Tibetanness under threat (PDF)

‘Tibetanness’ Under Threat?

Inner Asia Book Series
Edited by

David Sneath
Caroline Humphrey
Uradyn E. Bulag

VOLUME 9

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ias

‘Tibetanness’ Under Threat?
Neo-Integrationism, Minority Education and Career
Strategies in Qinghai, P.R. China

By

Adrian Zenz

  ᆐ
2013

Cover illustration: Dawa's performance during the Tibetan department graduation ceremony,
June 2008. (Source: author.)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zenz, Adrian.
 ‘Tibetanness’ under threat? : neo-integrationism, minority education and career strategies in
Qinghai, P.R. China / by Adrian Zenz.
  pages cm. -- (Inner Asia book series ; volume 9)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-25796-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Tibetans--China--Qinghai Sheng. 2. Tibetans-Education (Higher)--China--Qinghai Sheng. 3. Tibetans--Cultural assimilation--China--Qinghai
Sheng. 4. Nationalism--China--Qinghai Sheng. 5. Cultural pluralism--China--Qinghai Sheng.
I. Title.
 DS731.T56Z43 2013
 305.895’4105147--dc23

2013026386

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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Notes on Transliteration
List of Figures

ix
xi
xiii

1. Introduction
Education, Market and Language
Sinicisation, Hybridity and the ‘End-of-Tibetanness’
Structure, Agency and Strategy in Minority Education
‘Tibet’—‘Tibetan’—‘Tibetanness’
Gauging Factions and Groupings Within the ‘Educated Tibetan
Community’

1
1
9
13
19

2. Tibetans in Qinghai Province: An Analysis of Recent
Developments
Contextualising the Fieldwork Setting
Qinghai’s Ethnic Landscape
Economic Developments, Market Reforms and the
Employment Market
Qinghai’s Tibetan Education Situation
3. ‘Harmonious’ Solutions to the Nationalities Question
Introduction
Minority Rights Part I: Legal Frameworks and Political Trends
Chinese for Jobs: The Rising Force of Pragmatism
Minority Rights Part II: Han Centre-Periphery Models Past
and Present
Wenming, Suzhi, Kexue: Cultural Control and Strategic
Concealment
Contradictory ‘Harmony’: Gauging the Core Tensions within
the State’s Minority Work Approach
4. Beyond Assimilation: The Tibetanisation of Tibetan Education
in Qinghai
Making History: The Tibetanisation of Tibetan Education
in Qinghai

24
31
31
36
42
48
69
69
75
79
82
85
88
95
95

vi

contents
From Tibetanisation to Re-Tibetanisation
Tibetanisation in the Midst of Adversity: An Analysis
of Enabling Factors
The 2010 ‘Qinghai gangyao’ Educational Reform Initiative:
Threat to Tibetan Education?
QUN Campus Dynamics: ‘Tibetan Worlds’ in the Midst
of Integrationism
Conclusions: Sinicisation Through Minority Education

5. The Structural Dynamics of Finding ‘Adequate’ Employment in
Marketised Times
Graduate Employment Statistics and Trends
Examining Minority Graduate Employment
Obligations, Anxieties, Preferences: The Significance of
Formal Government Employment
Corruption and Language in Government Recruitment
Processes
Conclusions: Career, Language and Ethnicity
6. Language, Career and ‘Helping My People’: Students’
Education and Employment Strategies
Learning “My Mother Tongue”: Education, Ethnicity and
Language-Culture
“Facing Reality”: Pragmatist Strategies and Chinese-Medium
Careers
Creative Approaches to the Dilemma: Track Mixing
and Tibetan+
The Ethnically-Concious Alternative: Venturing
into Tibetan+
Career and ‘Tibetanness’ Between Isolation and Engagement
7. Authenticity, Hybridity and ‘In-Betweenness’: ‘Tibetanness’
Between Danger and Doubt
Hybridity and Ethnic Authenticity
‘Tibetanness’, Purity and Mixing
Authenticity and Linguistic Purity: The Case of Dawa
Hybridity, Ambiguity and Confusion
To Regret or To Not Regret? Dealing with ‘In-Betweenness’
Conclusion: Digital ‘Tibetanness’, Instrumental-Primordialism,
and the Battle Against Hybridity

111
114
117
121
126
131
131
147
167
180
191
197
197
201
207
214
219
227
227
228
236
239
248
258

contents
8. Between Development and ‘Backwardness’: The Struggle
for ‘Modern Tibetanness’
Tibetan Discourses of Tibetan Modernity
Contrasting Perspectives on Tibetan Development
The Function and Significance of Discourses of Tibetan
‘Backwardness’
Religion as Science: The Significance of Buddhism-Science
Discourses
‘Modern Tibetanness’: Concluding Thoughts
9. Conclusions: Marketisation and the ‘End-of-Tibetanness’?
Education, Career, and Minority School Success
Marketisation versus Protectionism: How Can ‘Tibetanness’
Survive?
Ethnicity versus Market: The Possibility of Ethnic
Entrepreneurship
Hybridisation: The Beginning of the ‘End-of-Tibetanness’?
The Complex Way Ahead
Appendix A
Appendix B
Bibliography
Index

vii
265
265
270
275
283
288
297
297
302
306
311
317
321
322
327
339

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work would have been impossible without the personal support so
generously given by many people In particular, I am profoundly indebted
to my beloved wife Rachel, who lovingly took care of her family at home
day after day throughout the many years it took to complete this work.
Much gratitude is also due to my parents, who funded my PhD in Social
Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.
On the academic side, this work would have been impossible without
the close involvement of my supervisor Dr Hildegard Diemberger. I would
also like to thank Dr Uradyn Bulag for encouraging me to turn my PhD
thesis into a book manuscript, Brill’s anonymous reviewer for all the helpful comments, and especially Dr Andrew Fischer, who not only provided
many helpful insights but took significant amounts of time to answer
many questions and review my statistical analysis.
The true heroes of this research are undoubtedly its main ‘actors’—the
Tibetan students and educators who allowed me to be part of their lives,
and several of whom generously entertained me (and in some cases our

Author with wife, daughter and a group of close Tibetan student friends, June 2008