Thousands of Students in Chabcha Township Protest

The 2010 Tibetan language protest was a series of protests in

Tongren County Tongren (; zh, c=同仁, p=Tóngrén), known to Tibetans as Rebgong () in the historic region of Amdo, is the capital and second smallest administrative subdivision by area within Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, China. The cit ...

Gonghe County Gonghe County ( zh, s=共和县; ), also known as Kungho, is a county of Qinghai Province, China under the administration of Hainan Prefecture. The seat of Gonghe County is in the town of Qabqa. Administrative divisions Gonghe County is made up ...

and

Maqên County Maqên or Maqin County is a county of Qinghai Province, China. It is under the administration of Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Name The county is named for Anyê Maqên, the Tibetan name for a revered local mountain. Administrative div ...

, in

Qinghai Province Qinghai is an inland province in Northwestern China. It is the largest province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xining. Qinghai borders Gansu on the nort ...

;

Minzu University of China The Minzu University of China (MUC) is a national public university in Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the National Ethnic Affairs Commission of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construc ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

; and

Xiahe County Xiahe County ( zh, s=夏河县; ) is a county in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu province, China, bordering Qinghai province to the west. The name (both Chinese and Tibetan), which literally means "Xia River", refers to the Daxia Riv ...

Gansu Province Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

by ethnic Tibetan students over the period of October 20 through October 27, 2010.South China Morning Post.
SCMP
" ''Students protest to save Tibetan.'' Retrieved on 2010-23-10.

Causes

* The local government in Qinghai pushed for a "bilingual" education in a then newly drafted educational policy, that is, only Tibetan language and English courses are to be taught in

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

, courses other than Tibetan and English were to be taught in Standard Mandarin. * The July 25, 2010 mass assembly, which took place in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

Guangdong Province ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

in protest against the perceived encroachment of

Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern Standard language, standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the Republic of ...

Cantonese language Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic languages, Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River ...

may have provided inspiration and encouragement for Tibetan people to voice their dissatisfaction.

Protests

A range of reports from hundreds to 9000 people were alleged to have been involved in the protest. According to a local Tibetan blogger, the head of the county's education department drove out and assured the protesters that "their grievances would be addressed by senior officials".Thestar.com.
Thestar.com
" ''Tibetan students protest in China over language instruction.'' Retrieved on 2010-23-10. A series of apparently related protests inspired by this took place in

on October 20; in

in the neighboring

Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Golog (Golok or Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture ( zh, c=果洛藏族自治州 , p=Guǒluò Zàngzú Zìzhìzhōu; ) is an autonomous prefecture occupying the southeastern corner of Qinghai province, China. The prefecture has an area of and ...

on October 21; in

on October 25. 400 Tibetan students also staged a supportive demonstration on October 22 on the campus of

in Beijing.

Official response

On October 29, the Government of Qinghai said these incidents reflect some misunderstandings of the bilingual education policy by

Tibetan people Tibetans () are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group Indigenous peoples, native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, sig ...

and reiterated that "The guiding ideology and the basic principles of strengthening and improving the bilingual education is completely correct" and that "as the state is promoting the use of

and

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

, the right of using the local minority languages by minority peoples should be sufficiently respected and protected".

References

{{Portal bar, China, Asia, Society Tibetan Language Protest, 2010 Protests in China History of Qinghai 2010s in Tibet

Tibetan language Tibetan language may refer to: * Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dialect * Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard * Any of the other Tibetic languages See also * Ol ...

Education in Tibet Linguistic discrimination Language policy in Tibet