed themselves for preserving their "mother tongue."