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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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.
I’m so jealous you were there and can speak the language! I’m having a hard time. :')
I heard that the re-education camps are actually high quality spaces with classes that explain Chinese culture in a positive way, should they want to fit in but people can practice their own customs too. they just want them to adopt something, anything. I’m trying to word that carefully. I can’t remember the name of my source right now, I’d have to check later. So yeah but if you put it that way, it doesn’t sound so bad. You can judge it but it’s not harmful if that’s the case. Regardless, I’m skeptical because of how convincing certain other sources are too. Yeah it sucks how racist the country can be.