Changing the names of places may seem arbitrary at first, but they carry significant social and cultural signals.
The rebranding exercise is carried out to establish and destabilise identity and is aimed at playing an important role in the construction of lives, selves, and placement in society.
This was very well highlighted by noted English novelist and journalist George Orwell who said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
And the Chinese seem to be applying the same. The oppression of Tibet by the regime is well-documented. The autonomous region has been under the control of Beijing since 1949.
But now, there seems to be a conscious effort to obliterate its history by referring to Tibet by its appointed name ‘Xizang’.
For a long time, the name Tibet has been associated with struggle, freedom, culture and identity and of course, Dalai Lama.
The retirement of “Tibet” in favour of “Xizang” has been carried out by the state Chinese mouthpiece Global Times and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an attempt to shift the focus from all of these issues.
For the past few months, the nationalist tabloid has been referring to Tibet by the name “Xizang’. Notably, since January this year, the tabloid has used “Xizang” in more than 200 English articles.
The first time it was used in a July article where the headline read “New Record for Horizontal Drilling Tech Set in Xizang Hydropower Project,” read one headline back in July.
Last month, another article’s headline said “Xizang Authorities Offer Support for Local People After COVID-19 Flare-up”.
Watch | WION Fineprint: Chinese tabloid refers Tibet by ‘Xizang’ | Name change to hide the atrocities?
Moreover, this week, the state-run media outlet ran a report in the English language that nearly 70 countries had called on others to “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs on [the] Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Xizang regions.”
This purportedly came in response to the efforts by the United States to encourage a debate on human rights in Xinjiang at an upcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council.
However, hidden in plain sight is the clever placement of the name ‘Xizang’ in place of Tibet and how casually the new name is presented.
And what is interesting to note is when one Googles the word ‘Xizang’, the top four search articles are from the Global Times.
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Moreover, the name ‘Xizang’ is now being extensively used by China’s foreign affairs ministry in its official press releases.
The latest mention came just last month when foreign minister Wang Yi met with Mongolian Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg, and an official release noted that “Mongolia reaffirms its firm commitment to the one-China principle and opposes interference in China’s internal affairs related to Taiwan, Xizang, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, among others.”
Notably, this is not the first instance that Beijing has relabelled a name. For seven decades, the Chinese have favoured the name “Mount Qomolangma” over “Mount Everest”.
That is because the country claims that the name ‘Everest’ is associated with imperialism and colonialism.
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