RE: https://mastodon.social/@reedmideke/116526173253714894
Not sure how to put it but...it is really disturbing how ppl interested in chinese culture so readily adopt the frame of china=PRC=han people=mandarin speakers. Especially non-Chinese Mandarin learners. Just kind of fills me with dread seeing people want to learn mandarin and elevate Mandarin because it's "the global language of the future", while it's being used as a weapon for wiping out cultural identity...
I think an important part of language learning is cultural education and engaging with language as a tool for politics and ethnic erasure, rather than pretending China and Chinese language are homogenous...
China now not only requires that preschools in Tibet teach in Chinese, they also send "written requests to parents to speak Chinese to their children in their homes, and in some cases require them to provide videos of them speaking Chinese with their children"
https://www.hrw.org/report/2026/05/04/start-with-the-youngest-children/chinas-use-of-preschools-to-integrate-tibetans
