Mongolian & Tibetan Affairs Commission

Elsewhere, Bu Lai En asked:

quote:

Cranky: I’ve always been curious about that Department of Tibetan and Mongolian Affairs. What is it for and what does it do?

It dates back to when the ROC controlled China, i.e. when there really was a need for it.

What does it do now? Not a damn thing that I know of, other than piss off the Tibetans by its very existence. So why hasn’t it been eliminated? At first, cuz the old-timers liked to maintain the fiction of ROC sovereignty over all of China. (Note that the old-style ROC maps of “China” include Mongolia and slightly different boundaries elsewhere.) Even under the DPP administration, however, the MTAC remains, probably because eliminating it would cause Beijing to scream bloody murder (not just a cliche in this case) about the “splittists.”

Chen started out his administration by promising not to change the name of the country, etc. I suppose not killing off the MTAC was one of his goodwill gestures.

There’s been talk of merging the MTAC with the Hakka and Aborigine commissions. I don’t know if anything will come of this.

In the meanwhile, the MTAC has apparently tried to improve relations with Tibetans in exile. One such effort ended in complete failure. www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/01/07/story/0000068758

Oh, another thing:

Has anyone been to the Mongolian Cultural Center (or some such name), a little to the northwest of the corner of Hoping E. Rd. and Hsinsheng S. Rd.? There are brown signs at that intersection giving directions to the building. But the two times I’ve been by there it’s been closed.

Check out today’s The China Post (front page) - it seems the once sleepy Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission woke up for a moment.

I visited the office when it was near the main train station, back in 1991. It was freaky. I knew more about either place than anyone in the office, and my main claim to fame was visiting the Mongolian Embassy up in Tokyo a year before (another odd experience).

I mean the director knew more than the others, but he was really dense in this area. It was felt that he couldn’t wisely say much about why he had that job, and tried to help, ending up giving me almost all he had, a couple of very thin brochures with, gasp, real live Mongolians & Tibetians (in exile), in Chinese language of course (no native script I recall).

He also gave me the address of a Mongolian about ready to retire who taught at a Jr. College in Taipei.

All in all, a very strange experience, but then I was new to Taiwan then and still occasionally took things a little at face value, heh.

– David

quote:
Originally posted by cranky laowai: Has anyone been to the Mongolian Cultural Center (or some such name), a little to the northwest of the corner of Hoping E. Rd. and Hsinsheng S. Rd.? There are brown signs at that intersection giving directions to the building. But the two times I've been by there it's been closed.

The Mongolian and Tibetan Cultural Center is run by the aforementioned Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission. I’ve been there several times and donated a bunch of books to the reading room. Check the opening times - I think they are closed at lunch and siesta time. The location is No. 3, Lane 8, Qingtian St., which is quite near the Shida campus as you go toward the mosque and Daan Park. Details are on
http://www.mtac.gov.tw/87mtcc00.htm (Chinese language only). They offer free Mongolian and Tibetan language classes starting September each year!

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Even under the DPP administration, however, the MTAC remains, probably because eliminating it would cause Beijing to scream bloody murder (not just a cliche in this case) about the "splittists."

Oh, so the PRC gave up (outer) Mongolia! Aren’t they the splittists?

My point was that Beijing gets unhappy and anxious whenever Taipei starts talking about boundaries. From the PRC’s point of view, the ROC adjusting its borders – any borders, I believe – opens the door to more direct talk about other political readjustments, namely official independence for Taiwan.

Juba, that’s good news about the language lessons. I wonder if the cultural center gets many takers.