![]() A Mongol musician playing an Inner Mongolian-style morin khuur | |
Total population | |
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6,290,204 [1] [2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
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Languages | |
Religion | |
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Related ethnic groups | |
Mongols in China | |||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 中国蒙古族 | ||||||
Traditional Chinese | 中國蒙古族 | ||||||
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Mongols in China, [3] [4] also known as ChineseMongolians, [5] [6] are ethnic Mongols who live in China. They are one of the 56 ethnic groups recognized by the Chinese government.
As of 2020,there are 6,290,204 Mongols in China,a 0.45% increase from the 2010 national census. [1] [2] Most of them live in Inner Mongolia,Northeast China,Xinjiang and Qinghai. The Mongol population in China is nearly twice as much as that of the sovereign state of Mongolia.
The Mongols in China are divided between autonomous regions and provinces as follows:
Besides the Inner Mongolia autonomous region,there are other Mongol autonomous administrative subdivisions in China.
Prefecture level:
County level:
China classifies different Mongolian groups like Buryats and Oirats into the same single category as Mongol along with Inner Mongols. A non-Mongolic ethnic group,the Tuvans are also classified as Mongols by China. [7] The official language used for all of these Mongols in China is a literary standard based on the Chahar dialect of Mongol. [8]
The ethnic classification might be inaccurate due to lack of information regarding the registering policy. [9] [10]
Some populations officially classified as Mongols by the government of the People's Republic of China do not currently speak any form of Mongolic language. Such populations include the Sichuan Mongols (most of whom speak a form of Naic language),the Yunnan Mongols (most of whom speak a form of Loloish language),and the Mongols of Henan Mongol Autonomous County in Qinghai (most of whom speak Amdo Tibetan and/or Chinese).
Among the Mongols of China,mitochondrial haplogroup D was in first place (27.07%),followed by mitochondrial haplogroups B (11.60%),F (10.77%),Z (8.01%),G (7,73%),C (6.91%),A (6.08%),N (5.25%) and M7 (5.25%). Other mitochondrial haplogroups (HV,H,I,M8,M9,M10,M11,R,T,U,W and Y) were sporadically distributed among the studied Mongols of China with frequencies of no more than 1.66%.
Guang-Lin He et al. (2022) examined a sample of current Mongols of China (n=175,including n=97 from Inner Mongolia,n=27 from Liaoning,n=10 from Heilongjiang,n=10 from Jilin,n=3 from Qinghai,n=3 from Xinjiang,and n=25 from elsewhere in China) and found different haplogroup O subclades (107/175 = 61.1% in total) to be the most frequently observed Y-DNA haplogroup:
The second most frequently observed Y-DNA haplogroup among the sampled Mongols from China was C2 (22.9%,including 16.6% "Northern" i.e. Mongolian/Siberian C2b1a,1.7% typically Mongolic C2c1a1a1-M407,and 4.6% "Southern" i.e. East Asian C2c1(xC2c1a1a1)),followed by N1-CTS3750 (6.3%,including 2.9% N1a2a1a~,1.1% N1a2b2a1c~,1.1% N1b2a2~,0.6% N1a1a1a1a3a,and 0.6% N1b1),Q (4.6%,including 4.0% Q1a1a1 and 0.6% Q2a1a1),R1a1a1b2a-Z94 (2.3%),and D-M533 (1.1%). Y-chromosomal haplogroup E1b1b1a1b2 (V22) was observed in one Mongol individual from Hohhot,G2a2b2a1a1a2a1a (L654.2) was observed in one Mongol individual from Alxa League,and I2a1b2a1a1a1 (BY128/Y5596) was observed in one Mongol individual from Hinggan League. [11]
Not all groups of people related to the medieval Mongols are officially classified as Mongols under the current system. Other official ethnic groups in China which speak Mongolic languages include:
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Mongols living in China face a multitude of Anti-Mongolian discriminations by the current Chinese government on the goal of assimilating the Mongolian population into the Han population. [12] [13] [14] Some instances of discrimination include: barring teaching the Mongolian language in schools, arresting Mongols on Mongolian soil, and forced evictions of Mongolians in China. [15]
Recently the NPC mandated that "minority language-medium education is unconstitutional (People's Daily)," enforcing this within Inner Mongolian schools, banning the teaching of the Mongolian language, along with riding of different kinds of Mongolian material that are deemed to de-emphasize Chinese nationality and common identity. [16] [13] In 2023, a book on the history of the Mongols was banned for "historical nihilism." [17]
Most recently on May 3, 2023, the Chinese government arrested Mr. Lhamjab Borjigin, a Mongolian writer, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. [15] This isn't the first time China has made these kinds of arrests on foreign soil against Mongols either, as this is the fifth occurrence. [15]
The Chinese government has even gone as far as accusing Mongolian herders/nomads of causing climate change in order to justify the forced relocation of Mongolians out of their ancestral land. [14] Under the "ecological migration" policy, the Chinese government has moved thousands of Mongolians into city/urban areas away from their home grasslands on the basis that the Mongolian nomadic lifestyle is destroying the grasslands and causing climate change symptoms like desertification and sandstorms. [14] The Chinese government also justifies the movement of Mongols, calling it poverty relief, as hundreds of thousands of Mongols live in extreme poverty, however many of the displaced Mongols actually fall deeper into poverty, while also feeling out of their element and feeling like outcasts in their new homes. [14] The basis of moving the Mongols by the claim of climate/environment protection is one that lacks support, as it has been found that nomadic lifestyles, like that of the grassland Mongols, actually harm the environment far less than permanent settlement lifestyles. [18]
China proper, also called Inner China are terms used primarily in the West in reference to the traditional "core" regions of China centered in the southeast. The term was first used by Westerners during the Manchu-led Qing dynasty to describe the distinction between the historical "Han lands" (漢地)—i.e. regions long dominated by the majority Han population—and the "frontier" regions of China where more non-Han ethnic groups and new foreign immigrants reside, sometimes known as "Outer China". There is no fixed extent for China proper, as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history. One definition refers to the original area of Chinese civilization, the Central Plain ; another to the Eighteen Provinces of the Qing dynasty. There was no direct translation for "China proper" in the Chinese language at the time due to differences in terminology used by the Qing to refer to the regions. Even to today, the expression is controversial among scholars, particularly in mainland China, due to issues pertaining to contemporary territorial claim and ethnic politics.
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a small section of China's border with Russia. Its capital is Hohhot; other major cities include Baotou, Chifeng, Tongliao, and Ordos.
Qinghai is an inland province in Northwestern China. It is the largest province of China by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xining.
The Sibe or Xibo are a Tungusic-speaking East Asian ethnic group living mostly in Xinjiang, Jilin and Shenyang in Liaoning. The Sibe form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by China, and had a recorded population of 190,481 in the 2010 Chinese Census, comprising just over 0.014% of China's total population.
The Dongxiang people are a Mongolic people and one of 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Half of the population live in Dongxiang Autonomous County, Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province, China. The rest are divided over Hezheng County, Linxia City, Lanzhou, Dingxi and Ningxia. According to the 2010 census, their population numbers 621,500, although research has found that the number is inflated due to Hui identifying themselves as Dongxiang for the census, in order to benefit from minority policies.
The Salar people are a Turkic ethnic minority in China who speak Salar, a Turkic language of the Oghuz sub-branch. They numbered 165,159 people in 2020, according to that year's national census.
The Tuvans or Tyvans are a Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Siberia who live in Russia (Tuva), Mongolia, and China. They speak Tuvan, a Siberian Turkic language. In Mongolia they are regarded as one of the Uriankhai people groups.
Tuvan or Tyvan is a Turkic language spoken in the Republic of Tuva in South Central Siberia, Russia. The language has borrowed a great number of roots from the Mongolian language, Tibetan and the Russian languages. There are small diaspora groups of Tuvan people that speak distinct dialects of Tuvan in China and Mongolia.
Adenophora is a genus of flowering plants in the family Campanulaceae, the bellflowers. Plants of this genus are known commonly as ladybells. Most of the species in the genus are native to eastern Asia, with a few in Europe. Many are endemic to either China or Siberia.
Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in the southeastern Xinjiang, China. It borders Gansu to the east, Qinghai to the southeast and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south. It is the largest prefecture-level division nationally, with an area of 471,480 km2 (182,040 sq mi), which is even larger than its neighboring province of Gansu. The prefectural capital is Korla. Despite being designated an autonomous area for Mongols in China, only about four percent of Bayingolin's population is Mongol.
Oirat is a Mongolic language spoken by the descendants of Oirat Mongols, now forming parts of Mongols in China, Kalmyks in Russia and Mongolians. Largely mutually intelligible to other core Central Mongolic languages, scholars differ as to whether they regard Oirat as a distinct language or a major dialect of the Mongolian language. Oirat-speaking areas are scattered across the far west of Mongolia, the northwest of China and Russia's Caspian coast, where its major variety is Kalmyk. In China, it is spoken mainly in Xinjiang, but also among the Deed Mongol of Qinghai and Subei County in Gansu.
Haplogroup C-M217, also known as C2, is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It is the most frequently occurring branch of the wider Haplogroup C (M130). It is found mostly in Central Asia, Eastern Siberia and significant frequencies in parts of East Asia and Southeast Asia including some populations in the Caucasus, Middle East, South Asia, East Europe. It is found in a much more widespread area with a low frequency of less than 2%.
The Dagur, Daghur, Dahur, or Daur language, is a Mongolic language, as well as a distinct branch of the Mongolic language family, and is primarily spoken by members of the Daur ethnic group.
In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, the Mongolian language is the official provincial language. Mongols are the second largest ethnic group, comprising about 17 percent of the population. There are at least 4.1 million ethnic Mongols in Inner Mongolia, including subgroups like the Chahars, Ordos, Baarin, Khorchin, Kharchin, and Buryats. While there is a standardized dialect of the Mongolian language in Inner Mongolia, different Mongolian dialects continue to be spoken by different subgroups of the Mongols. Some proposed the Peripheral Mongolian dialect group to cover the Mongolian dialects in Inner Mongolia.
The 2000 Chinese census, officially the Fifth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China, was conducted by the government of the People's Republic of China with 1 November 2000 as its zero hour. The total population was calculated as 1,295,330,000. The census also covered population growth, number of households, sex, age, ethnicity, educational attainment, and urban and rural population.
The history of the administrative divisions of China after 1949 refers to the administrative divisions under the People's Republic of China. In 1949, the communist forces initially held scattered fragments of China at the start of the Chinese Civil War. By late 1949, they controlled the majority of mainland China, forcing the Republic of China government to relocate to Taiwan.
Haplogroup C-M48 also known as C2b1a2 is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup.
The quest for the standardization of Mongolian [language] in Inner Mongolia was a product as much of a domestication of the Mongols in China as a protest against the imposition of Chinese [Standard Beijing Mandarin] as the national standard language to which all minority languages were forced to conform.
The decline of Mongolian is part of a years-long push by the central government to assimilate ethnic minorities across China.