Chelegeer (University of Leeds)

Since the mid-1980s, hundreds of sociologists and anthropologists have trooped into autonomous areas to study their social and economic development, cultural protection, and adaptation to national politics. This presentation will summarize some of the findings and discuss the dominant paradigms in conducting relevant studies. It will then introduce the methodological approach of “everyday ethnicity” promoted by professors like Rogers Brubaker and Jon Fox. It will explain how Chelegeer has applied that kind of method in analyzing a targeted cohort of “Mongolian elites” in Beijing and will further discuss how his findings could contribute to the understanding of Chinese ethnic nationalities.