| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The article seeks to challenge the implicit equation made between national autonomy and personal freedom. Post-socialist Mongolian identity, articulated on a notion of resistance against Chinese territorial and biological encroachment, is accompanied by an explicit, often violent, anti-Chinese discourse. This resistance against an external enemy also has a centripetal effect on Mongolian society, and contemporary notions of Mongolianness tend to congeal into a homogenised identity that leaves little space for personal reinterpretations. For those whose voices are not heard, such as Mongolian women and gay men, 'freedom to be ethnic' can be far from liberating. The data I present in this article suggest that, while it is routinely depicted as the main danger against which to rally, China can, for some people, open up spaces of opportunity and liberty unattainable to them within Mongolia.
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