A Historical Reconstruction of the Chinese Language and Culture Transmission to the Mongolian Minority Pupils through the Official Teaching Aids
A Historical Reconstruction of the Chinese Language and Culture Transmission to the Mongolian Minority Pupils through the Official Teaching Aids

Summary/Abstract: Mongols have been a model minority in the People's Republic of China (PRC), which, between 1978 and 2020, had schooling in Mongolian or a bilingual language system. In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Chinese language and literature were taught in Chinese, while other social and natural sciences were taught in Mongolian. In some cases, Mongolian-language textbooks actually transmitted Chinese culture rather than Mongolian culture. Therefore these teaching aids transmitted Chinese culture through another language. These types of schoolbooks usually were a simple translation from Chinese into a minority language but without cultural adaptation for non-Han pupils. This paper was based on analysing the pre-2020 Chinese language and Mongolian-language teaching aids dedicated to the Mongolian minority. They reflected the status of the Chinese language and culture in the recently extinguished system of IMAR's Mongolian minority education. The presented cases aimed to provide insight into the four-decade period of the Chinese language in minority education and state education policy. The research questions are: What elements Chinese educators have intended to transmit to Mongolian pupils? How can the Mongolian case help in understanding some of the complexities of educational patterns in minority education in the international comparative perspective?

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