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The Republic of China’s Fantasy Frontier: Shifting Portrayals of Mongolia in the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission

Alessandra Ferrer
p. 39-48

Abstract

In 2017, the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) was disbanded after 68 years of operation on Taiwan, raising the question of how an anachronistic institution evolved as the Republic of China (ROC) underwent democratisation. Documentary analysis finds that until the end of military rule (1987), the MTAC retained a Han-chauvinist mission to civilise its “frontier” through development policy and reform. By the twenty-first century, rhetoric emphasising bilateral and international exchange emerged. However, MTAC literature continued to highlight the relatively higher status of Taiwanese development to that of Mongolia, even as espousal of political “Chineseness” had faded. As ROC statehood in the early twenty-first century has increasingly embraced Taiwanese “multiculturalism,” the history of the MTAC sheds light on a neglected but significant aspect of the evolution there of discourse on national identity.

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Editor’s notes

Manuscript received on 23 June 2021. Accepted on 30 March 2022.

Excerpt

Full text document will be published online on December 2023.

Outline

Introduction
Methodology
The ROC, its “frontier,” and the MTAC
A brief overview of the institutional history of the MTAC on Taiwan
The ROC’s civilising mission
Spreading civilisation: China proper and its frontier
Banditry and national defence
Social development and aid
Towards international exchange: Taiwan, Mongolia, and Mongolians in the PRC
Discussion

First lines

Introduction

On 14 August 2017, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文 administration officially announced that the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) would no longer receive funding from 2018 onward. For a few days, the announcement received a brief flurry of media attention, with coverage highlighting the budgetary bloat of the “fat cat” (feimao 肥貓) commission. At the end of 2017, after nearly 90 years of operation, the MTAC was officially disbanded with little fanfare. Despite its quiet end, the Commission’s prolonged existence on Taiwan raises questions regarding how and why such a seemingly anachronistic institution survived so long, and how its mission and functions evolved as the nature of the Republic of China (ROC) regime itself changed.

The MTAC was originally established in 1928 with its headquarters in Beiping. The Commission was assigned two main tasks: (1) to “assist in governing” and (2) to “implement reform” in Tibet and Mongolia (Article 2), although its remit exten...

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References

Bibliographical reference

Alessandra Ferrer, The Republic of China’s Fantasy Frontier: Shifting Portrayals of Mongolia in the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs CommissionChina Perspectives, 2022/04 | 2022, 39-48.

Electronic reference

Alessandra Ferrer, The Republic of China’s Fantasy Frontier: Shifting Portrayals of Mongolia in the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs CommissionChina Perspectives [Online], 2022/04 | 2022, Online since 01 December 2023, connection on 01 April 2023. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/14413; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.14413

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About the author

Alessandra Ferrer

Alessandra Ferrer is a PhD candidate in the Department of Education at Kyushu University (744 Motooka, Fukuoka, Japan 819-1139). Her primary research interests include the politics of identity, notions of the “other,” and education (alessandra.ferrer8@gmail.com).

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