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This important study explores the multifaceted Mongol experience in China, past and present. Combining insights from anthropology, history, and postcolonial criticism, Uradyn Bulag avoids romanticizing Mongols either as pacified primitive Other or as gallant resistance fighters. Rather, he portrays them as a people whose communist background and standing in China's northern borderlands has informed their political efforts to harness or confront Chinese nationalistic and political hegemony. Breaking new ground in the study of Chinese and Mongol history and ethnicity, the author offers a fresh interpretation of China viewed from the perspective of its peripheries, and of minority nationalities...
Uradyn Bulag presents a unique study of what it means to be Mongolian today. Mongolian nationalism, emerging from a Soviet-dominated past and facing a Chinese-threatened future, has led its adherents to stress purity in an effort to curb the outside influences on Mongolian culture andidentity. This sort of nationalism views the Halh (the 'indigenous' Mongols) as 'pure' Mongols, and other Mongol groups as 'impure'. This Halh-centrism excites and exploits fears that Mongolia will be swallowed by China; it stands in opposition to pan-Mongolism, the view that links between Mongolsof all kinds should be strengthened. Bulag draws on an abundance of illuminating research findings to argue that Mongols are facing a choice between a purist, racialized nationalism, inherited from Soviet discourses of nationalism, and a more open, adaptive nationalism which accepts diversity,hybridity, and multiculturalism. He calls into question the idea of Mongolia as a homogeneous place and people, and urges that unity should be sought through acknowledgement of diversity.
Cosmopolitanism and friendship have become key themes for understanding ethnicity and nationalism. In this deeply original study of the Mongols, leading scholar Uradyn E. Bulag draws on these themes to develop a new concept he terms "collaborative nationalism." He uses this concept to explore the paradoxical dilemma of minorities in China as they fight not against being excluded but against being embraced too tightly in the bonds of "friendship." Going beyond traditional binary relationships, he offers a unique triangular perspective that illuminates the complexity of regional interaction. Thus, Collaborative Nationalism traces the regional and global significance of the Mongols in the fierc...
China and Russia are rising economic and political powers that share thousands of miles of border. Despite their proximity, their interactions with each other - and with their third neighbour Mongolia - are rarely discussed. Although the three countries share a boundary, their traditions, languages and worldviews are remarkably different. Frontier Encounters presents a wide range of views on how the borders between these unique countries are enacted, produced, and crossed. It sheds light on global uncertainties: China's search for energy resources and the employment of its huge population, Russia's fear of Chinese migration, and the precarious independence of Mongolia as its neighbours negotiate to extract its plentiful resources. Bringing together anthropologists, sociologists and economists, this timely collection of essays offers new perspectives on an area that is currently of enormous economic, strategic and geo-political relevance.
In 1904, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama fled from the British invasion of Tibet to Mongolia in search of support from Russia. Although the mission failed, his extended sojourn in Mongolia marked the beginning of political modernity in both Mongolia and Tibet. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama on the Run (1904-1906) is a facsimile collection comprising hitherto unpublished archival documents from Mongolia about this historical episode. Written in Mongolian, Manchu and Chinese, the documents concern the operation of the Mongol princes in hosting the Dalai Lama in Mongolia and the attempts made by the Qing frontier officials to remove him from Mongolia back to Tibet. Details of his extensive travels within the country, the associated elaborate ritual activities and the great financial costs incurred which were borne by the Mongols, come to light for the first time in this publication. The documents which are supported by detailed captions are discussed in an in-depth introduction.
Leading scholars examine the Chinese government’s administration of its ethnic minority regions, particularly border areas where ethnicity is at times a volatile issue and where separatist movements are feared. Chapters focus on the Muslim Hui, multiethnic southwest China, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Together these studies provide an overview of government relations with key minority populations, against which one can view evolving dialogues and disputes. Contributors are Gardner Bovington, David Bachman, Uradyn E. Bulag, Melvyn C. Goldstein, Mette Halskov Hansen, Matthew T. Kapstein, and Jonathan Lipman.
Innovation-making is a classic theme in anthropology that reveals how people fine-tune their ontologies, live in the world and conceive of it as they do. This ethnographic study is an entrance into the world of Buryat Mongol divination, where a group of cursed shamans undertake the 'race against time' to produce innovative remedies that will improve their fallen fortunes at an unconventional pace. Drawing on parallels between social anthropology and chaos theory, the author gives an in-depth account of how Buryat shamans and their notion of fortune operate as 'strange attractors' who propagate the ongoing process of innovation-making. With its view into this long-term 'cursing war' between t...
In Managing Frontiers in Qing China, historians and anthropologists explore China's imperial expansion in Inner Asia, focusing on early Qing empire-building in Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, and beyond – Central Asian perspectives and comparisons to Russia's Asian empire are included. Taking an institutional-historical and historical-anthropological approach, the essays engage with two Qing agencies well-known for their governance of non-Han groups: the Lifanyuan and Libu. This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the Lifanyuan and Libu, revising and assessing the state of affairs in the under-researched field of these two institutions. The contributors explore the imperial policies towar...
In this deeply original study of the Mongols, leading scholar Uradyn E. Bulag draws on key themes of cosmopolitanism and friendship to develop a new concept he terms 'collaborative nationalism.' He uses this concept to explore the dilemma of minorities in China as they fight against being embraced too tightly in the bonds of 'friendship.' Through a rich array of case studies, Bulag illuminates the fierce competition among China, Japan, Mongolia, and Russia to appropriate the Mongol heritage to buttress their own national identities. Weighing the options the Mongols face, he argues that the ethnopolitical is not so much about identity as it is about the capacity of an ethnic group to decide and organize its own vision of itself, both within its community and in relation to other groups.
This important study explores the multifaceted experience of Mongols in China, past and present, as their identity balances precariously between historical memory and their contemporary position as an ethnic minority. Uradyn E. Bulag assesses the intricate relationship between socialism and nationalism that generates both resistance and complicity and defines the moral dilemmas that have confronted Mongols and Chinese in negotiating nationality issues. Written by an indigenous anthropologist trained in the West, the work is informed by the author's sophisticated understanding of theory and personal sense of society and history. Breaking new ground in the study of Chinese and Mongol history and ethnicity, the author offers a fresh interpretation of China viewed from the perspective of its peripheries. Visit our website for sample chapters!