- Chinese authorities have outlawed a performance of “The Mongol Khan” by a Mongolian theater company.
- The Chinese government has been harshly repressing Mongolian language, culture, and history.
- Artists and cultural workers in Mongolia have frequently expressed their worries and are working to protect their culture.
By cutting off power to the Ulaan Theatre in Hohhot, northern Inner Mongolia, Chinese authorities have outlawed a performance of “The Mongol Khan” by a Mongolian theater company.
The Chinese government has been harshly repressing Mongolian language, culture, and history as part of a growing trend of cultural repression to assimilate the country’s declining Mongolian population into the Han Chinese majority.
Mongolian theater
The play is set to debut at the London Coliseum the following month. The director of “The Mongol Khan” has stated that he is committed to bringing the production to London despite the backlash in China.
Ulaanbaatar, China’s greatest commercial partner, has taken care to manage its relationship with China. Artists and cultural workers in Mongolia have frequently expressed their worries and are working to protect their culture.
The northern Chinese autonomous territory of Inner Mongolia shares boundaries with Mongolia to the north and west. Beijing claims to have raised the region’s living and educational standards, but because of their shared historical past, relations between China and Mongolia are strained.
Activists asserted in May that well-known Inner Mongolian novelist Lhamjab Borjigin was deported to China after being apprehended by Chinese police while residing in Ulaanbaatar. All Inner Mongolian schools that had been instructing in Mongolian had to transition to Chinese beginning in September.
