Mandarin speech contests in Tibet are attempts to erase native language, experts say

Read RFA coverage of this story in Tibetan

Chinese authorities in Tibet are organizing Mandarin speech competitions in what analysts told Radio Free Asia is another ploy by Beijing to erase Tibetan language and culture.

On Nov. 9 and 10, some 33 Tibetans competed the National Common Language Speech Contest in the regional capital of Lhasa

Though there are many dialects of Chinese spoken in the country, as well as many other languages, including Tibetan and Uyghur, Mandarin is the official language and Beijing wants all citizens to use it, with little or no attention paid to preserving other languages.

Mandarin speech competitions are now frequently held in monasteries and schools across Tibet, two sources from the region told RFA Tibetan.

“The reality is that young children are being strongly forced into learning Chinese, which is having a significant impact toward the eradication of Tibetan language and cultural practices,” said the first source.

In October, a similar national language speech competition was held in the city of Shigatse (in Chinese, Rikaze), with the theme of “Being a loyal and sincere patriot of the new era.”

Meanwhile in the city of Nagchu (Naqu), monks and nuns were made to praise the Chinese Communist Party in Mandarin as part of “national language” competitions.

Tibet was an independent country, with its own national language, before it was annexed by China in 1951.

But China has actively worked to limit the use of Tibetan.

Since 2020, the government has imposed stricter restrictions on language rights in Tibet, resulting in the closure of private Tibetan schools and a heightened emphasis on Chinese-language education in the name of standardizing textbooks and instructional materials.

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In 2021, authorities also began forbidding Tibetan children from attending informal language classes or workshops during winter breaks. Activists have warned that these measures could threaten the survival of the Tibetan language.

Targeting young Tibetans, rural communities

According to a Tibetan source who spoke on the condition of anonymity on Monday, Tibetans residing in rural areas are now required to speak Mandarin and write in Chinese.

The latest competition in Lhasa too was framed in a way to encourage participation from Tibetan farming and nomadic communities as well as young Tibetans.

Contestants were divided into five groups, including one for farmers and nomads, another for infants, and yet others for school-aged children, young adolescents and adults.

In recent years, Chinese authorities have set up a region-wide network of boarding schools for Tibetan children, where they are taught primarily in Mandarin. Activists say they are subjected to political indoctrination while separated from their parents and homes in a bid to reduce their contact with their native Tibetan language and culture.

According to official Chinese state media, the main objectives of these Chinese language competitions for Tibetans is to promote and encourage the use of the “national common language,” improve the language proficiency of the general population, and showcase the achievements of language work throughout the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Experts say there is a more sinister motivation at work.

“These competitions are merely another tactic meant to eradicate the Tibetan people’s language, culture, and identity,” said Lhakpa Tsering, Library Director and Tibetan Language and Literature Professor at the Central University of Tibetan Studies in Varanasi, India.

Previously, Tibetans inside Tibet had voluntarily organized competitions for the use of their own language as part of efforts to protect it, but many organizations that protected native languages have been eliminated, and activities aimed at preserving these languages banned.

Meanwhile, private schools, such as the popular Gangjong Sherig Norling School in Golog county, as well as monastic schools like those in Kirti Monastery and Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge county, that taught Tibetan have been forcibly closed.

Hundreds of students have transferred to state-run boarding schools where they are taught exclusively in Chinese.

On Dec. 28, 2021, China’s Ministry of Education, the National Rural Revitalization Bureau and the National Language Commission issued a plan to promote Mandarin.

By 2025, it aims for Mandarin to be spoken and understood in 85 percent of the country as a whole and 80% of rural areas.

Additional reporting by Dolma Lhamo and Dickey Kundol. Edited by Tenzin Pema, Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.