Natalia Lissenkova Doctor of Philosophy the University of Leeds
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The PRC's Official Discourse on Mongolia since 1990 Natalia Lissenkova Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds East Asian Studies Department September 2007 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own work and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from this thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr Caroline Rose, my supersisor. for commenting on many drafts of this thesis, and, at numerous critical points, offering encouragement and support. This thesis would not have been written wwithout her help. I am grateful to Dr Flemming Christiansen for reading the whole thesis in its last draft and offering many helpful comments. Dr Rachel Hutchinson's suggestions on research methodology were crucial for working out the theoretical framework of the thesis. Dr Caroline Humphrey read and commented on the Chapter 4. Professor Delia Dev in offered valuable support at the initial stage of work on this thesis. I am particularly grateful to the Universities' China Committee in London for a grant that secured the field study in China and Mongolia. Dr Kerry Brown read all the drafts and offered valuable help on a wide range of issues from concepts of nationalism in China and Mongolia, to presentation of the thesis. I am also grateful to Ms Jenny He of Lecds University Library, without whom I would not acquire some important material for the thesis in the UK and China, and to Dr Ning YI who helped me to organise my stay in Beijing. Finally I would like to thank my husband, Giordano, and my son, Francesco, born not long before completion of this project. 3 Abstract The issue of interactions between the Han Chinese and Mongolian minority national in the PRC has been drawing serious attention of western scholars in recent years. The focal point of this thesis, however, is the textual representation of what used to be called `Outer Mongolia' and its people. in Chinese authoritative writings since the beginning of the 1990s, a period marked by the onset of a new era in the history of Mongolia and Sino-Mongolian relations. This thesis assessesthe current, arguably competing or complementing, discourses on Mongolia embedded in officially approved and published texts meant for a general, Chinese-speaking readership. It analyses the evolution of these discourses over the last decade and highlights the discrepancies between the authoritative discourses on Mongolia of the party and government publications. The objective of the study is to try to understand the meaning of such changes and discrepancies within the discursive formation regarding Mongolia, and to do so from the perspective of the developments found in the more dominant, all-embracing discourse on Chinese/Zhonghua nation that have gained strength in the PRC throughout the 1990s. The thesis argues that Zhonghua discourse has lost its hegemonic position in formulating the official line on how Mongolia should be represented, interpreted, and acted upon. A wide range of official publications including Chinese government statements, publications of various Party organs, articles from mass-circulation periodicals, academic writings and reference literature, personal accounts, and fiction are drawn upon to illustrate the argument. This thesis uses discourse analysis as an analytical framework complemented by detailed case studies of particular representational practices and linguistic devices employed by the producers of Chinese texts to construct Mongolia's `true' identity through their writings. In order to avoid a purely structural analysis of the texts, they have been read against the socio-political context of China- Mongolia interactions since 1990, including Mongolian perspectives on the most controversial topics addressed by the Chinese authors, for example, the issues of Mongolia's independence. 4 Content Acknowledgements 2 .................................................................................................. Abstract ...................................................................................................................... Content 4 ....................................................................................................................... Abbreviations Used in the Text 7 ............................................................................. Note the Text 8 on ....................................................................................................... CHAPTER ONE Introduction 9 ............................................................................... 1.1 Mongolia in Chinese Official Publications 9 .......................................................... 1.2 Textual Representations Construction Mongolia's Identity 10 and of ..................... 1.3 China-Mongolia Interactions in Western Academic Writings 19 ............................ 1.4 Methodological Issues Thesis Structure 23 and ...................................................... CHAPTER TWO Theoretical Framework: Studying Chinese Discourse on Mongolia 30 .................................................................................................................. 2.1 Representations Construction Identity the Other 30 and of of ................................. 2.2 Power, Knowledge, Discourse 33 and .................................................................... 2.3 Textual Analysis 39 ............................................................................................... 2.4 Data 43 .................................................................................................................. 2.4.1 Choice texts 45 of ............................................................................................ 2.4.2 Genre Intertextuality 47 and ............................................................................ 2.4.3 Institutional framework 57 .............................................................................. CHAPTER THREE Discursive Formation: Ideologies, Narratives, Institutions, the Context 68 and ................................................................................ 3.1 Ideologies their Narratives Mongolia 68 and on ..................................................... 3.1.1 The Nation-building Project its Language 69 and ............................................ 3.1.2 `Revolutionary' Mongolia 81 view on ............................................................. 3.1.3 Aternative 82 voice ......................................................................................... 3.2 Power Distribution 84 ............................................................................................ 3.2.1 Political Elite 85 .............................................................................................. 3.2.2 The CCP 86 ..................................................................................................... 3.2.3 Government 87 ................................................................................................ 3.2.4 The Central Military Commission People's Liberation Army 89 and ............... 3.2.5 Local influential business 90 authorities and groups ........................................ 5 3.2.6 Foreign Policy making 91 .............................................................................. .. 3.3 The Context for the Study 93 ............................................................................... .. 3.3.1 Mongolia in the 1990s-2000s 93 .................................................................... .. 3.4 Conclusion 99 ...................................................................................................... .. CHAPTER FOUR Historical Identity Mongolia 101 of ...................................... 4.1 Historical Identity Mongolia Political Issue 101 of as a .......................................... 4.2 Contextualisation the Construction Identity 105 of of ............................................. 4.3 Evolution the Political Texts History 107 of on ...................................................... 4.3.1 `Triple Emphasis' (Key Text 1) 108 ................................................................ 4.3.2 Filling the `Gaps' (Key Text 2) 122 up ............................................................ 4.3.3 From Nationalism to Patriotism and the Return of the Party (Key Text 3). 132 4.3.4 `Clash Of Representations' (Key Texts 4.5,6) 135 ......................................... 4.4 Mongolia Profiles the Guideline 141 as .................................................................. 4.5 `Balancing' Between Different Readerships 145 .................................................... 4.6 Locating the discourse(s) 148 ................................................................................. 4.7 Conclusion 150 ...................................................................................................... CHAPTER FIVE Cultural Identity Mongolia 152 of ........................................... 5.1 Mongolian Culture Society in Official Publications 1990 153 and since ................. 5.2 Mongolian Ethnicity Customs (Key Text 1) 154 and .............................................. 5.2.1 Vanished Ethnicity 155 ................................................................................... 5.2.2 Mongolian Folkways 163