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Resource List: Ethnic Minorities in China

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Resource List: Ethnic Minorities in China wheel and deal in Hong Kong politics. She being her usual forthright self. In all the Resource List: increasingly realises that Beijing has few time I have known her that was the only Ethnic Minorities good intentions for Hong Kong and that occasion I had been disappointed with her.” Britain will not, cannot, defend it. When she During those years of intense political in China breaks a long taboo and publicly enquires battle, was there another Christine Loh, the how the Chinese Communist Party oper- product of all those ancestors, her divorced COMPILED BY JOVY CHAN ates in Hong Kong, not only do the Chinese parents and her amah? The product, too, of WITH SI-SI LIU AND CAROL WANG and their acolytes in the Legislative Council her foreign education and her English revile her, but even Patten dismisses the native language, despite the Chinese pass- This resource list provides a wide range of question as “exotic.” That is hardly the port she acquired after giving up her British resources on ethnic minorities living in word: just before the 1997 hand-over, a one? The burden relayed in the first half of China and related human rights issues. very senior Special Branch officer showed her book is of her mixed identity. We learn “CSO and Academic Resources” includes me around an enormous room containing of her devotion to her mother and stepfa- information provided by governments-in-exile hundreds of files on the Hong Kong Com- ther, her amah and to a few half-relatives and civil society groups. The section also munist Party, which were about to be far away. But how is that she is the includes information on international legal shipped back to London. guardian and godparent of Leah Ehrlich, to standards relating to this issue, along with The second half of Loh’s book is taken whom this book is partially dedicated? some recommended books and articles. At up with her legislative and civic interests, What of romance, marriage, deep friend- the end, “PRC Government Resources” are which are wide-ranging, heroic and often ships, even fun? She says nothing. Loh is included for references to state mecha- effective. entitled to her discretion and her privacy, nisms that affect ethnic groups, such as Chi- Much of this part of the book will be of which may arise from a childhood in which nese laws and white papers. Additionally, interest only to those living in Hong Kong or troubles were barely mentioned, but the government-sponsored Web sites are also very curious about it, but what shines out is book remains a half-self-portrait. provided to demonstrate the PRC’s how Loh and her allies fought for human It is perhaps this that affects Loh’s writ- approach to the issue of ethnic groups. rights in Hong Kong before and after 1997. ing. The book’s first half is relatively lively The British, with a very few honorable and stylistically unexceptional. The second ABBREVIATIONS: exceptions, opposed and interfered in this is too much like a chronicle in style and is GZAR Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region struggle, she contends, while Beijing occasionally ungrammatical. IMAR Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region scorned the hopes and ambitions of the That said, in my judgement, Christine NHAR Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region democrats who, Loh rightly says, represent Loh, more than anyone in Hong Kong—and TAR Tibet Autonomous Region the hopes and ambitions of most people in there are plenty of pro-democracy cam- XUAR Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Hong Kong. paigners there—follows her own advice for For me, the most engrossing of Loh’s “active citizens”: We must learn, she crusades—a term I use with admiration— emphasises, “to ferret out the truth, ask CSO and ACADEMIC RESOURCES was to secure land ownership rights for questions, and demand answers and dis- women in traditional New Territories vil- sent if that is what it takes to force recon- MONGOLS lages. This so enraged the men of those sideration.” All this and cheery, too. A parts that some publicly threatened to rape remarkable public woman about whom we Southern Mongolian Human Rights Loh. It is characteristic of Loh that she would like to know more. Information Center laughed off this scandalous threat. Mean- http://www.smhric.org/ while, the British behaved badly. “They English, Chinese, Japanese wanted to stay on good terms with the local SMHRIC, based in New York, promotes the elites in order to secure their authority and protection of ethnic Mongolians’ rights and legitimise colonial rule So, ironically, it was supports a grassroots movement with an in modern Hong Kong that discriminatory ultimate goal of establishing a democratic patriarchal customary laws were recog- political system in the IMAR. The Web site nised and preserved as normative Chinese includes information on political prisoners tradition and exempted from legal interven- and papers on human rights issues, aggre- tion.” gates relevant news, and recommends Loh rarely speaks ill of others, but on books relating to Mongolian history and this issue, she contends, fellow-legislator issues. Emily Lau, usually a dependable defender of Hong Kong’s human rights, “stayed Inner Mongolian People’s Party close” to the cause of the angry men. “Per- http://www.innermongolia.org/ haps . because she had indigenous vil- English, Mongolian, Chinese lagers among her constituents . She was Headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, plainly edging around the issue and not the IMPP is a group of activists inside and outside of the IMAR promoting human in-exile as the legitimate representative of Tibet’s independence through non-violent rights and freedom for Mongols. Although the Tibetan people. methods. 2006 not recently updated, the Web site provides . 4, background information on IMPP activists The Committee of 100 for Tibet Phayul NO and papers on issues of concern. http://www.c100tibet.org/ http://phayul.com/ English English Mongol-American Cultural Association The Committee of 100 for Tibet (C100) an Phayul, which refers to the “fatherland” of http://www.maca-usa.org/ organization that works to inform the public Tibet, is a Web site dedicated to news and Founded in 1988, MACA provides charita- about the unique national, cultural and reli- information about Tibet and Tibetans. ble and humanitarian support to areas of gious identity of the Tibetan people and to the world inhabited by Mongol peoples, and work to preserve that identity and assure Students for a Free Tibet promoting and preserving Mongol culture in the survival of the Tibetan culture and the http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/ RIGHTS FORUM the United States. human rights of the Tibetan people. English Operating through a chapter-based interna- CHINA TIBETANS Free Tibet Campaign tional network, Students for a Free Tibet http://www.freetibet.org (SFT), based in New York City, campaigns The Government of Tibet in Exile English for Tibetans’ fundamental right to political 101 http://www.tibet.com/index.html Free Tibet Campaign, established in 1987, freedom through education, grassroots English is an independent membership organiza- organizing and non-violent direct action. Its The Government of Tibet in Exile, based in tion campaigning to end China’s occupation Web site offers Tibet-related news, informa- TURES Dharamsala, India, administers all matters of the TAR and promoting protection and tion on current campaigns and resources pertaining to Tibetans in exile, including the respect for the fundamental human rights for campaigning and organizing. re-establishment, preservation and devel- of Tibetans. opment of Tibetan culture and education, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and and leads the struggle for the restoration of Gu-Chu-Sum Democracy REGULAR FEA basic freedoms in the TAR. This site is http://www.guchusum.org/ http://www.tchrd.org/ maintained by the Office of Tibet, the offi- English English, Chinese, German, Tibetan cial agency of His Holiness the Dalai Lama The Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet was The Centre monitors the human rights situ- in London. established on March 27, 1991, in ation in Tibet and promotes democracy in Dharamsala, India, by ex-political prisoners the Tibetan community. It relies primarily on The Central Tibetan Administration of the Tibetan freedom movement. It offers testimonies provided by Tibetan refugees in http://www.tibet.net/ aid to Tibetans imprisoned in the TAR and India, in addition to sources within Tibet English, Tibetan, Chinese, Spanish, to released political prisoners in exile. All and other concerned human rights groups. Japanese, Russian 256 members of Gu-Chu-Sum are former The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) is political prisoners. Tibetan Children’s Villages the administrative branch of the Tibetan http://www.tcv.org.in Government in Exile. It is comprised of International Campaign for Tibet English three autonomous commissions—Elec- http://www.savetibet.org The mission of TCV is to ensure that tion, Public Service and Audit—and seven English, Chinese, Tibetan, German Tibetan children can receive a modern and departments—Religion and Culture, Home Based in Washington, DC, the International Tibetan education, so that they can achieve Affairs, Education, Information and Inter- Campaign for Tibet (ICT) works to promote a firm cultural identity and become self- national Relations, Security, Health and human rights and self-determination for reliant and contributing members of the Planning. Tibetans and to protect their culture and community. There are TCV schools in environment. Their Web site provides news Dharamsala and in other parts of India with Canada Tibet Committee and historical information relating to the substantial Tibetan exile populations. http://www.tibet.ca/en/ TAR and the Dalai Lama. English Tibet Justice Center The Committee seeks to stop the ongoing International Tibet Independence http://www.tibetjustice.org/ destruction of the Tibetan culture, to allevi- Movement English ate the suffering of the Tibetan people and http://www.rangzen.org/ The Tibet Justice Centre, formerly known as to restore Tibet to its status as an inde- English the International Committee of Lawyers for pendent state within the family of nations.
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