Last month I went to Hohhot, the capital of the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. It’s a developing city that is busy building skyscrapers, a familiar sight in other developing cities in China, dirty but financially promising.
The Mongolian script is so beautiful and fantastic that I could not help buying a book for a souvenir in the Museum of Hohhot. After leaving the museum, however, I felt pity for Inner Mongolia. It stands for the Mongolian people and Mongolian culture, while those Mongolians in this district are not stay in the country by the Mongolian People. The things they are proud of are only preserved in the museum. What’s worse, they have to bend to the mainstream culture in China, even abandoning their language. One of my friends, a Mongolian born in Hohhot, can not speak Mongolian at all. She said that from the time she was born, there was no need to learn Mongolian. Another friend, a Manchu born in Xinjiang, also said she can not say even a single Manchu word.
The use of Chinese dialects and their local cultures are declining, as far as I know. It seems that so are the languages and cultures of these ethic minorities. If we don’t preserve those endangered heritages, wouldn’t those people living in China regret it?
Original post: http://blog.josephjctang.com/2015-01/a-glance-in-hohhot/