sports

Sumo elder criticizes China's banning of Mongolian-language education

23 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© KYODO

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

23 Comments
Login to comment

Good for Arashio. All the other Mongolian wrestlers are too cowardly to speak up about this issue. Its about time Communist China started recognizing ethnic minorities and their languages, culture and religion in China.

Sadly the next step against the Mongolians may be the mass ethnic genocide right now being inflicted on the tragic Uighur muslims.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

speaking up from Japan, yeah that is sure to affect things. Sadly China is an unstoppable force.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Despicable.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The Chinese did this to the Tibetans as well a couple of decades ago. Destruction of the language and culture to force everyone to abandon their culture to achieve the goals of the greater good.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Or in other words, to achieve the goal of the Central Communist Party, which is dominance over all.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

the mass ethnic genocide right now being inflicted on the tragic Uighur muslims.

There is no mass ethnic genocide of the Uighurs. Why do you continue to write this nonsense on here every day?

Here:

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-uyghurs-problems-claims-us-ngo-researcher/

"While this extraordinary claim is treated as unassailable in the West, it is, in fact, based on two highly dubious “studies.” 

The first, by the US government-backed Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, formed its estimate by interviewing a grand total of eight people.

The second study relied on flimsy media reports and speculation. It was authored by Adrian Zenz, a far-right fundamentalist Christian who opposes homosexuality and gender equality, supports “scriptural spanking” of children, and believes he is “led by God” on a “mission” against China.

As Washington ratchets up pressure on China, Zenz has been lifted out of obscurity and transformed almost overnight into a go-to pundit on Xinjiang. He has testified before Congress, providing commentary in outlets from the Wall Street Journal to Democracy Now!, and delivering expert quotes in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ recent “China Cables” report. His Twitter bio notes that he is “moving across the Atlantic” from his native Germany."

If these stories about the Mongolian language being banned in Inner Mongolia are actually true, it's a terrible thing and the Chinese govt should be criticised, just as Japan is criticized for its historical treatment of the Ainu people and the banning of their language.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Since Japan provides ZERO minority language instruction in public schools, while China provides some, it appears Japan is more genocidal than China.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Since Japan provides ZERO minority language instruction in public schools, while China provides some, it appears Japan is more genocidal than China.

You should probably look up the word genocide before using it, as knowledge of the meaning would stop you from making silly comments like the one above that make no sense.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

From Wikipedia--'Forced assimilation is an involuntary process of cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic ... Forced assimilation is also called cultural genocide and ethnocide.'

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

@Alfie

What do you make of what the Ugyhers who are now in exile are saying? Are they all liars?

I have 2 Mongolian friends here in Japan and they have told me things which are similar to this article.

@Joey - you are correct. China is engaging in cultural genocide or ethnocide.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

All the other Mongolian wrestlers are too cowardly to speak up about this issue.

Their caution is warranted. The Chinese government will punish their relatives in China if they speak out against China. That is how it works. You speak out abroad where you enjoy freedom of speech and your grandmother or sisters and brothers back in China are arrested, interrogated harshly, placed under surveillance and lose their jobs.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

In comparison to Japan, I'm on the fence. On the one hand, many Chinese, including the Han, are losing out on their own languages (not dialects), like Wu/Shanghainese and Yue/Cantonese. Some children can't communicate fluently with their grandparents' or even parent's languages (this incidentally is also happening in Singapore) as they only learn Mandarin. Learning multiple languages when young is never that hard. Just look at India and Taiwan. And I worry about the future of Cantonese in Hong Kong. In the old days, migrants from the mainland learnt Cantonese even though they were already fluent in one or two other Chinese languages. On the other hand, ethnic minorities in China still know their language. The same cannot be said of the Ainu and I don't see much future with the Okinawan languages.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Since Japan provides ZERO minority language instruction in public schools, while China provides some, it appears Japan is more genocidal than China.

What ethnic minorities is Japan suppressing? Just curious. My understanding is that Japan is trying to revitalize the Ainu and Shima Kutuba languages originally spoken in Hokkaido and the Ryukyu islands respectively.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"Why would they do such a terrible thing?"

Because China IS terrible!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

From Wikipedia--'Forced assimilation is an involuntary process of cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic ... Forced assimilation is also called cultural genocide and ethnocide.'

I’ve yet to see Tokyo schools punishing students who use Osaka dialect, eat takoyaki and support the Tigers.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

He should get all his wrestlers to take a knee.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Does the Ministry of Education promote the teaching of Ainu and Ryukyu languages in the public schools of Hokkaido and Okinawa?

It’s not required learning, in the same way Native American is not required learning in the US. However many schools have extra-curricular activities and clubs for preservation of indigenous culture.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Cultural bullying. It’s a shame as China will lose its hundreds of minorities and their languages. Japan tried that with Korea as well in the colonial period. Languages such as Ainu, Amami, Hachijō, Kunigami, Miyako, Okinawan, Yaeyama and Yonaguni are endangered.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Good to see protests being done, but its a few decades too late, China has been breaking human rights since always and nobody paid attention, now it is too powerful and can do much worse so finally people are reacting.

I am afraid this will get much worse before it gets better.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Hopefully one day the CCP gets what it deserves.

On a lighter note,

 "and it's really disturbing, I can hardly eat."

See, look how serious this has become!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

From Wikipedia--'Forced assimilation is an involuntary process of cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic ... Forced assimilation is also called cultural genocide and ethnocide.'

Try a dictionary next time. It's where you get the actual definition of words. Just because someone called it that on wikipedia does not suddenly give the word new meaning.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Genocide is an emotive word denoting mass killing. The ending -cide comes from the Latin 'Caedere', to kill. Also evident in matricide, patricide, suicide, etc.

Some people use it for the emotive value it has, to say ethnic or cultural genocide, for example, but it is a double-edged sword in my opinion.

In the case of the Uighurs, the Chinese Han CCP has no particular desire to physically kill anyone. They simply want to increase Chinese patriotism, and simultaneously erase Uighur/Tibetan/Mongol etc. identities or dilute them to the extent that no clashes arise with the 'harmony' of CCP central party policy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

PS Ten or twenty thousand years of a living language and culture can be erased, accidentally or deliberately. This has been shown.

But what is impossible is to fully resurrect a culture and language once it has vanished. A beautiful thing blown away to the heavens. Even scholars will struggle in the future to understand these valuable things that were lost.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites