Tibetans in Paris have protested two French museums changing the name of their Tibetan exhibits to "Xizang," the Chinese name for the region. The Tibetan government in exile has condemned the move as bowing to Chinese pressure. To learn more about China's attempt to control foreign institutions, TaiwanPlus spoke to Penghsuan Lee from the Taiwan branch of Students for a Free Tibet.
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00:00Why is the name Xizang largely contentious among the Tibetan people and different from
00:05the name Tibet?
00:06Tibet is the English term that directly originated from the Tibetan term bird, actually started
00:12from the 18th century, referring to the whole, the people and the people who own this similar
00:20identity.
00:21Well, Xizang is the romanization of the Chinese name of Tibet, but usually referring directly
00:29to the central Tibet, which in Tibet, they call Xizang, well, oftentimes, when Chinese
00:36authority using the term Xizang, they want to replace and using it to replace Tibet.
00:43This is like the whole set of, I would say, attempts to really assimilate and synthesize
00:51Tibetan people into Chinese, into ethnically Chinese.
00:56Why had the two French museums decided to change the name of Tibet into Xizang in their
01:00catalogs?
01:01Well, like in their own statements and accounts, they've never really revealed their own, like
01:07their actual, the actual reasoning of why they're doing it.
01:11One of the museum, they actually replaced Tibet, their Tibetan room into Xizang room.
01:17And another is trying to downplay the Tibetan-ness of their exhibitions and make it into like
01:24the Himalayan room.
01:26This is actually one of the first success we see, the whole series of attempts of the
01:31Chinese authority trying to like wash the narrative of Tibet and put it into like a
01:38more China-centric.
01:40This also demonstrate that, you know, outside the people that are politically familiar with
01:47the Tibetan issue, how easy it is for Chinese, for the Chinese authority to really alter
01:55the narratives.
01:56And we've been witnessing that since, I would say, early 2010, when the Chinese authority
02:04and representatives has been active in all kinds of the international platforms.
02:10And why is there a push from China to homogenize the Tibetan culture and push other countries
02:15to adopt the name Xizang?
02:17It is pretty reasonable that they've been doing that because the Tibetan has, the Tibetan
02:22diaspora has a strong presence around the world.
02:26We see His Holiness Dalai Lama hold a huge influence to people, whether they're believers
02:35in the Tibetan Buddhism or not.
02:37This is their really, one of their really important work to change the narratives on
02:44the international space, including, you know, Tibet has been historically part of China.
02:50So all of these attempts are really similar practices of the PRC government, the Chinese
02:58authority to really implement, to really project their power to the world and to claim their
03:07sovereignty over this so-called national minority.