They are starting with adjectives. “Mongolian culture” becomes mandatorily “Northern Frontier culture.”
by Zeng Liqin
The Uyghurs told us so. Many Southern Mongolians perhaps did not understand why Uyghurs insist that the word “Xinjiang” should not be used and should be replaced by “East Turkestan.” “Xinjiang” means “New Frontier,” a term denying Uyghur history and identity. It looks like the only defining feature of the Uyghur land was to serve as the new frontier of China, once it was occupied by the Chinese.
Now the Mongolian inhabitants of what is officially called the “autonomous region of Inner Mongolia”—they prefer to use “Southern Mongolia”—are being treated with the same medicine. If East Turkestan is the “New Frontier” (Xinjiang) Southern Mongolia is now being called “Northern Frontier” (Beijiang, 北疆).
The strategy used is to attack the substantive through the adjective. So far, the name of the pseudo-autonomous region is still “Inner Mongolia.” However, the adjective “Inner Mongolian” is increasingly replaced by “of the Northern Frontier.” And this is virtually mandatory when the noun for which the adjective is used is “culture,” in this context the most important noun of them all.
The Chinese Communist Party since 2023 regards as official the use of “Beijiang wenhua” (北疆文化), “Northern Frontier Culture,” instead of “Inner Mongolian Culture,” or even “Mongolian Culture,” referred to what after all is one of China’ officially recognized ethnic minorities.
The CCP regional propaganda office has established an academic journal dedicated to “Northern Frontier Culture,” and Inner Mongolia’s main state-run academic institute has opened a “Northern Frontier Research Centre.”
The campaign, now in full swing, was inaugurated last year at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th Committee of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region CCP, held in Hohhot from July 3 to 5, 2023. The CCP wanted to “launch the brand ‘Northern Frontier Culture,’” with the purpose of emphasizing that the culture of the autonomous region is “Chinese” rather than “Mongolian.” It is argued that it is the product of the fusion of the different ethnic cultures of the region under the unifying principle of “being grateful to the Party, listening to the Party, and following the Party.”
Following campaigns to replace Mongolian language with Chinese in the region’s education and administration, the semantic shift is clearly part of a project aimed at “Sinicizing” Mongolians and eliminating their distinctive cultural, religious, and ethnic heritage.
