European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 13, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse Mongolians stand near their Homes burrs made of Felt covered with Canvas. By Victoria Graham associated press right Hundred years ago Genghis Khan lashed together the contentious tribes of the Mon Golian grasslands subduing them uniting them giving them an Empire and an identity. Legend has it that Wang Chaojun frustrated concubine of the Han dynasty wed a mongolian chieftain in matrimonial diplomacy and bestowed chinese civilization on the upon a Lime More than 1,000 Lam series adorned the moonscape Steppes of inner Mongolia monuments of arcane chinese and tibetan scripture lavish architecture of the spirit. Today the inner Mongolia autonomous Region Imar China s third largest Region bean Little resemblance to its fabled past. It is a Barren land of harsh realities ruined temples and sometimes strained relations Between chinese and mongolians., mongolians Are outnumbered by Han chinese 9-to-l. Temples have been sacked and desecrated and nary a Wora is spoken about religion. Genghis Khan s memorial. Too has been ravaged but i being rebuilt. Many latter Day revolutionary Zha Juns Are fed up with sell Sacri fice on the Frontier and want to go Home. Inner Mongolia has been dually opened to foreigners for about one year and the associated press recently made a Brief and restricted visit to the capital of Hohhot and the Grassland dominions. Physically and psychologically inner Mongolia is More closed than open it is a Frontier Region of great sensitivities and vulnerable pressure Points strategic because of a Strong chinese army presence and soviet troops near its Border. The numbers arc not known. Political Mccau Jacii bears inc still livid scars of the 1966 Western style clothes contrast with traditional garb at ulan Bator University. Saturday. September 13, 1900 daily Magazine my my of Mem Mem a to 19 76 cultural revolution when 10.000 persons reported 1 were killed or committed suicide. Ethnic. Because minorities too were persecuted Dur in the cultural revolution and today arc wary of chinese policy fluctuations. Economic because he Region is poor and backward recuperating slowly from the cultural revolution when production collapsed and zealots furiously lopped off Capi like Many other minority regions. Inner Mon Golia has been sinkfied and homogenized by he presence of Han chinese. Especially in Urban areas he assimilation is far better than that of other minority regions. The Timur has a population of 18.5 million Han chinese 2 million mongolians and about 200,000 other minorities including koreans tibetans and manchus. Hohhot itself has 450,000 inhabitants. One tenth Are mongolians. Tor All its exotic heritage Hohhot could be any other poor and dreary chinese City. It has China s ubiquitous Peppermint striped traffic platforms the same red Bill boards with the same political slogans. The department stores Are filled with the same tinware and the same patterns of Panda bears and pussycats. A faintly Pink and colossal statue of the late chairman Mao tse Tung presides Over the Square before the Railroad station. Heedless of the orca helmsman s anticapitalist Dic Luis vendors squat nearby and Hawk their few peanuts vegetables and Young woman Sells peanuts near the railway Sta Tion. She is attractive and aggressively Calls to later admits one reason for her entrepreneurial enthusiasm is her hard life. Docs she get enough to eat Well sometimes yes sometimes not at All the old part of Hohhot with a greater concentration of mongolians was strictly and inexplicably off limits to foreigners. No. I cannot take you there because the Road is under construction and impassable said a surly mongolian taxi Driver. Later the head of the Hohhot travel service Bai Shang said simply that the old part of the City with its temples and big free markets was not open to foreigners. For obvious reasons he said cryptically of reasons which were not obvious. Arnid the Bleak and bureaucratic surroundings were surprising dashes of color two Public dances were advertised one saturday night. One was in the Only hotel in town the other in a gymnasium. As foreigners peeked in to Sec the dance floor being dusted and to Bear the violins tune up they were abruptly ordered out. No foreigners admitted. No you cannot heavy chains and padlocks then were placed on the connecting hotel doors to keep them away from chinese party goers apparently Lac Young set and officialdom. A Vond official conservatism the Region with its Bow slipped Border of 2,625 Milts is extremely sensitive to what Chin consider the soviet military threat. Several Hundred to bound soviet troops arc said o be stationed along China s North and West Borders but the exact dumber near Mongolia is no known. Hohhot also is said to have a vast Catacomb of air raid tunnels off limits of course and the rugged mountains North of the capital Are laced with tunnels and trenches. Army Barracks occasionally arc visible in gullies. Pic Ture taking is strictly forbidden. Guides refuse to Stop along the Way and won t talk about any military installation. Although Hohhot Only is an hour and a half by air from peking it is removed by far More than time and space. The scars of the anti ethnic anticapitalist anti traditional cultural revolution still Are apparent. Inner Mongolia still is emerging from the havoc apparently with difficulty. In most parts of China the old inflammatory slogans from the period have been erased but in Hohhot a few faintly festering reminders remain. In the Early Days of the Republic. Chin practice i policy of toleration and regarded Enghu Khan Asa Folk Bero Tad waiter of Peoples. During the great leap Forward la 1997, Kowm ethnic diversity was retarded As u Obuck to wily. The great Khan became a isomer. Also Deao and were mongolian customs co stunts religion and language. Today again China emphasizes its minorities policy stresses the importance of local autonomy training minority leaders learning the mongolian language pre serving customs and traditions. The shifting pendulum makes minorities uneasy. The stars and stripes Page 13
