China's Colonial Boarding Schools in Tibet

Speakers:
Lhadon Tethong, Director, Tibet Action Institute
Freya Putt, Director of Strategy, Tibet Action Institute
Dr. Jia Luo, University of Toronto
Tenzin Dorjee, PhD candidate, Columbia University
Moderator:
Andy Nathan, Columbia University
Chinese government policies are forcing three out of every four Tibetan students into a vast network of colonial boarding schools, separating children as young as four from their parents. According to a recent report by Tibet Action Institute, the schools are a cornerstone of Xi Jinping’s campaign to supplant Tibetan identity with a homogenous Chinese identity in order to neutralize potential resistance to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule. The report, “Separated From Their Families, Hidden From the World: China’s Vast System of Colonial Boarding Schools Inside Tibet,” finds that an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 Tibetan students aged six to 18, as well as an unknown number of four and five-year olds, are in these state-run schools. This panel will discuss how the schools function as sites for remolding children into Chinese nationals loyal to the CCP.
This event is sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and co-sponsored by the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, and the Tibet Action Institute.

[@a1to8]

the issue lies in the fact that tibetan isn't taught in boarding schools, not the boarding schools themselves. 56% of rural western Chinese children goes to boarding schools, not just students in Tibet, so people should stop comparing these schools to North American colonial ones and see it under the Chinese context.

[@leto8017]

But Tibetan schools teach both in Tibetan and Mandarin, they are bilingual schools.

[@markemailonly3114]

I lived in Sichuan for a bit, many Tibetans I talked to think boarding schools are a good thing since originally there was no school at all in many parts of rural Tibet and many people had to send their kids to interior Chinese provinces. So its not just transferring education from Tibetan to Chinese here, its often moving from having little or no education at all to having a Chinese education. It's only "forced" in the sense that everyone has to go to school in China, in the same way, you have to go to school in the US as well (if the parents want, they can send their kids to a normal school somewhere and move there, but it's not economical because boarding schools are mostly free). The fact is market realities induce many Tibetans to want to learn mandarin. I have a friend who had a private Tibetan language school before 2019 and he said he could not continue not just because the government is being difficult, but because not many Tibetans wanted to register or learn themselves. I'm sure there are those Tibetans who don't want to attend these schools, but we must not ignore the different voices (especially when the latter is probably in the majority as that is the vibe I get at least in Sichuan).

[@edwardsnowden8821]

says the "tibetan prof" who speaks perfect English in order to communicate. BS