Facing Critical State of Food and Living Environment of “Ecological Emigrant Village” in Inner Mongolia

Abstract

Since 2000, the Chinese central and Inner Mongolian local governments have implemented the Ecological Emigration Policy for nomads on the grounds of environmental problem, and let nomadic people to move in cities, towns or surrounding communities which offer facilities for communication. As a result, more than 300,000 nomads and their families have become ecological emigrants, and gain 2800-3500 yuan per person a year for subsidy. Those nomads sold their domestic animals, moved to the house of exactly the same site area and type, offered by government, and now they live such as a dairy farmer, a part-time jobber or an unemployed. Even if the plan and the purpose of implementation of ecological emigrant policy is to prevent Inner Mongolia from desertification and improve ecological environment, politicians uses for the purposes other than the original purpose on the drawing board and they are on the way to create a “society” covered with poverty and anxiety. Most of ecological emigrants are classified in the poorest. The paper aims to analyze cultural and social transformation of Inner Mongolians in ecological emigrant village through food. The authors believe that food is culture and identity, and one of the key elements in social communication. The following subjects will be discussed, based on field survey conducted in two ecological emigrant villages around Xilinhot city. Firstly, occupation is for food. These two elements, occupation and food, had showed characteristics of nomadic culture. The separation of the two critical factors has a serious effect on emigrants. Secondly, “drinking problem” is one of the major issues in ecological emigrant village, but at the same time, this problem should be understood from the perspective of “forced structure”. The problem which ecological emigrants are facing was often treated as a poverty problem, emphasizing only economic support and left traditional food, language and cultural issues out of view. Poverty is likely to be traced to only economic side in China, and there is almost no understanding of the risk of loss of traditional culture in ethnic minorities and the act of tormenting them.