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What region in the world has the largest population of ethnic Mongols? What region in China was the first testing ground for the Chinese Communist minority policy? What region of China received from the most lasting impact from the Japanese occupation during World War II? What region of the world produces the largest part of the world's cashmere and most of its rare earths? Which region in China suffered the most in the Cultural Revolution? The answer to all these questions is: Inner Mongolia. This course explores the fascinating and often tragic history of Inner Mongolia from about 1850 to the present. We will trace the patterns of Mongolian institutions and ideas and Han Chinese immigration and settlement through the Qing, the New Policies, the Chinese Republic, the Japanese Occupation, the Chinese Civil War, and the see-sawing PRC policies. Themes dealt with in the course include Inner Mongolia as a bi-ethnic borderland, regional cultures among the Mongols, the Tibetan Buddhist-Confucian confrontation and the "East Mongolian Enlightenment," how efforts at modernization affected power balances between Mongols and Han, pan-Mongolism in Inner Mongolia, Russian and Soviet support of Mongolian nationalism, militarization and violence, the effects of land reform, collectivization, and "campaigns," demographic changes, the place of pastoralism and nomadism in modern China, effects of economic development, commercialization, and structural reforms on ethnic relations and pastoralism, Han Chinese immigrant culture, and prospects for the future.
Throughout the class, students will be encouraged to use the case of Inner Mongolia to rethink important issues of ethnic relations, state-building, and globalization in both Inner Asian and Chinese contexts.
Goodbody Hall 157 | 1011 East 3rd St. | Bloomington, IN 47405-7005 | Phone: (812) 855-2233 | Fax: (812) 855-7500 | ceus@indiana.edu