While living in Mongolia from 2005-2007, I saw many examples of anti-Chinese sentiment. I felt every Mongolian held a historical grudge against their Han neighbors. When I asked people about the reasoning behind their anti-Chinese feelings they would often respond in reference to the 200-year domination by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. But it was never consistent between Mongolians exactly why they held these feelings. It wasn’t until I did this research project that I discovered why many Mongolians feel this way towards the Chinese.

Franck Billé’s Research

At the beginning of this research project, I realized that research on this topic is very scarce. After searching for some time for valuable articles, I encountered a reference to some research by Franck Billé at Cambridge University who did some field-work for this very question about anti-Chinese Sentiment among Mongolians. I contacted him and he was generous enough to give me access to a published paper he’s written which discusses some major narratives on why Mongolians bear these sentiments. During his time in Mongolia, he interviewed many people, read the newspapers, watched the news, and was aware of other social activity in relation to anti-Chinese feelings among the everyday Mongolians. In his paper he writes that from his research, he found three general areas where Mongolians feel threatened by China and its people: the threat to the nation’s territory, the threat to the body, and the threat to Mongolian reproduction.

It is no historical mystery that Mongolia and China have had its fair share of territorial problems in the past. After all, the Great Wall was built to keep the Mongols out of China. Billé states that in many of his interviews Mongolians referred to a map that Chinese use where Mongolia is not an independent country, but is still part of China’s territory. This urban legend is likely referring a map made in 1991-1992 by a Taiwanese company based out of Hong Kong. As you can imagine, Mongolians were not happy with this. Ever since the Guomindang (GMT) left the mainland for Taiwan around 1949, the Republic of China (ROC) has primarily continued to claim Mongolia as part of its original territory. It was not until 2002 that the ROC officially recognized Mongolia’s independent status. This map has led many to believe that China, whether it’s the ROC or the PRC seems to make no difference to the Mongolians, did not sincerely accept Mongolia’s independence. Many Mongolians believe that if China did not accept this, than they will try to take over Mongolia again in the future. An extension of this territorial threat has recently focused on Chinese mining activities in Mongolia. Mongolians feel China cannot politically or militarily take over Mongolia so it is robbing Mongolia of its precious natural resources, which in essence, is the same as taking over its land or territory.

The second threat that Billé found through his research is the feeling of a Chinese threat to the body. Some Mongolians feel that Chinese fruits and vegetables are poisoned, making them dangerous to those who buy them. Billé also cites a belief in the 80s where people were afraid to buy Chinese jeans because they believed that they would cause male infertility. Today, many Mongolians buy Russian-made clothes for infants, out of fear that the dyes used in the clothes are dangerous to the baby’s health. During Billé’s stay in Mongolia, he heard rumors among Mongolians about poor, homeless Mongolian children ‘adopted’ to China where their organs were harvested. Regardless of whether or not these fears are based on facts or reality, the current anti-Chinese sentiment among Mongolians is often built upon this foundation of rumors and urban legends and must be taken into account.

The third threat Billé discovered is that many Mongolian’s fear a Chinese threat to Mongolian reproduction, or in other words, a threat to the Mongolian populatin. Mongolians seem to be very particular about race. Blood is a very important matter in terms of personal, communal, and national identity. Billé recorded many interviews where Mongolians expressed concerns over Chinese men abducting young, inopportune Mongolian women and either forcing them into prostitution, or impregnating them. From a Mongolian’s perspective, this is a very serious problem because their nation’s population is small enough as it is, and there is a great fear of being swallowed up by China’s strength in numbers. Billé draws an interesting connection here by saying that Mongolian women are like symbols of Mongolianness. Just as Mongolians fear that Mongolia is being victimized and used by China, Mongolians also fear that Mongolian women (as a symbol of Mongolia) are being victimized and used by Chinese men.

Currently, there is a Mongolian Nationalist group called Dayar Mongol which, acting as vigilantes, tries to protect the national identity of Mongolia by shaving the heads of Mongolian women who they believe are having sexual relations with Chinese men. This fact is not speculation but something Billé personally discussed with the leader of Dayar Mongol during his research in Mongolia.

Billé was unable to locate any singular origin or cause for these sometimes unbelievable urban legends. However, he does attribute much of Mongolia’s suspicion towards China to its longstanding relationship with the Soviet Union and Russia, and Mongolia’s political alignment away from China during most of the 20th century. Between 1930 and 1990 contact between Mongolia and China was extremely rare and Billé reports the current xenophobia in Mongolia may be a result of Soviet-Marxist propaganda against China. Billé states that some welcomed inconsistencies in his research arise in “Mongols who have personal experience with China (for instance through extended study periods) no longer align themselves with mainstream discourse. This is particularly true for Mongols who have visited ‘modern’ cities such as Shanghai or Hong Kong that belie the Russian/Socialist descriptions of the Chinese as dirty and uneducated peasants” (Billé, p. 20). He also found that Mongolian women tend to be less nationalistic and more willing to look beyond the social stigmas towards Chinese.

Pujee’s Perspective

After reading and researching Franck Billé’s material, I decided to interview my good Mongolian friend, Pujee, to see if her personal views and opinions matched those researched by Franck Billé. Before our interview, I didn’t discuss any of Billé’s research with Pujee, so I was surprised to hear similar viewpoints and opinions. Pujee spoke from her own personal experience, but also took the time to ask a few friends in Mongolia about current thoughts and feelings towards Chinese. She focused her attention on these four sources of Mongolian suspicions: 1) the map where Mongolia is part of China, 2) some poor-quality Chinese goods that sterilize women, 3) Chinese workers in Mongolia break the law and commit crimes, sometimes kidnapping people and forcing women into prostitution, and 4) rather than a political or military takeover, China is taking over Mongolia through its economics—in other words, through a huge influx of Chinese goods.

Similar to Billé’s findings about inconsistencies among Mongolians who have traveled abroad, and Mongolian women, Pujee’s interview is important because it reveals a solution to these anti-Chinese sentiments. She stated towards the end of our interview that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has helped her look past the tendency to see Chinese as bad people. When she traveled to China, she said the inability to speak Chinese made her feel like she was being taken advantage of. She has noticed at BYU, that as she speaks English with her Chinese friends, these negative feelings tend to disappear. She also recognizes the importance of education. As her education has progressed through the years, she has gained a greater world view and sees things for the way they really are. Today, she has a lot of Chinese friends and knows they are really good people. She notices that she and other Mongolian friends, especially Church members, don’t feel these bad things about Chinese people (Pujee, interview 2010).

If this is any measure of how to improve the general opinion and beliefs held by Mongolians regarding the Chinese, it would be important to promote more cross-cultural interaction between Chinese and Mongolians. Interaction at the business or economic level doesn’t seem to improve the situation, but education opportunities abroad have helped Pujee to overcome her socialized perspective of sinophobia.

Other Sources

In another book, Mongolia in Transition, it gives some more substantial evidence to support the threat of national territory. Referring to the infamous Chinese maps that still show Mongolia as part of China, it reads, “Beijing’s recent affirmation of Mongolia’s independence has not prevented the publication in China of books, documents and maps reiterating Chinese claims that Mongolia is part of China” (Sanders, 1996). The book goes on to say:

“Proof that the Border of Chinese Territory Has Been Changed, a publication of the PRC tourism and Education Publishing Committee printed by the Academy of Military Sciences Press in January 1993, was quoted in the Mongolian Unen, in December 1993 as saying: ‘Outer Mongolia is Chinese territory. It is a matter of history that the Qing government appointed a governor to rule Outer Mongolia.’” (Sanders, p. 223)

Another example giving credibility to this specific suspicion of Mongolia’s territorial integrity is given in:

“The Secret of Mongolia’s Independence, published in Beijing in April 1993, claimed that Mongolia was not independent but a Soviet creation and really part of China. The Mongolian press published passages from the book, giving prominence to such quotations as ‘Mongolia ins China’s sacred territory’ and reproducing the book’s map, showing Mongolia as part of China. A Chinese government spokesman claimed that the book did not represent official policy.” (Sanders, p. 223)

In April 1994 PRC Prime Minister Li Peng visited Mongolia and outlined China’s five-point policy towards Mongolia, which clarified the PRC’s respect for Mongolia’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. This may have alleviated some political pressure, but it’s clear from Billé and Pujee’s statements that it has not translated very well into the everyday Mongolian’s perspective.

In Mongolia’s Culture and Society, Hyer writes that:

“Mongols, as a whole, prize ‘purity’ of nationality and have misgivings toward persons or groups who are too influenced by alien ways…this tendency is now particularly marked in Inner Mongolia, which has been inundated by forced Chinese migration and settlement, and where there is serious threat to the purity of the Mongol people” (Jagchid, p. 142).

The case of the Inner Mongolians seems to confirm the fears of other Mongolians that contact with China will lead to the eventual assimilation and cross-culturalization. The example of Inner Mongolia is remembered by Mongolians that “Chinese Communists dispatched great numbers of Chinese immigrants to non-Chinese areas, settling them under duress and making the non-Chinese peoples minorities even in their own homelands. These were all calculated steps for the final assimilation of minorities into the Chinese mass” (Nijhoff, 1988). For this reason, I believe Mongolians today are still very suspicious of Chinese tourists, immigrants, and workers. Many Mongolians fear the loss of their language, culture, traditions and ultimately, their national identity. From this perspective, it becomes easier to understand their suspicion of China’s posing threat.

The last example I wish to show of evidence which may give support to the Mongolian’s suspicions regarding Chinese activity is in Truth, History, and Politics in Mongolia by Christopher Kaplonski. Based on his research, he records that it was very common to hear in the mid 1990’s about people getting sick because of Chinese food or drinks, “Children ended up in the hospital, comatose, because of Chinese sugar; a man went blind from Chinese alcohol; Chinese grain was infested with insects. The stuff the Chinese were selling as salt wasn’t really salt, either…” (Kaplonski, p. 43). He attributed most of these stories to urban legends, and none whom he met actually met or knew anyone that had taken ill because of Chinese food or drinks. However, he proposed that their mere presence suggested the general attitudes of Mongolians towards the Chinese, “They were often cited as examples of how the sneaky Chinese couldn’t be trusted” (Kaplonski, p. 43).

Conclusion

These different sources of research have led me to believe that the Mongolian’s suspicions regarding Chinese may be exaggerated, but are also rooted in small, perhaps unintended instances. Given the historical Mongolian mistrust of the Chinese, exacerbated while Mongolia was very close to the Soviet Union, it is understandable that these folk tales and beliefs could grow and expand across space, time and generations. I neither condemn nor condone these beliefs but rather seek to find a potential remedy to this regional tradition of mistrust. In terms of a solution, I recommend cross-cultural exchanges, not just business exchanges. Language barriers must be overcome and mutual respect needs to be promoted. As Mongolia develops and accessibility to education and literature expands, I predict that these anti-Chinese sentiments among Mongolians will decrease and lessen in severity and credibility.

Bibliography

Billé, F. (2008). Faced With Extinction: Myths and urban legends in contemporary Mongolia. Cambridge Anthropology , 28 (1).

Jagchid, S. a. (1979). Mongolia’s Culture and Society. Boulder: Westview Press, Inc. .

Kaplonski, C. (2004). Truth, History and Politics in Mongolia. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

Nijhoff, M. (1988). Discrimination Against Minorities in China. In S. Jagchid, Essays in Mongolian Studies (pp. 252-261). Provo: Brigham Young University.

Sanders, A. J. (1996). Foreign Relations and Foreign Policy. In O. a. Bruun (Ed.), Mongolia in Transition (pp. 217-251). Surrey: Curzon Press Ltd.