Tibetan Student Movement (2010)

The Tibetan Student Movement of 2010 was a indigenist student movement in Tibet (occupied by China) in 2010.

Background

Too long to explain properly. But basically Tibet is a territory occupied by China and it represses much of the population. This movement was caused by a government move to change Mandarin to the default language in schools in Tibet.

Events

Protests began as Tibetan students aged 14 to 20 protested the reforms in school uniforms, filling the streets beginning at 7 AM and shouted slogans like “Equality of ethnicities, freedom of language” (translations vary) and demanded “greater equality and expanded use of Tibetan language”. They marched through the streets and Buddhist monks are reported to have joined protests as well. Other slogans included “Return the authority of the Tibetan language.” Police vehicles surrounded the protestors, but took no further action. The protestors gathered at the People’s Government Building in Rebkong. The government agreed to meet with the leaders, but threatened some students with expulsions.

The next day, these students were reported to be back in classes, but about 2,000 students in Chabcha County, Tsolho, protested in the streets from 6-10 AM, again in school uniforms, demanding the return the authority of the Tibetan language, Equality Among Nationalities and a expansion of the use of Tibetan language. The students, aged 11 to 18, carried banners in Tibetan and Chinese that read “Equality Among Nationalities” and “Expand the Use of the Tibetan Language”. St

On October 23, twenty students from the Tibetan Middle School in Chabcha were arrested after attempting to escape from security forces. The next day, several hundred high school students and teachers from Chentsa, Malho County took to the streets to protest and voice support for the continued use of Tibetan in classrooms. The same day, a group of Tibetan former Chinese government officials and educationalists from Qinghai sent an extensively detailed petition to the provincial education department that argued against the language reforms. The letter pointed out that the laws that officials were using to support the reforms had explicit provisions against eliminating minority languages and that enacting the reforms would be “in serious contempt of the authority of the nation’s laws.” (The text of the letter is available here: http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/retired-chinese-g....) On October 26, approximately 300 students staged a protest in Themchen Tsongon, and students at a Tibetan school in Tsayi, Sangchu County, Labrang voiced support for the student protest. A report released by International Campaign for Tibet dated October 26 cited reports from Tibetans in the area that students in Chabcha were possibly detained in their schools, that security was tighter in areas where protests occurred, and that students involved in some of the protests were being investigated by authorities.

On October 26, more than 300 Tibetan high school and middle school teachers in Qinghai sent a formal letter to the Qinghai authorities stating that “in order to raise the quality of teaching and education and to amply reveal a person’s intelligence, we should use a language of instruction most easily understood by the students”. The letter had been written after a government-mandated conference from October 11-16. In the letter, the teachers listed reasons for maintaining Tibetan language as the teaching language and encouraged the gradual introduction of Chinese into classrooms in a manner more suitable to the needs of the students. It was signed by all the teachers and some Tibetan students. (The letter is available at http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/tibetan-teachers-....)

Supporters of the Tibetan students’ protests staged solidarity protests and actions throughout the world through organizations such as Students for a Free Tibet, beginning shortly after the protests began and continuing until December.

China issued a statement on November 18, 2010 assuring the world that Qinghai authorities had met with citizens to “publicize the State’s minority education policy, listening extensively to the views and opinions of teachers, principals and students” and claiming that “Today the matter has been resolved satisfactorily, and the situation in the schools has quickly returned to normal.” The statement did not mention the letter from the Tibetan teachers or the increased number of troops in areas where the protests had taken place.

The students stopped protesting after October 26 because they were told by school administrators that more Tibetan language instruction would take place in schools. A few days after the protests ended, the Qinghai director of education stated that “in places where conditions are not ripe, the authorities won't forcefully push the reforms.” However, in interviews, students reported that Mandarin continued to be the primary language in classrooms and that Tibetan language usage had not increased. Therefore, the researcher believes that the goals of the student protestors were not reached.

The researcher notes that similar protests occurred again in March 2012.