Tibet as one of the most linguistically diverse places in the world is in danger of extinction over China's assimilationist state policy
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30223092
Tibetans have worked to protect the Tibetan language and resisted efforts to enforce Mandarin Chinese. Yet, Tibetan children are losing their language through enrolment in state boarding schools where they are being educated nearly exclusively in Mandarin Chinese. Tibetan is typically only taught a few times a week – not enough to sustain the language.
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[Beijing's] Government policy forces all Tibetans to learn and use Mandarin Chinese. Those who speak only Tibetan have a harder time finding work and are faced with discrimination and even violence from the dominant Han ethnic group.
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Meanwhile, support for Tibetan language education has slowly been whittled away: the government even recently banned students from having private Tibetan lessons or tutors on their school holidays.
Linguistic minorities in Tibet all need to learn and use Mandarin. But many also need to learn Tibetan to communicate with other Tibetans: classmates, teachers, doctors, bureaucrats or bosses.
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The government refuses to provide any opportunities to use and learn minority languages like Manegacha. It also tolerates constant discrimination and violence against Manegacha speakers by other Tibetans.
These [Chinese] assimilationist state policies are causing linguistic diversity across Tibet to collapse. As these minority languages are lost, people’s mental and physical health suffers and their social connections and communal identities are destroyed.
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W [email protected] shared this topic
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Interesting story. Thought provoking.
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"Assimilationist state policy" is a funny euphemism for "cultural genocide".
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We are the Han. You will be assimilated. Your biological and sociological distinctiveness will be erased. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
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“genocide” is basically a banned word at this point.
Thanks Israel.
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Well, thank the ML Borg too for making it a political weapon, and not about people dying.
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China number one, for real??
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The systematic erasure of Tibetan languages is cultural genocide under the guise of modernization.
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I haven't voted for your comment. I'm just wondering how a police state dystopia is THE favourite
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Just curious, would you ever believe it if it wasn't a police state dystopia? I wouldn't feel this way if I believed it was. Have you gone out of your way to do extensive research on the politics, history and quality of life in China over the course of months or years and looked for multiple sources from multiple parts of the world? Or have you just read the news and had history class? Maybe found a book in a library one time?
You don't need to question whether I love dystopias. Do question if I know or at least think I know what you know. -
It's not about the messenger, you are not attacked and don't need to react as such.
My comment was that wouldn't there be other options if one considers "extensive research on politics, history and quality of life", multiple sources etc. anywhere.
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No worries. I'm just curious. There has definitely been advancements. And then the various rankings and indexes on happiness, equality, freedom, health, other qualities paint a different picture. Of course one could ponder if some of them are biased, and still, maybe an aggregate of all could provide value...
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Can it be a police state dystopia if the people self censor to stay out of trouble, corruption, and racism run rampant?
That said, the PRC is a complicated place and the standard of living and health conditions of pretty much everyone have gone from mostly poor to generally good over a single generation. I think it's fair, yet sad, to say that wouldn't have happened any other way.
The public transport is amazing. And if you're willing to conform, and be Han or a model minority in a traditionally Han dominant area, you're living well. Purchasing power is generally high, and even the vast vast majority of the poorest people have houses and food.
Source: speak Mandarin and worked in China for a few years.
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Have you been there? Its a police state dystopia
